Following a heartbreaking loss to The Revival that resulted in Dash & Dawson claiming their second NXT Tag Team titles at NXT TakeOver: The End, American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable) were brutally attacked by a debuting new tag team, that announcers Tom Phillips and Corey Graves repeatedly referred to as “Monsters”.
And while the audience was still in stunned reaction to Alpha’s title loss and the emergence of two absolute brutes upon them, the debut that drew the most attention, as WWE Hall of Famer “Precious” Paul Ellering – the man who guided The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom to tag team championships in the NWA, WCW, AWA and WWF – appeared at the entrance (although many on Twitter, including WWE Superstar Kevin Owens, seemed to think the “Who Are You?” chants were directed at Ellering by uninformed “marks”, it was actually directed at the two guys in the ring. Once they noticed Ellering, he got a considerable pop).
And Twitter and Social Media exploded…who were these new “Monsters”?
They’re a developmental tandem that’s being on NXT Live Events, now making their debut on NXT television, collectively known as The Authors of Pain. They were first teased by Nia Jax on her Twitter on April 15th, with much of the internet world thinking it was more of The Rock‘s family coming into the fray (and no, they aren’t related to the Rock or the Ano’ia family).
#NXTOrlando the #AuthorsOfPain legit bad azzes!!!!!! @Gzimselmani @DhinsaSunny pic.twitter.com/UWqxMNzinh
— Lina Fanene (@LinaFanene) April 16, 2016
Individually, these two have more in common with Haku and Brock Lesnar than they do your typical looking big guys. These guys look mean and tough, because they are mean and tough.
The first is Sunny Dhinsa, a British Columbia collegiate wrestler who wrestled for Simon Fraser University, a national freestyle champion and a former 2016 Olympic hopeful for Canada until he decided to pursue professional wrestling instead.
The other is former Bellator MMA fighter Gzim Selmani (who fought under the nickname “The Albanian Psycho”) from Kosovo, Albania. Wrestling in Bellator’s Heavyweight division, Selmani fought at 6’3″ and 265 lbs., with a 4-2 win/loss record, with the Guillotine Choke as his preferred finisher.
Interfering at the end of the NXT Tag Team title match, allied with a Hall of Fame manager in Paul Ellering, it looks like we’ve got a new tandem to wreak havoc on the NXT tag team division. We’ll have to see if the duo carries the “Authors of Pain” monicker to television, but one thing is for sure. Having someone like Ellering as their mentor will do wonders for these new “monsters”.
(Main Photo: WWE.com)
