10 WWE Name Changes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired

10. War Raiders Ride The Viking Experience

Someone on the creative squad said: 'I've got it! I know exactly how to turn a popular tag-team into a museum exhibit'. Replying, a beaming Vince McMahon shouted: 'I love it!'. That's what happened. Probably. Maybe. How else could one explain why WWE turned War Machine into The War Raiders and then (eventually) a lifeless sounding tourist attraction known as "The Viking Experience"?

That's what happened to Erik and Ivar when they took their main roster bow on the 15 April 2019 episode of Raw. The Experience was born, but that'd soon be changed to The Viking Raiders. Fans threw their arms up in frustration at all of this silliness - the fact that McMahon couldn't see any issues with such a stuttering start summed up his dotage creatively.

He took a team of ex-New Japan and ROH standouts who'd smashed it in his own NXT system, then stripped them of all menace. Erik and Ivar might as well have come to the ring handling out leaflets for guided tours like some sort of Norse version of The Shining Stars. Roll up, roll up. Come see The Viking Experience with your friendly, bearded warriors who are straight out of Skyrim (or something).

That's how it came across.

The pair have since reverted to their War Raiders name, but mud sticks. Repeated attempts to make something of these guys keep falling on deaf ears with an audience who were pretty much conditioned to view them as silly from the beginning. People did not want The Viking Experience. That was one ride everybody wanted to get off ASAP.