10 Wrestlers Who Go Back Further Than You Think
6. Erik
Looking far closer to his present day look than his tag partner, Erik was at least permitted to go by his old name of Raymond Rowe en route to getting absolutely battered by Mark Henry during yet another attempt to get the 'World's Strongest Man' over as the company's preeminent monster.
That push didn't really work (little did until Henry opened the "Hall Of Pain" years later) but Rowe allowed his not inconsiderable size to be marginalised in an impressive June 2006 SmackDown squash all the same. Despite this decent showing, it'd be the only time he'd work for the company before signing with NXT over a decade later.
About as far away from the look he'd make his own save for a bit of facial hair, Erik was short several tattoos and lacking the girth he'd gain that added tremendously to the War Machine aesthetic before morphing into the slightly cleaner cut Viking Raiders look in 2021.