WWE wrestler Ivar is one half of the Viking Raiders, a popular wrestling tag team currently known as the War Raiders. Ivar and Erik were originally part of NXT and were called up to the main roster from there.
Their transition to the main roster took place after WrestleMania 35 and was named the Viking Experience. The name change and rebranding did not go as expected by the WWE creative team, and after much opposition, they were renamed Viking Raiders again. This went on for about five years, after which they both had to be removed from programming due to injuries.
Viking Raiders rebrand as they return to WWE
After returning to the Stamford-based promotion, the Viking Raiders were reintroduced as the War Raiders, which was so well received by fans that their popularity quickly skyrocketed.
Chris Van Vliet spoke about this ongoing rebranding and how the company is handling its creative direction.
“When I had the opportunity to do a singles run and it went well, I had a conversation with Triple H and he said, ‘Hey, why don’t you step back from the Viking heavy stuff and slowly skin it?’ He said, “I’m going to turn those layers off so I can share more of the story with you.” I’m like, “Oh, that’s great.” So when I started doing that, I got hurt again, and Eric and I were ready to come back. I think we were actually scheduled to go back to Lowe in Calgary. ”
Adding, “At the last minute they canceled our trip and said it’s postponed for the time being. Oh, come on, let’s go. They’re like, ‘No, there’s nothing wrong.’ I would like to refrain. We want to provide you with better creativity. ‘And then the next week we got a call and they said, ‘What do you think about coming back as the War Raiders?’ And we thought, ‘Yeah, that would be great.’ That’s really good. ”
This shows that the WWE creative team is actually paying attention to what fans need and how wrestlers perceive the storylines surrounding their characters. And it is precisely for this reason that storytelling has reached such heights today.
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