WWE Rumors on Roman Reigns' Raw Angle Changing, New Day and Authors of Pain Return

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Illness Changes Raw Plans for The Bloodline

The Bloodline is set to host the Trial of Sami Zayn after what transpired on Friday's SmackDown, but that was not the originally pitched segment.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported there was supposed to be a segment where members of wrestling's Samoan Dynasty came to Raw and acknowledged Roman Reigns as the family's tribal chief.

However, Afa and Sika Anoa'i, better known as the Wild Samoans, were not going to be able to make the trip to Philadelphia, and Rikishi also came down with an illness. The planned segment was scrapped as a result and shifted the focus over to Zayn, who was conspicuously late arriving in aid of Reigns and The Usos as they were taken out by Kevin Owens to close SmackDown.

Tensions between Zayn and Reigns, who was once the Honorary Uce's biggest supporter, have been brewing for several weeks.

This will likely culminate in the splintering of The Bloodline during the WrestleMania build, but it's anyone's guess where this is headed. Zayn and Owens could take on The Usos in a tag team match, or Zayn could wind up winning the Rumble and headlining WrestleMania against Reigns.

With Vince McMahon back in the mix behind the scenes—albeit supposedly not in a creative sense—things could change at the drop of a dime.

New Day Podcast May Not Return

The New Day's podcast has not been active regularly since Big E's WWE championship win in September 2021. The pod went on hiatus as Big E went on his run as champion while Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston were on a separate brand and then has not produced any new episodes since E's neck injury suffered last March.

Kingston recently spoke to Fightful Select about the status of the podcast, saying the guys would like to bring it back but there are several obstacles in the way. The most obvious, of course, being Big E's absence from WWE programming and the travel schedule.

While there was a consideration of doing the podcast over Zoom, The New Day prefers a more traditional in-person recording. It's possible, if not likely, the podcast does not return at all at this point.

The feed continues to upload episodes every week, releasing "best of" rerun content. The fact that the feed has not been shuttered entirely gives some hope they'll figure out a way to make recording work.

Authors of Pain Could Make WWE Comeback

Triple H has not been shy about bringing back released talent since taking over creative in WWE. While the result has been a mixed bag thus far, the comebacks do not appear over just yet.

Fightful Select reported the Authors of Pain have been discussed for a potential return. The duo received top billing after making their NXT debut in 2016 and quickly made their rise to the main roster, winning the Raw tag team championships in November 2018.

Less than two years later, amid a rash of injuries, both were released from their WWE contracts.

Neither Akam nor Razar has been active on the independent scene since their release. They launched their own promotion, the Wrestling Entertainment Series, but multiple failures to host a debut event led to skepticism the league would ever launch.

A return to WWE would be the final nail in the coffin.

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