7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 9)

4. AOP Debuts, Ditches Manager

authors of pain
WWE.com

Unless the Akam and Rezar suddenly learned to cut promos, this was a peculiar decision.

The Authors of Pain debuted on Raw Monday night, destroying Heath Slater & Rhyno in short order. However, as they started to head back up the ramp, they held back and then left behind manager Paul Ellering, who has cut all their promos and guided them to this point.

It’s a confusing move, as neither Akam nor Rezar has really shown skill on the mic, which is where Ellering excelled to set up and sell their matches. But in leaving Ellering, AOP now has to go it alone… unless they’re picking up a new manager.

This might not be a problem at all, but it was just a strange move on their first night.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.