WWE Star Reveals True Story Behind Controversial Name Change

WWE

WWE star Ivar has opened up about the Viking Raiders’ original name when they were called up to the main roster, the Viking Experience.

Known on the independent scene as War Machine, the team of Hanson and Rowe would be reborn in WWE as War Raiders, debuting in NXT in 2018.

As the NXT Tag Team Champions, they would be called up to the main roster in April 2019, being repackaged as Erik (formerly Rowe) and Ivar (formerly Hanson) and brought to WWE Raw with the new name of the Viking Experience.

The name would be widely derided on social media which saw them quickly renamed to the Viking Raiders.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ivar revealed how Vince McMahon was behind the controversial name change, saying:

“So the way the story goes is Vince loves Vikings. So he found out there’s a team in NXT that were Vikings and he’s like, ‘Yes, I want them’.

“And now he wanted ‘Viking’ in our name. And they couldn’t pass anything through legal. There’s already a Vikings football team, there’s already a Vikings TV show, so none of the names they were trying, whatever they were, were getting through.

“And then somebody, I won’t say who, because it was asked in the meeting, like, ‘What are they? Describe them’, and then somebody describes us, ‘They’re this, they’re that, they’re like a Viking experience’, and it was like, ‘That’s it! They’re the Viking Experience!’

“And not one person was happy or okay with that except for the one man. So we were stuck.

“We get there, we see on the tron ‘Viking Experience’, we’re like, ‘Oh man, what is going on?’ So we went to talk to him to be like, ‘Look, we can’t be this amusement park ride name’.

“And we talk to him and we were told about the whole Viking thing, so we were told, ‘If you’re gonna pitch names at him, just make sure it has Viking in it’, so we had six or seven Viking names that we had picked.

“We’d already given up on our singles names, Erik and Ivar – no problem, whatever. That wasn’t worth even trying.

“The tag name was so bad, it was awful. It still is, it haunts us to this day. We’re listing off these names, we got to Viking Raiders and he stopped us and said, ‘Look, this is how we’re gonna introduce you to the main roster audience, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll change it going forward’. And literally two days later on the website it changed.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Footage from The Viking Experience’s WWE Raw debut can be seen below this news story.

Ivar was recently injured, stating that “it is very serious”, with his sidelined tag team partner sending a message of support.

Erik underwent neck fusion surgery in September 2023 and is “doing great, but it’s slow and steady” according to Ivar.

We continue to send them all the best for their recoveries.

Want a career in the professional wrestling industry but don’t know where to start? Enrolment is now open for the first-of-its-kind Wrestling Masterclass – click here for details! 

• Ivar
• Erik
• viking raiders
• Vince McMahon
• wwe

Share this article with friends