This is very bad

The current NXT Tag Team Champions have been called up! Last night’s Monday Night RAW started the Superstar Shakeup. An event that spans both RAW and Smackdown LIVE. It helps WWE talent find new homes to freshen up the weekly product.

RAW usually looks to be stacked by the end of Monday night, but things seemingly even out after Smackdown LIVE has come and gone. This year was no different as The Miz, Andrade, Rey Mysterio, The Usos, Naomi, EC3, Cedric Alexander, AJ Styles and more all made the jump to Team Red.

NXT is also subject to the Shakeup, but this year the first surprise call up is very puzzling. Not for the reasons you would think either. During an eight man tag team match, the War Raiders emerged as a surprising call up. Their video on the tron, however, stated that they were The Viking Experience. Oh, but that’s not all. They are no longer known as Hanson and Rowe, they’re now IVAR and ERIK, respectively.

What’s In A Name?

Name changes are common among wrestling, especially in the WWE. We’ve all grown accustom to wrestlers having their names shortened for seemingly no reason for years. This, for some reason feels different. It feels very unnecessary. With NXT being a very recognizable brand, that is under the umbrella of WWE, it feels silly to change their name now. NXT is far removed from FCW, and is a world-wide phenomenon. The War Raiders didn’t appear out of thin air. We’ve known who these guys are for a while.

Also something to think about: The Viking Experience is a flat out stupid name. This has Vince McMahon’s hands all over it. From the name, to every commentator screaming, “They’re about to experience the Viking Experience”. It’s just unimaginative. Ivar and Erik feel like part of the WWE creative team googled “common viking names for men” and went with that. Actually, I just googled it and here are my results:

Search results proving my point
I’d say I was surprised, but I’m not.

This is bad. Very bad. I would hope that WWE would realize their mistake, and give us the War Raiders back. I have a feeling, however, that Erik and Ivar are here to stay. Now, let’s keep our fingers crossed that tonight on Smackdown Live we don’t see Velveteen Dream debut as Purple Fantasy.