10 WWE Releases That Made Absolutely No Sense
3. Authors Of Pain (AOP)
From the moment Akam and Razar arrived on WWE's main roster, it seemed the company weren't exactly sure what to do with the titanic twosome.
The duo found success in NXT as a dominant tandem who let Paul Ellering do the talking while they focused on beating the crap out of anyone who got in their way. So, in true WWE fashion, the team's manager was quickly dropped during their Monday Night Raw debut and AOP struggled to establish themselves as a must-see unit from there on out.
It didn't help that the team's momentum was briefly halted by an injury to Akam in early 2019. However, things started to look up for the monstrous former NXT and Raw Tag Team Champions when they aligned themselves with a newly heel Seth Rollins not long after their return. But unfortunately, injury struck the duo again (this time Rezar going down with a tricep issue) and they were forced off television once more in March of this year.
At least they had a ready made spot in Rollins' vicious stable to return to when the time was right, though...
That was until AOP were shockingly released from the company in September, at a time when WWE aren't exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to tag teams on either Raw or SmackDown.
Whatever way you look at it, regardless of their unfortunately timed injuries, AOP are a young, dynamic pairing who could have definitely improved WWE programming going forward. So, it's anyone's guess why Vince McMahon decided to give up on them so quickly.