WWE Star Reacts To Fan Backlash To ‘Silly’ Name Change

WWE

A WWE star has reacted to the fan backlash to their ‘silly’ main roster WWE name change following their call up.

When War Machine signed with WWE back in 2018, the pair debuted on NXT television as Hanson and Rowe of the War Raiders, capturing the NXT Tag Team Championship before their call up.

However, upon their call up, the pair underwent a name change, now being known as Erik and Ivar, as well as their team name being changed to ‘The Viking Experience’.

The change was met with a lot of backlash from fans, and it only lasted less than a week before the name was changed again to the Viking Raiders.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Erik opened up on the name change, and the fan reaction to it.

He said:

“It was less than a week, it was like six days and then we were The Viking Raiders. However, the only thing that changed was our name. We were still the same people.

“We still did the same moves, we still did the same entrance. We still wore the same clothes, same horns and armor and all the stuff. I think we still even had the same music, they just changed the name on the tron. But people on Twitter have never let us forget, like ever.

“Every time we’re on TV, we’ll get at least a dozen Viking Experience tweets, which is funny, but yeah, we can go down that rabbit hole if you want to. It was a silly, silly, silly moment.

“Because that was our debut from NXT, and we had already gotten our name changed once, because we were War Machine on the Indies, then we came to WWE, and they couldn’t use that name for a variety of legitimate and good reasons.”

Erik and Ivar returned to WWE television late last year, once again under the War Raiders name, where they quickly went on to capture the World Tag Team Championship.

They lost the titles to the New Day on night one of WrestleMania 41.

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