Backstage Shakeup News On Lars & Vince Changing War Raiders’ Name

The recently concluded Superstar Shakeup saw big changes made to both The Monday Night RAW Brand as well as The SmackDown LIVE Brand, but it did leave us with a bit of confusion on Lars Sullivan’s roster change as WWE indicated during RAW this past Monday night that The Freak had joined the red brand. He even had The RAW logo next to his name on The WWE website after destroying Rey Mysterio, who also came to RAW as part of The Superstar Shakeup.

It was then announced on SmackDown LIVE by WWE that Lars Sullivan had joined the blue brand roster. He attacked R-Truth on the show and remains on the blue brand roster. Dave Meltzer noted on a recent edition of The Wrestling Observer Radio Program that the plan was always for Lars to appear on both TV shows this week.

Dave Meltzer also noted on a recent edition of The Wrestling Observer Radio Program that the decision to change the name of The NXT Tag Team Champions from The War Raiders to The Viking Experience was a Vince McMahon call. Now that they have joined The Monday Night RAW roster as part of The Superstar Shakeup, Hanson is now known as Erik while Rowe is now known as Ivar.

There was speculation on The “War” being dropped from the name due to obvious reasons, but Meltzer said that it was not the case. It came down to Vince just not liking the name and him calling for a new name before the debut on Monday’s RAW. At one point the team was even rumored to be called The Berzerkers, but the name was changed to The Viking Experience as they got closer to the debut.

WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley recently took to Twitter and said that anything with the word “War” in it isn’t just going to fly in WWE in 2019. It should be noted that WWE refers to Ember Moon as The War Goddess and they have The NXT TakeOver: War Games Events each year.

Foley wrote, “Anything with the word ‘war’ in it is just not going to fly in @WWE in 2019. The #Warlord is now taking bookings at #VikingLord and old Attitude Era #Raw episodes have been renamed #RawIsViking”