Ivar and Erik made their return on Monday’s Raw, quickly defeating American Alpha (Akira Tozawa and Otis). It was quickly made clear that the duo have now reverted to the names they used in NXT, the War Raiders. As a result of their win, they have now advanced in a new tournament to crown number one contenders for the World Tag Team titles.
Earlier in the show, Finn Balor confronted Adam Pearce, asking when he’d get his rematch against Damian Priest. Pearce told him that things were over between the two, and now it’s time to focus on defending the World Tag Team titles with JD McDonagh.
The War Raiders had been out of action as a team since last year when Erik announced he was recovering from neck fusion surgery. Ivar continued to wrestle as a single until this past May when he announced that he was dealing with a “very serious injury”. Valhalla is currently pregnant with her and Erik’s second child.
The Viking Raiders became the latest in an increasingly long line of NXT graduates who have been relegated to this show, beating the thrown together team of Titus O’Neil and No Way Jose in a nothing match.
Sarah Logan then made it two defeats in as many weeks on Main Event, losing to Natalya in a decent bout to close the show.
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The Viking Raiders defeated Titus O’Neil & No Way Jose (4:03)
Well, it was only a matter of time: War Machine had a goofy name change within minutes of joining the main roster and now, here they are on Main Event.
Complete with loincloths, face paint and knock-off Road Warrior shoulder pads, they came out looking every bit like The Ascension v2. Sad, but true. Unfortunately, the match was a meager offering to boot.
They cut the ring in half early on, beating down on Jose. O’Neil got the hot tag and he cleaned house. Then, Ivar stemmed the flow, redressed the balance, and they hit the Viking Experience on Jose for the win.
It defies belief that they cannot make room for these former NXT stars on a three-hour episode of Raw, but logic rarely comes into it these days.
Natalya defeated Sarah Logan (8:50)
This was, by contrast, pretty solid as they gave it a lot longer to breathe than they normally do on Main Event. Natalya was a little frustrated that the crowd wasn’t getting behind them, because there was a lot of good mat and submission work here.
The commentary felt particularly clunky throughout this one, too. At one point, Byon Saxton praised Logan for having the Sharpshooter “well scouted” – a move that is about as subtle to apply to an opponent as a shark attack.
The Sharpshooter was really what the match was built around, though. At every turn, Natty tried to apply it and Logan was quick to escape it. Logan had some submission moves of her own, but eventually succumbed to the finisher, tapping immediately.
Logan is certainly still a little rough around the edges, but if she worked nine minutes with Natalya every night, she’d quickly get even better.
A week after they debuted on the main roster as The Viking Experience, it appears that the former War Raiders have a new tag team name.
The NXT Tag Team Champions are now being called The Viking Raiders on WWE.com. The name is a mix of their old NXT name and the name they used when they joined Raw in the Superstar Shake-up last week.
The Viking Raiders are still listed individually as Ivar (formerly known as Hanson) & Erik (Rowe).
On last week’s Raw, Ivar & Erik teamed with The Revival to defeat Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Ricochet & Aleister Black in an eight-man tag match. Ryder & Hawkins are the current Raw Tag Team Champions, and Ivar & Erik hit Fallout on Ryder to get the win.
Black, Andrade, and Zelina Vega were initially announced as joining Raw in the Superstar Shake-up but are now moving to SmackDown. Cesaro is joining the Raw roster.
War Raiders officially made the move to Raw tonight, albeit under new names.
The duo were introduced on Raw tonight under the tag team name The Viking Experience, with Michael Cole noting that they were the NXT Tag Team champions. Rowe is now under the name Erik while Hanson is now known as Ivar.
They teamed up with The Revival in their debut match, defeating the team of Ricochet, Aleister Black and Raw Tag Team champions Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. Ivar scored the pinfall for his team, laying out Ryder with Fallout.
War Raiders were able to keep their individual names when they joined NXT in early 2018, though their original War Machine tag team name was tweaked. They won the NXT tag team titles from Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix on January 26.
They went on to retain the titles at TakeOver: New York, defeating the team of Aleister Black and Ricochet.
Note: The following contains spoilers from tonight’s NXT tapings.
Ricochet and Aleister Black are the winners of this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
They defeated the team of Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler in the main event of tonight’s NXT tapings at Full Sail University, with Ricochet hitting the 630 for the win. As a result, they will face the NXT Tag Team champions War Raiders at TakeOver: New York on April 5.
After the match, the duo were awarded the trophy. The War Raiders came down and had a stare down with their future challengers. Once that was over, Ricochet took the mic and said that while tonight would be their final appearance at Full Sail, they always will be NXT.
The tournament started on the last set of tapings back on February 20. The Forgotten Sons defeated Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch as well as Moustache Mountain to advance to the finals. Aleister Black and Ricochet meanwhile defeated Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, as well as the reformed DIY.
Previous winners of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic include Finn Balor and Samoa Joe, The Authors of Pain and the Undisputed Era.
