WWE SmackDown: Authors of Pain Return to WWE, Align With Karrion Kross
Authors of Pain align with Karrion Kross in their WWE SmackDown debut.
The Street Profits and Bobby Lashley entered the ring on the New Year's Revolution edition of WWE SmackDown to discuss their plans for 2024 domination. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins call out the Judgment Day for the WWE Tag Team Championships. Lashley states that he wants to get back to being the "Almighty."
Suddenly, Karrion Kross and Scarlett's entrance video plays and the screen goes dark. Out walks Scarlett and Kross followed by Paul Ellering. While they stand at the top of the ramp as a distraction, Authors of Pain perform a sneak attack on the Street Profits, beating them down in the ring. Meanwhile, Lashley gets thrown into the steel steps by Kross who joins AOP in the ring. AOP then lift Ford and Dawkins up as Kross calls for the Supercollider. Lashley crawls back into the ring and Kross catches him, taking him out. All three men stand over the group as the crowd heavily boos.
WHAT?!?! AOP IS BACK??? 🤯 🤯 🤯
— WWE (@WWE) January 6, 2024
Just moments after @fightbobby declared for the #RoyalRumble match, @realKILLERkross and @Lady_Scarlett13 were joined by AOP's Akam, Rezar and Paul Ellering who took out The #StreetProfits and Lashley! #SmackDown: New Year's Revolution pic.twitter.com/I2pzXdftNA
AOP haven't been seen on WWE programming since 2020. The tag team are former NXT and WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. On the December 22 episode of WWE SmackDown, WWE teased the return of Akam and Rezar with Ellering in a vignette that saw Kross calling for "Authors" as three shadowy figures that resembled the three men appeared. Earlier this afternoon PWInsider reported that Ellering was spotted in Vancouver ahead of the New Year's episode of WWE SmackDown.
Last summer Fightful Select reported that AOP were spotted on an internal travel list in May, and several sourced stated that they had been under contract with WWE since 2022. Though they couldn't confirm it at the time, they were told that it was before Vince McMahon had come back, beginning a hiring freeze on any signings besides new recruits despite there being new signings at the time. With Kross and Scarlett in need of a new direction, it makes sense to bring in the heavyweights to help with that. It adds legitimacy to Kross and is a perfect way to reintroduce the tag team to the WWE universe.
What do you think of Kross and Scarlett aligning themselves with the AOP? Are you excited to see the tag team back in WWE? Let us know in the comments!
