Released WWE star on his real-life heat with Baron Corbin
Rezar, one-half of The Authors of Pain (AOP) tag team, has revealed that he once confronted Baron Corbin during their time together in WWE.
WWE’s new main-roster superstars are often made to carry crates of beer from the bus to the hotel on their first European tour. Rezar, real name Gzim Selmani, was unaware of the tradition and went to the catering area upon arriving at the hotel.
Speaking on Renee Paquette’s The Sessions podcast, Rezar recalled how Baron Corbin referred to him as “young boy” and told him to collect the beers. The former RAW Tag Team Champion disliked his co-worker’s tone and immediately called him out:
“‘You call me young boy in front of everybody? Are you serious?’ So I said, ‘Baron, come here, man,’ in front of the whole crowd," said Rezar. "Everybody went quiet. I said, ‘Come here, are you seriously talking to me like this?’ He goes, ‘I apologize,’ this, that, right? ‘I didn’t mean to say it like that, but I did it [carried the beers], everybody does it…’”
1/2 of the #Raw #TagTeamChampions. #AOP https://t.co/T3eyPKMUxa
Akam and Rezar won the RAW Tag Team Championship on November 5, 2018, seven months after their main-roster debut. They captured the titles from Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a two-on-one handicap match against Rollins during the European tour.
Baron Corbin was not the only person who allegedly had an issue with AOP
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You've been warned. 📖 🖋
@Akam_WWE @Rezar_WWE #RAW #AOP https://t.co/WJG9QU2Cuy
AOP held the RAW Tag Team Championship for 34 days before they lost the titles to Chad Gable and Robert Roode on December 10, 2018.
Rezar added that certain members of the locker room began to dislike AOP following their success as the RAW Tag Team Champions.
“We were just cool, but people thought because we were new and we became Champions that we were gonna start turning into d***heads," Rezar continued. "We didn’t, we were the nicest guys still as Champions. We don’t care if we’re Champions or not, obviously everybody knows the script, so we didn’t care. We saw a lot of people turn a different way once that happened.”
AOP received their releases from WWE on September 4, 2020. Although the company wanted them to stay, Akam and Rezar decided to remain at home with their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jimmy Hart opened up about wanting to manage Baron Corbin in the Sportskeeda Wrestling interview below:
Please credit The Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.