10 WWE Name Changes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired

What's in a name?

If you're a pro wrestler, the answer is a lot. Granted, countless silly WWE names have led to wonderful things over the years. It's a bit like music - bands such as Pink Floyd and artists like Dua Lipa sound ridiculous in isolation on paper, but they've gone on to top charts and become household names despite that. So, there's hope yet for current NXT man Lexis King (even if he does sound like a car brand)!

A lot of name changes go hand in hand with WWE gimmick switches that immediately backfired. For example, Chad Gable turning into the woeful 'Shorty G' springs to mind, and so does Chavo Guerrero's mercifully short stint as Kerwin White. Neither of those are featured here though, because they've been torn to shreds elsewhere - only one name from the list linked above has house room here.

WWE deserve another tongue lashing for that one. They deserve a ticking off for all of these, truth be told. You've really got to wonder what goes on in crunch creative meetings sometimes. Somebody thought these name changes ruled, and they figured each one would get fans on board with shelling out cash on tickets and merchandise.

More fool them, but some of the workers involved did survive and go onto bigger/better things. Even they must've realised early on that they were doomed to fail unless fate intervened or they could come up with a replacement name themselves.

WWE's frankly crap NXT > main roster name generator doesn't get a pass here either. You won't believe some of the tripe that has spewed out over the years!

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.