When the War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe) was called up from NXT to RAW last week during the WWE Superstar Shake-Up, they were renamed The Viking Experience (Ivar and Erik). Now after a lot of backlash on social media, they have been renamed yet again as The Viking Raiders.
Tonight on RAW they defeated The Lucha House Party.
The decision to change the name of the WWE NXT Tag Team Champions from The War Raiders to The Viking Experience was a Vince McMahon call, according to Meltzer on Observer Radio. Now that they have joined the RAW roster in the Superstar Shakeup, Hanson is known as Erik while Rowe is now known as Ivar.
There was speculation on the “War” being dropped from the name due to obvious reasons, but Meltzer said that was not the case. It came down to Vince just not liking the name and him calling for a new name before the debut on RAW. As noted, one point the team was scheduled to be called The Berzerkers, but the name was changed to The Viking Experience as they got closer to the debut.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
NXT Tag Team Champions Hanson and Rowe, better known as War Raiders, were shock call-ups on last night’s Superstar Shake-Up edition of RAW, joining forces with The Revival to face off against Ricochet, Aleister Black, Zack Ryder, and Curt Hawkins in an eight-man tag.
They weren’t introduced under their NXT monickers: instead, Hanson and Rowe have been rebranded Erik and Ivar, The Viking Experience.
RAW’s commentators then tried to put the act over as “not a gimmick,” claiming that Ivar and Erik are literal vikings, thus cementing the move’s utter ridiculousness.
Is this the dumbest name change in WWE history?
Ditching “War Raiders” essentially means that the hugely over “war” chants are probably going away as well.
Regardless, The Viking Experience should be strong enough to survive the silliness. They’re a great tag team, having proved it again at TakeOver: New York.
Here’s hoping they compensate by ruling the RAW tag division.
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