5 Things you did not know about WWE tag team AOP

Akam and Rezar, collectively known in WWE as The Authors of Pain, or AOP for short, appeared in a vignette on WWE RAW this week teasing their return to television.

The duo are best known for their time in NXT, where they dominated the tag team division and won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic back in 2016. The big win led to an NXT Tag Team title win for AOP, and they would go on to have classic match-ups and rivalries on the Wednesday night brand.

AOP was originally managed by Paul Ellering, but when the team was called up to the main roster, they ditched Ellering in favor of 205 Live GM Drake Maverick. AOP had moderate success as main roster stars following their debut, and lost significant momentum when Akam had to take time off due to injury.

AOP appeared on WWE RAW this week teasing new characters and a gimmick change, so let's take a look at 5 things you did not know about The Authors of Pain.

#5 Both Akam and Rezar have appeared on the PWI 500 list

Akam and Rezar join the unique club of tag team wrestlers who are considered super heavyweights, but are very agile given their size.

While in NXT, AOP has had some classic matchups against tag teams such as SAnitY, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, and the current SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival.

As a result of their abilities, in 2018, Akam ranked number 204 on the renowned PWI 500 list which ranks pro wrestlers across all promotions. In the same year, Rezar ranked number 211 on the highly respected list.

With AOP set to return to action in the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see on which brand they are featured as SmackDown Live prepares to move to FOX Sports.