When they first appeared last week at TakeOver: The End... of the Beginning, Paul Ellering’s new team of behemoths weren’t identified by name. In kayfabe, it was played up that announcers Tom Phillips & Corey Graves has never seen the two monsters who laid out American Alpha before.
Nothing official came from WWE, even though the duo - and the return of their Hall of Fame manager - clearly caught wrestling fans’ attention. Then, reports circulated WWE was pursuing a trademark for the name of one of Ellering’s former clients, “Legion of Doom”. Speculation linked the two items, and folks did not seem enthused that these two performers (real names Sunny Dhinsa & Gzim Selmani) would be the new Hawk & Animal.
Well, fret no more. PWInsider brought news earlier today that WWE has dropped their trademark claim. Then, on the June 15 episode of NXT, the team had their first official televised match, and were clearly identified by the name they used on house shows, Authors of Pain.
The Authors of Pain kick off this week’s episode of @WWENXT! pic.twitter.com/tvVMHoYKKP
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) June 16, 2016
Neither of the performers have been identified by name, and after their destruction of a pair of unidentified enhancement guys, Ellering told backstage interviewer Andrea D’Marco he’s not ready to reveal any details about his new charges yet.
But other than their knockoff Shield gear, it doesn’t look like they’ll be infringing on any past gimmicks. So we can go back to just being excited about their being some new monsters on the WWE scene.