Multi-time champions made a major plea to Vince McMahon on their first day on WWE RAW
WWE worked very differently under Vince McMahon's creative leadership, and the previous regime arguably had some disconnect with the developmental brand, NXT. Recently, War Raiders' Erik revealed that he and Ivar had made a major plea upon arriving on the main roster.
In 2019, Hanson and Rowe were rebranded in the Stamford-based promotion as Ivar and Erik, respectively, when they moved to WWE's main roster. However, the duo wasn't aware of their upcoming name change and witnessed it on the day of their debut on the red brand.
In an interview on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Erik explained that they'd made a plea to change the name of their tag team as soon as they arrived on Monday Night RAW. The two made their case, and Vince McMahon agreed, which is how their name was changed from 'Viking Experience' to 'Viking Raiders.'
"Our first day on the main roster. We had never actually physically met Vince McMahon, but we went and stood outside his office to go and plead our case... So, we pitched that case, and Vince was like, ‘Well, that makes sense, but we don’t have time to get that through legal.’ Because we asked to be Viking Raiders because we heard, a little birdie told us, when we changed from War Machine to War Raiders they were really stuck on Raiders. So all of the names had Raiders in them," Erik said. [H/T - CVV]
You can check out the interview in the video below:
The Viking Raiders won titles in WWE under Vince McMahon's leadership
After receiving a new name in the tag team division on WWE RAW in 2019, the Viking Raiders began to dominate the division, and in a few months, the duo had captured the RAW Tag Team Championship. They had previously dominated the developmental brand as well, winning the NXT Tag Team Titles during McMahon's time.
Later, the duo moved to WWE SmackDown and received a soft reboot before the new regime took over in July 2022. However, Erik and Ivar eventually made it back to the top when they reverted to their previous name, 'War Raiders,' in 2024.
In December 2024, they defeated The Judgment Day to capture the World Tag Team Championship, and later lost the titles to The New Day at WrestleMania 41. It will be interesting to see what's next for the duo on the red brand.
