WWE: Top 5 Opponents for Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler

1. The Authors of Pain

Akam and Rezar, collectively known as AOP (or the Authors of Pain; WWE can’t seem to decide if it’s the full name or the acronym only), have been missing from proper WWE programming for the best part of a year, with injury to Akam leaving Rezar on his own to run roughshod over… Main Event… for a few weeks before disappearing from there, too.

It’s a shame; although still fairly green, the duo have shown massive promise as a monster tag team, especially during their time in NXT, where they were arguably called up far too soon.

However, this past week on both Raw and SmackDown, the same vignette was aired, re-introducing AOP to the WWE Universe. The vignette itself, which you can watch above, is great, establishing them once again as heels whilst allowing both men to talk in foreign languages (all people who speak foreign languages are automatically Evil, apparently), and completely changing their visual gimmick; gone are the camouflage tactical vests that kind of made them both look like they were badly cosplaying as Roman Reigns, and in their place are two very nice, “we are all business” style suits.

If this was just because they were shooting from backstage or if this is part of a total rebranding, we don’t yet know, but I absolutely want AOP to be rebranded as mercenary bodyguards-for-hire, sort of like a modern day APA.

Regardless of the gimmick, AOP need a big time feud to properly announce their return to action. As much as this spells the surefire end of Roode and Ziggler’s time as Tag Champions, there’s no better way to announce AOP back to the big time than with a dominant, merciless victory to become Raw Tag Team Champions.

From there, the potential feud with the Viking Raiders already has the potential to see whichever poor unfortunate cities host matches between the two teams to be levelled in what could prove to be Big Boy Fights to end all Big Boy Fights.

Book it.