According to Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer, the reason that recent NXT call ups the Authors of Pain (AOP) and SaNiTy haven’t been on WWE television as of late is that their creative teams literally have “nothing for them” at this time.
While the first instinct is to chalk this up to WWE creative’s indecision on how to properly build NXT talent once they transition to the main roster, I’m going to put forward the argument that keeping them off television could be beneficial at least for the time being…at least until they read the following.
First off, there isn’t really anything left in NXT for either tandem, period. The AOP had pretty much finished their business in the tag team title picture, and the way Sanity went out a few weeks ago when confronting NXT champion Aleister Black was essentially a ‘send off’ to the main roster. It was natural for people to assume that they were ready to go to either main roster brands.
But the current issue with tag teams in the WWE right now is not for a lack of teams, it’s that there’s too many of them. On Smackdown right now, there’s the Usos, Gallows and Anderson, the SD Tag Team Champions the Bludgeon Brothers, former RAW tag champs the Bar, and the New Day. That’s already an overcrowded roster to insert yet another team to have a credible program. On RAW, the tag team plot is dominated by the weird tandem of Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy, with very little credible challengers at the moment, other than Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler at the moment.
I could envision Sanity running into the upcoming Miz/The Bar vs The New Day 6 man tag team match coming up on Smackdown, but other than that, how do you carry that storyline forward? Could the trio be built up towards something against the current champions? Both Sanity and Bludgeon Brothers have this sort of dark element to their character; that could be something interesting to watch. On the other hand, having two teams of the same kind of theme may dilute interest in both over time.
As for the AOP on RAW, it seems the only logical choice would be to pair them with Roman Reigns, as some in the wrestling community have been speculating. But unless WWE decides to give Roman a heel run as the Universal Champion, that is most likely not happening the way fans would want.
So if I had the booking power, I would just switch the AOP to Smackdown and bring the Usos and Sanity over to RAW. The Authors of Pain and Samoa Joe make a more natural alliance than they would with Reigns, and they could form a very powerful stable to feud with The Club (Gallows/Anderson and AJ Styles).
Meanwhile on RAW, I feel there are less tag teams and there is room for Sanity to grow under the red brand and literally run amok amongst all of them on their way to facing Wyatt and Hardy. As for the Usos, they could turn heel on RAW and align with their actual cousin Reigns and reform the short lived “bloodline” faction from a few years ago.
Unless WWE actually decides to get creative, then perhaps they should mull over what they actually want to do with the AOP and Sanity, two of the best teams / factions that NXT has produced in the last few years. Let’s hope they don’t waste the opportunity.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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