Backstage WWE Superstar Shakeup Notes On Lars Sullivan And Vince McMahon Changing War Raiders' Names

By Marc Middleton

- There was some confusion on Lars Sullivan's roster change in the Superstar Shakeup as WWE indicated during Monday's RAW that The Freak had joined the red brand. He also had the RAW logo next to his name on the WWE website after destroying Rey Mysterio, who also came to RAW in the Shakeup.

WWE then announced on SmackDown that Lars had joined the blue brand roster. He attacked R-Truth on SmackDown and remains on the blue brand roster. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the plan was always for Lars to appear on both TV shows this week.

- The decision to change the name of the WWE NXT Tag Team Champions from The War Raiders to The Viking Experience was a Vince McMahon call, according to Meltzer on Observer Radio. Now that they have joined the RAW roster in the Superstar Shakeup, Hanson is known as Ivar while Rowe is now known as Erik.

There was speculation on the "War" being dropped from the name due to obvious reasons, but Meltzer said that 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 RAW. As noted, one point the team was scheduled to be called The Berzerkers, but the name was changed to The Viking Experience as they got closer to the debut.

See Also:
Updated WWE Rosters After The 2019 Superstar Shakeup

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross fueled the "War" speculation earlier this week on Twitter when he suggested that the word would not fly in WWE in 2019. It should be noted that WWE refers to Ember Moon as The War Goddess and they have the WWE NXT "Takeover: War Games" events each year.

Ross 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"

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