WWE Rumors: ‘Raw’ Tag Team Reportedly Could Be In Line For Comedy Gimmick Following Latest Vignette
If recent rumors are to be believed, The Revival barely escaped getting turned into a comedy act by WWE chairman Vince McMahon, who allegedly planned to change their theme music, tone down their tough-guy attitude, and dress them up in goofy ring costumes. Based on The Viking Raiders’ new vignette on Monday Night Raw, it appears that the duo of Erik and Ivar may be getting a similar repackaging in the coming weeks.
As briefly seen in the video below and recapped in full by Wrestling Inc., this week’s episode of Raw featured both Viking Raiders driving around town in a segment reminiscent of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” series on The Late Late Show. With Erik behind the wheel and Ivar next to him, eating a turkey leg, both wrestlers sang a rhyming chant about being Vikings who love to fight.
At the moment, it’s still unclear how exactly WWE plans to repackage The Viking Raiders — if a gimmick change is indeed in store for the duo. However, Wrestling Inc. noted that there has been “speculation” that the former Raw Tag Team Champions could be given a comedy gimmick not unlike what WWE was purportedly planning for The Revival before they left the company earlier this month.
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Carpool karaoke the #VikingRaiders way! #WWERaw@Erik_WWE @Ivar_WWE pic.twitter.com/6yCpGXKG9S
— WWE (@WWE) April 21, 2020
As separately reported by Comic Book, the new vignette was poorly received by a number of fans. Many viewers felt that WWE was wasting a tag team that had dominated the tag team scene in NXT and racked up a number of wins on the main roster, essentially “[dumbing them] down” to give them a more family-friendly feel.
“I’m not that bothered about the Viking Raiders but damn, they’ve really just given up on them haven’t they,” said one Twitter user whose post was cited by the publication.
“That was embarrassing.”
“Oh my god, I was legit just about to tweet about how much Raw has improved as a show over the last couple of months…then I saw whatever the flying f*ck that Viking Raiders thing was. Good god,” a second viewer fumed.
Others tweeted brief videos of legendary WWE superstars to express their disappointment with the potential repackaging. One fan shared a clip of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin dropping his “What?” catchphrase and another posted a snippet from a Shawn Michaels promo where he was commenting on something being a “load of horsesh*t.”
This isn’t the first time that WWE’s creative plans for The Viking Raiders have drawn negative attention. Originally known as The War Raiders on NXT, the team was renamed The Viking Experience upon their main roster call-up in April 2019. However, they got their name changed to the current one just a few days later, as an apparent result of the previous name’s unpopularity among fans.
