Corey Graves ‘After The Bell’ Podcast has been a surprisingly consistent source of good interviews with talent. Last week, the interview with Rhea Ripley captured my interest. This week it’s Erik & Ivar of The Viking Raiders. Here’s the highlights of their talk with The Savior Of Misbehavour.
On Survivor Series
The Viking Raiders wore some familar attire during their entrance on the Survivor Series preshow, that being their old War Machine gear from their days in Ring of Honor & New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was a bit different than their usual Viking garb, but a refreshing change. They were very happy that preshow triple threat tag match got time to shine, saying it was an opportunity to show people “Who the fuck we are”.
They would defeat The New Day’s Kofi Kingston & Big E & Undisputed Era’s Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish in a fantastic match, the best preshow match of this year by far.
On Their Name Change To ‘The Viking Experience’ & ‘Ivar & Erik’
The name change from War Raiders to The Viking Experience was huge spot of contention for WWE fans, and the team themselves. They made their names as Hanson & Rowe, even using those names in NXT, only to be rebranded on Monday Night RAW. Erik (formerly Rowe) was actually planning on visiting his wife Sarah Logan’s family for the weekend. While he was in the air flying away he discovered that he was competing on Raw on Monday. His response: “Are you kidding me?” thinking it was a joke.
When they first saw the graphic for The Viking Experience, they asked Triple H if they were joking and he just shook his head. They said “That’s real?” and HHH said “You’re gonna have to talk to Vince.” When they finally caught with Vince, they plead their case saying it sounded like a Disney ride.
They gave him about 10 other options, one being Viking Raiders. He paused on that one, saying that they will introduce them as The Viking Experience, and then said that if that doesn’t work then he is open to changing it. He then went on to ramble about how much he loves the TV show Vikings, and vikings in general until nearly showtime. We’ve come a long way from Scott Hall pitching his character as a Tony Montana rip-off and Vince, having never watched Scarface or even heard of it, thought Hall was a genius. Vince has finally started watching programming beyond WWE.
Why Was Their Name Changed?
Getting to hear about the naming process behind the scenes is always interesting. They weren’t permitted to use the War Machine name due to it being attached to an MMA fighter who tried to kill their girlfriend, which would come up when the name was googled. Nowadays, a Brad Pitt movie comes up instead, but Viking Raiders is a solid name for the tag team, and fans have adjusted to for them.
Regardless of their name, they’ve found amazing success on Monday Night RAW, having gotten the sole victory for RAW at Survivor Series and being the most dominant looking tag team on the brand for months now. I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish next for WWE.
