WWE Tag Team Star Rejected Singles Push

WWE

A former WWE star who was in a tag team for his entire run with the company wasn’t interested in breaking out as a singles star.

Debuting in NXT in 2016, the Authors of Pain – made up of Akam and Rezar – had two separate runs with WWE, and remained intact as a tag team the whole time on both occasions.

Their first stint lasted from 2016 to September 2020, and the second from December 2023 (although they had reportedly been under contract since 2022) to February 2025.

One half of the duo, Rezar, has recently reemerged following their latest release and is returning to MMA and boxing, recently calling out strongman Eddie Hall for a fight at a Misfits event.

In a new interview with Metro, Rezar, real name Gzim Selmani, discussed his time in WWE and noted that there were at one point talks about him breaking out as a singles star, splitting away from Akam.

However, Rezar stated he wasn’t interested in that idea. He said:

“A lot of people backstage were pushing to do that. But I made my name in a tag team. I don’t go behind someone’s back.

“The talks were there, but I was never really interested.”

In the same interview, Rezar said that he and Akam were close to quitting WWE on their first day on the main roster in 2018 when they were told Paul Ellering would no longer be their manager, but Ellering convinced them to see how things went.

Drake Maverick ended up taking over that role, and Rezar praised Maverick as a creative genius, but said AOP were never really happy on the main roster.

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• AOP
• Authors of Pain
• akam
• rezar
• wwe

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