Authors Of Pain Did Not Like How Vince McMahon Altered Their Act

Tag team Legion of Pain, formerly recognized as The Authors of Pain in WWE, look back on their run with the company and can pinpoint one creative decision they firmly disagreed with. Despite their opposition, it was their manager from their time in WWE NXT, Paul Ellering, that would convince them to embrace the plans Vince McMahon and the company had for them.

"Even though we didn't agree with the decision of Vince taking Paul away at our [main roster] debut — but it was Paul's decision to keep going and not to interfere with his decision of having Paul leave us," Gzim Selmani told "WrestleZone". "So, you know, it was a little bit of a hard moment for us, of course."

Ellering would assure the powerhouse duo that someday, they would reunite and represent themselves as a trio once again. Arguably Ellering's greatest accomplishment of his career was managing the legendary tag team The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom, even being rewarded with a 2011 WWE Hall of Fame induction as part of the team. When it came time for the Authors of Pain to choose a post-WWE name, they say that Ellering was supportive when they chose a tribute that combined their former name and the name of LoD — "Legion of Pain". The trio was originally set to reunite with their new title at the inaugural WES (Wrestling Entertainment Series) event on July 9, however, news dropped this week that the event has been canceled.

"Paul's been down with us since day one and he's down with every decision we've ever made." Sunny Dhinsa added. "Yeah, we all respect each other as individuals and he's a legend and who wouldn't want a legend having their back?"

Legion of Pain reached major success in WWE by winning the NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, the NXT Tag Team Championship, and even the "Raw" Tag Team Championships when they were moved up to the main roster in April 2018. At that time, Drake Maverick replaced Paul Ellering and took over as their manager until they later aligned themselves with Seth Rollins on the December 9, 2019 episode of "Raw". Their final match with the company would fall on March 9, 2020, when they teamed with Rollins and Buddy Murphy (Buddy Matthews in AEW) to defeat The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders. The following day, it was reported that Gzim suffered a biceps injury that would pull the team from WWE television for the foreseeable future. They would remain in limbo with no creative plans until being released on September 4, 2020 due to ongoing budget cuts in WWE.