– Kona Reeves (w/ Vanessa Borne) defeated Stacey Ervin Jr.
It was a return to action by Ervin who had a scary bump at the previous TV tapings. Post match, Borne felt bad for Ervin which only led Reeves to rough him up some more before Ervin fought his way out of it.
– Jessie defeated Chelsea Green after a stomp to the back
– Brennan Williams defeated Eric Bugenhagen
Brennan won after hitting a spin kick. The big man has been looking good lately, but the crowd still loves Bugenhagen.
– We had an In-ring interview with the former Jordan Omogbehi, the 7’3” former basketball player from Nigeria now known as Tomu.
– Adrian Jaoude and Cezar Bononi defeated Denzel and Mansoor
The Brazilians were just too much for the fun loving duo.
– We got an encore air guitar performance by Bugenhagen as he went all over the gym rocking out with the crowd.
– Matt Riddle defeated Dominik Dijakovic
This was a great match. Riddle went for the ankle lock early and often while Dom powered out and hit big moves of his own for separation. Riddle finally forced the submission via ankle lock after escaping a chokeslam attempt.
– The Forgotten Sons (Blake and Ryker) defeated The Street Profits
The Sons won after an assisted hold up dropkick with Blake coming off the top. Crowd was into this one.
Belair fought her way out of the clutch a few times, but Baszler was relentless and finally got the submission. Post match, the champ kept attacking Belair until Mia Yim made the save.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The War Raiders defeated The Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly)
This featured great action throughout. The Raiders were just too much for the Era, winning with the assisted power slam before celebrating with the crowd.
Good match here. Martinez has been consistent since arriving and Williams has all the tools. Martinez hit a spinning kick followed by a layout slam to win.
– Deonna Purrazzo defeated Chelsea Green
Purrazzo has a new look with silver hair. A pendulum snap suplex got her the win.
– Adrian Jaoude (w/ Cezar Bononi) defeated Eric Bugenhagen
A distraction by Bononi allowed Jaoude to roll Bugenhagen up.
– Kassius Ohno defeated Denzel Dejournette
Decisive victory with the elbow. After the match, Bugenhagen made the save to protect Dejournette from any further damage.
The crowd was all over Barthel and Aichner, chanting “chicken” at them. The fans were thoroughly behind Lorcan and Burch. Lorcan and Burch hit atomic and inverted atomic drops on both men at one point.
A double-team team spike DDT got Lorcan and Burch the win.
Hot tag to Yim who cleaned up and won with the Protect Ya Neck
– Matt Riddle defeated Babatunde
The giant had his way with Riddle early on, but Riddle was able to counter the side slam into a pair of flying knees and use the Bromission to make Babatunde tap out.
– NXT Tag Team Champions War Raiders & Aleister Black defeated The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker)
Great finish to this one as Black hit a doomsday meteora.
– Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza defeated The Mighty
This match got plenty of time. The Mighty controlled the smaller men, but Mendoza got the hot tag and ran wild before tagging in Carrillo for a double-team wheelbarrow Code Red for the win.
– Kavita Devi defeated Reina Gonzalez
Devi won with a Bubba Bomb.
– Mohammed Fahim vs. Mansoor Al-Shehail ended in a no contest as Lars Sullivan destroyed them both with the Freak Accident. Sullivan then issued an open challenge.
– Lars Sullivan defeated Babatunde Aiyegbusi
A hoss fight of all hoss fights. They went at each other with chops and shoulder blocks, but Sullivan was just too much for the giant Babs. Sullivan hit the Freak Accident for the win.
– Vanessa Borne & Kona Reeves defeated Kacy Catanzaro & NXT North American Champion Ricochet
Borne had her feet on the ropes to steal the pin on Catanzaro.
– Adam Cole defeated Stacey Ervin Jr.
Cole hit the Last Shot to the back of the head to pick up the win.
– Io Shirai & Kairi Sane defeated Chelsea Green & Lacey Evans
Green was doing the Hot Mess act with smeared lip stick and a lace veil. Evans went around ringside with Purell and even tried to use it on Sane before getting slapped.
Shirai and Sane used stereo submissions for the win.
– Kassius Ohno defeated Saurav Gurjar
Ohno won with the rolling elbow.
– Aleister Black & War Raiders defeated The Forgotten Sons
This had Excellent action. Black hasn’t missed a beat and is ready for his TakeOver match. Everyone looked great and hit ring-rattling moves. Black hit the Black Mass for the victory to send everyone home happy.
Two matches were taped for the next episode of NXT television prior to TakeOver: Chicago.
In matches that were both set up last week, Bianca Belair defeated Dakota Kai and War Raiders defeated The Mighty (TM61). Belair vs. Kai was taped second and was said to be good and competitive. The crowd was also into War Raiders.
Belair interrupted an interview with Kai on last week’s show. Belair said she’s the person who should have been being interviewed, that she’s the best, and that Kai needs to get to the back of the line after failing against Shayna Baszler. Kai then challenged her to a match.
