The Viking Raiders were the top tag team in NXT (as War machine) as they went on a dominate run before relinquishing the NXT tag titles when they were called up to the main brand.
Their initial push had them win the Raw Tag Team Championship early on, but since they’ve been running lukewarm at best.
There could be several reasons for it with the top ones being they both missed time with injuries. Ivar hurt his next after diving to the floor and Erik took the opportunity to have his arm taken care of.
But even before then, they seemed to have burned out WWE Creative’s way of handling them as they were often paired in matches with other superstars.
Going soft
While it’s expected faces will get along with faces and heels with heels, Erik and Ivar are supposed to be Vikings and the WWE removed any hard edge they had by having them buddy up to other faces backstage.
Their battle with the Street Profits over whish team was better including basketball and axe throwing, but in the end they seemed… soft.
Vince Russo recently chimed in on this and how they’re handled badly by the WWE just as they botched Ember Moon.
When speaking with Dr. Chris Featherstone, Russo talked about how the presentation matters:
“Bro, they did the same thing with The Viking Raiders. They are Vikings but why are they dressing like this? Bro, those guys, as a shoot, live the Viking lifestyle, the WWE never got into that. So what are we seeing bro? We’re seeing two guys who are Vikings which looks like a gimmick to us. Meanwhile, this is something these guys really believe in. It’s the presentation bro.”
Should be dominate
It didn’t help the WWE couldn’t figure out what to call the Viking Raiders or their finisher when they came to the main brand.
To be honest, Ride to Valhalla or something similar instead of the Viking Experience and leaving them as War Machine would’ve helped more from the start.
In fact, changing their team name felt more like a snub to fans in the vein of we wouldn’t get it otherwise.
But what hurt them most was having them come out looking like gladiators and then losing in short matches or being used to set up a 6 man match.
The Viking Raiders should’ve been treated like the Legion of Doom and Demolition. They come out, dominate every match before and after their return from injury, and force the other teams to dig deep to find ways to beat them.
Instead, they come out and they’re like any other tag team. It feels like a quagmire of sorts with everyone doing the same thing and not being given that harder edge to really put them over.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
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