Authors Of Pain Comment On Alistair Overeem’s In-Ring Debut, Past Remarks Were ‘A Little Bit Of Hype’

The Authors Of Pain are looking forward to Alistair Overeem’s pro wrestling debut.

Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa (Authors Of Pain/Legion Of Pain) are promoting the debut event for Wrestling Entertainment Series on July 9. Not only will the duo team for the first time in two years, but the show will also see an in-ring appearance from MMA star Alistair Overeem.

Overeem will challenge Moose in the main event of the show, and his appearance came as a surprise to some considering how he insulted the “one true sport” during an August 2021 appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

“I started looking again on YouTube, and oh my God, this stuff is lame. It’s just lame what these guys are doing. It’s fake. It’s lame. It’s stupid. It’s gay. It doesn’t make any sense,” Overeem told Helwani during the appearance. “It’s not even a sport. It’s just lame. It’s bad acting, just lame. Sorry for all the fans of WWE, but I’m just being honest. I’m just giving my opinion. Free country, right? I think it’s lame, and because I hadn’t seen it for 20 years. I never watched Brock fight. I never watched CM Punk fight. I knew they were from WWE.”

Overeem has since explained his past comments, as he made a return to Helwani’s show last month. He maintained that he was still a fan in the 80s and didn’t enjoy it now, but he was just talking smack and it’s totally different doing it himself.

Speaking to WrestleZone, the team formerly known as the Authors Of Pain were asked how they were able to help change Overeem’s outlook on wrestling. Gzim Selmani (fka Rezar) explained that most of what Overeem originally said was just hype, and he feels like the unique angle WES is going for is what persuaded Overeem to step into the ring.

Gzim: “That was a little bit of, at that time, he was fighting in the UFC, and he had a [past] fight with Brock, and of course fighters are like that, right. Once they get in, before a fight and stuff like that, they get into sort of a storyline just like we get with wrestling, they hype the fights up. And it was just a little bit also to pick on Brock, to pick on other former wrestlers getting into MMA. And he felt like as a Strikeforce legend, Pride legend, that people from wrestling who came into MMA might have not deserved the respect immediately as they’d gotten it. It was also a little bit of hype, like hyping a fight up and stuff like that. The words he chose for that particular interview, he might have not 100% really meant it. It’s just like hyping a fight, and that’s what he was doing. Like he said, he used to love the old-school wrestling, like the early 90s, late 90s, he was a big fan of it actually.

“And like many of the fans who saw wrestling evolve to what it is right now, like for example fully PG and stuff like that, he’s not a fan and it’s his own deal, it’s his own opinion. With Wrestling Entertainment Series, we’re not like any other wrestling organization, especially a lot of people will see that after our first show. It’s gonna be something that hasn’t been seen before in wrestling. It will have a lot of different changes to it. For example, we’re gonna have pre and post-fight conferences, we’re gonna have staredowns the night before the fights, before the matches. A lot of things that you will see going on through the show, they’re gonna be a lot of raw-life based, and it’s a good twist, something new that we think the wrestling industry needs. I think that’s what got Alistair very excited, and that might have changed his opinion as well.”

Wrestling Entertainment Series‘ debut event takes place on July 9 at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. Moose, Alistair Overeem, the Legion Of Pain (fka Authors Of Pain), Steph de Lander (fka Persia Pirotta), Samuray del Sol (fka Kalisto), Dean Muhtadi (fka Mojo Rawley), Damo Mackle (fka Killian Dain) and more are advertised for the lineup. IMPACT’s Tom Hannifan is also scheduled to be on commentary for the event.

Check out our full interview with Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa at the top of this post.

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