War Raiders responded to The Mighty putting the tag team division on notice by destroying an enhancement team and saying they’ll show Shane Thorne & Nick Miller what mighty really is.
When TakeOver went off the air, Candice LeRae helped Johnny Gargano to the back after his street fight loss against Tommaso Ciampa:
NXT will follow up on TakeOver when they return to Full Sail University for TV tapings this coming Thursday.
The Medium News: Now called War Raiders, War Machine made their NXT television debut and laid out Heavy Machinery and Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli
The Little Beaver-sized News: In between the six video packages, Kairi Sane also won her match.
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The show began with the first of many video packages, this one being a recap of the full TakeOver: New Orleans card.
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Kairi Sane defeated Lacey Evans
This match was set up last week when Evans cut a promo about how she was a proper lady, unlike Sane and others. Evans was not liking being outclassed in the ring early and yanked Sane down by her hair to take over. Evans hit a slingshot elbow, which looked good.
Evans sarcastically asked Sane if she was okay before she laid in forearms to the chest. Evans got to look better here than most of her NXT matches, even the ones she won. She shoved Sane into the ropes, but Sane exploded off of them with an Interceptor.
Sane hit the flying Kabuki elbow for a near fall and an Insane Elbow for the win.
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We then got a video package for the six-way ladder match for the North American Championship, won by Adam Cole.
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We got back-to-back Cole video packages as the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic finals/NXT Tag Team Championship match was showcased, which was won by Cole & Kyle O’Reilly when Roderick Strong turned on Pete Dunne.
Cathy Kelley did a post-match promo with Undisputed Era. Well, she tried to. Before Cole could speak, Strong whispered in his ear and they all went back into their locker room.
We then got an interview with The Authors of Pain, which was after their Raw debut. Akam said this was not about Paul Ellering, this was about how they just destroyed the first-ever SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Ellering walked up and said he devised all the plans to make them successful. Rezar told him his chapter has ended.
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Then we got a video package recapping the phenomenal Johnny Gargano-Tommaso Ciampa match. If you didn’t watch TakeOver, it’s well worth your $9.99 just for this match and you owe it to yourself to go check it out.
Gargano will be on NXT next week.
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Guess what? We had another video package! This one was about Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler, which Baszler won to become the seventh NXT Women’s Champion.
After the match, Baszler was interviewed and said you don’t get to jump on and off her bandwagon. She knows who was with her and against her from the start. She said things will change and wrestling in the NXT women’s division isn’t going to be about who gets the most compliments on their hair and outfit, it will be about who the best wrestler is.
They showed Moon debuting on Raw and then doing a promo talking about how happy and excited she was. She said her biggest regret is that she left Baszler with the rest of the NXT women’s division.
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We got a video package for every other match, so why not the title match? We had a video package for Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Aleister Black, where Black won the NXT Championship.
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A quick video of No Way Jose debuting on Raw and The IIconics arriving on SmackDown aired.
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Next week: Lars Sullivan faces Killian Dain.
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Heavy Machinery vs. Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli ended in a no contest
Hey, a match! I almost forgot what these looked like. Moss & Sabbatelli are going through the longest breakup this side of Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy. Murphy is finally doing something two years later, while Blake is still floundering. Perhaps Moss & Sabbatelli should take note of that.
A four-way brawl broke out, which Heavy Machinery got the best of. Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic did a version of the Bushwhacker stomp before squishing Sabbatelli’s head in between their stomachs. As Knight went after Moss, Sabbatelli punched him in the back of the head and the heels took over.
Moss actually caught Knight on a crossbody and slammed him down, which was very impressive. Knight surprisingly used his speed to avoid Moss and Sabbatelli and made the tag to Dozovic. Dozovic ran wild on both — literally running from corner to corner with big splashes before using the Caterpillar on Sabbatelli.
Suddenly, the War Raiders (War Machine) ran in and assaulted all four men. Called Rowe and Hanson, they decimated both teams and stood tall after using the Fallout on Sabbatelli.
So, that does it for this week. The show was skippable unless you want to see the War Raiders’ debut. Until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
War Machine arrived on NXT television and got their WWE team name at tonight’s pre-TakeOver tapings in New Orleans.
Ray Rowe and Hanson interrupted a match between Heavy Machinery and Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss, destroying both teams in the process. It was revealed that they’ll be using “War Raiders” as their name.
The other match taped tonight was Kairi Sane vs. Lacey Evans. Sane won after hitting her Insane Elbow.
Sane vs. Evans was advertised in advance for Wednesday’s episode of NXT TV, and the War Raiders’ debut should air as well. The show will also feature video packages and interviews from the fallout of TakeOver: New Orleans.
After Monday and Tuesday’s post-WrestleMania editions of Raw and SmackDown, there will be NXT TV tapings at Full Sail University this coming Wednesday. The next TakeOver special is scheduled for Chicago on June 16th as part of Money in the Bank weekend.
