War Raiders Debut On WWE Raw As "The Viking Experience"
New names for the reigning NXT Tag Team Champions.
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 developmental monickers: instead, Hanson and Rowe have been rebranded Erik and Ivar individually, and The Viking Experience collectively.
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? The only way WWE could have really made this any dafter is if they'd branded the duo Smashy McAxe and Ronnie Ragnarok. Not only that, but ditching "War Raiders" essentially means that the hugely over "war" chants are probably going away as well. Madness!
Regardless, The Viking Experience should be strong enough to survive the silliness. They excel as tag team berzerkers, having proved it again at TakeOver: New York, and War Raiders was a pretty goofy name anyway. Here's hoping they compensate by ruling the Raw tag division.