The Authors of Pain on How They Found Out They Were Being Managed by Paul Ellering

– During an interview with Renee Paquette on The Sessions this week, former WWE tag team champions the Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) discussed being managed by Paul Ellering during their NXT run, and how they found out it would be him. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Akam on getting grouped with Paul Ellering as the team’s manager in NXT: “We didn’t actually know that we were getting Paul Ellering as a manager, honestly. We didn’t know we were debuting because we’d only had like four or five matches together on house shows all around Florida up there with NXT. Then randomly before, I think it was TakeOver: The End, and it was The Revival, at the time, and American Alpha, I believe they had a match, and then we came in after. Literally that morning, we got a text from Matt Blom that said, ‘Hey, meet us at the Performance Center at 10 a.m.’ We go there and it’s empty. Bloom goes, ‘Get in the ring and just roll around.’ Then, we see Paul walk out and he’s watching us with William Regal together and what was happening was he wanted to see us before he got put together with us. Right away, he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do this.’ When we debuted, Paul came out and it was just something so big because he had a lot of offers to manage other tag teams and he turned them all down because he didn’t feel they fit and because he has a huge legacy, obviously to keep up.”

Rezar on how they didn’t tell us before their debut that Ellering was coming out: “They actually never really told us before our debut, that Paul would come out, they left the option to Paul Ellering. Because from our knowledge, he already had declined a lot of people before us. That’s what they told us and that’s what Paul, later on, told us as well.”

Akam on how they remained in contact with Ellering: “Honestly, us and Paul talk on a weekly basis still. I always pick his brain about stocks and different stuff and just his crazy workouts, he does still does crazy workouts. I’ve had the honor of trying to introduce him to the metaverse and it’s the best thing ever because he had no clue. I call him every other day and I’d be like, ‘Hey, Paul. So this is what…’ [Paul responds] ’Oh, that’s great.’ He loves us to the point where — unconditional support. The whole time we’re waiting, [Paul would say] ‘We got to get back wrestling, boys.’ Then I introduced him to the metaverse and Paul goes, ’Oh, that’s great, different. Let’s do it.'”

After AOP moved to the main WWE roster, Ellering did not continue on as the team’s manager.