On last night’s episode of NXT, which was filmed before this past Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: New Orleans pay-per-view event, we were finally graced with the official on-screen debut of arguably one of the greatest tag teams the independent circuit has ever seen. War Machine, the team of Hanson and Raymond Rowe, who has now been rebranded as War Raiders – likely to avoid similarities with Heavy Machinery – made a huge run-in during a match between the aforementioned unit and their opponents, Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss.

The hardcore NXT crowd were all-too-familiar with the Vikingesque duo and made it known by chanting “War Machine” over and over throughout their assault. Don’t be surprised if this chant continues to happen whenever the pair is on screen despite the classic WWE name-spin.

Hanson and Rowe signed with WWE alongside other independent stars, Ricochet and Candice LeRae, on January 16 this year and are now the last of the three to make their initial on-screen appearance.

With the black and yellow brand’s dominant big men team, the Authors of Pain, making their main roster debut on Raw this past Monday, it looks like War Raiders will slip seamlessly into their vacant position. Expect the pair to squash jobbers from time to time before inserting themselves into the NXT Tag Team Championship picture later in the year.

 

Are you excited to see War Raiders dominate the NXT tag team division? Who do you think their first real opponents will be? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter here.

 

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• NOLA
• War Machine
• ricochet
• hanson
• Tino Sabbatelli
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• nxt news
• Riddick Moss
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• war raiders
• Heavy Machinery
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• wwe

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