The Viking Experience Were Reportedly Going To Be Called The Berzerkers Before Last Minute Vince McMahon Decision
This is not Kayfabe News...
Apr 18, 2019
During this week's Raw half of the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up, current NXT Tag Team Champions War Raiders made their main roster debut.
However, even though NXT is supposedly WWE's third brand on the same level of both Raw and SmackDown Live, War Raiders were repackaged. Hanson and Rowe became Ivar and Erik, The Viking Experience.
Though the name has caused some serious debate within the WWE Universe over the last few days, it appears that wasn't the original plan for
THE VIKING MEN.
Two reports claim the first choice for the team's new name was, The Berzerkers.
Here's what
PWInsiderhave reported on the name: "At one point, the duo was slated to be billed as The Bezerkers but it changed as they moved closer to debuting."
Dave Meltzer also penned this in the latest edition of the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter: "This was a Vince McMahon call. It was literally a last day thing, where at one point they were to be called The Berzerkers, but McMahon didn’t like that, and Viking Experience is the name he went with."