The relationship between Paul Ellering and the former Authors of Pain has extended from the ring into everyday life, and now into the metaverse.
Paul Ellering, the legendary manager of the Road Warriors, expanded his legacy when he was paired with the Authors of Pain in 2016. As it turns out, this was even more of an honor for AOP as they would later find out that Paul Ellering had turned down the opportunity to manage many tag teams beforehand.
Speaking on The Sessions with Renee Paquette, AOP detailed the relationship with Paul Ellering.
“We didn't actually know that we were getting Paul Ellering as a manager, honestly,” said Akam. “We didn't know we were debuting because we'd only had like four or five matches together on house shows all around Florida up there with NXT. Then randomly before, I think it was TakeOver: The End, and it was The Revival, at the time, and American Alpha, I believe they had a match, and then we came in after. Literally that morning, we got a text from Matt Blom that said, ‘Hey, meet us at the Performance Center at 10 a.m.’ We go there and it's empty. Bloom goes, 'Get in the ring and just roll around.' Then, we see Paul walk out and he's watching us with William Regal together and what was happening was he wanted to see us before he got put together with us. Right away, he said, ‘Yeah, I'll do this.’ When we debuted, Paul came out and it was just something so big because he had a lot of offers to manage other tag teams and he turned them all down because he didn't feel they fit and because he has a huge legacy, obviously to keep up. “
“They actually never really told us before our debut, that Paul would come out, they left the option to Paul Ellering. Because from our knowledge, he already had declined a lot of people before us. That's what they told us and that's what Paul, later on, told us as well,” added Rezar.
Now, AOP says they still regularly talk to Paul with Akam saying that he regularly asks Paul about stocks and both are excited to take Paul Ellering into the metaverse with them.
"Honestly, us and Paul talk on a weekly basis still,” Akam continued. “I always pick his brain about stocks and different stuff and just his crazy workouts, he does still does crazy workouts. I've had the honor of trying to introduce him to the metaverse and it's the best thing ever because he had no clue. I call him every other day and I'd be like, ‘Hey, Paul. So this is what…’ [Paul responds] ’Oh, that's great.’ He loves us to the point where — unconditional support. The whole time we're waiting, [Paul would say] ‘We got to get back wrestling, boys.’ Then I introduced him to the metaverse and Paul goes, ’Oh, that's great, different. Let's do it.’”
The duo has now created BulleApePlanet NFT and is working on a wrestling project that takes place in the metaverse. You can learn more about the project at this link.
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