The Viking Raiders’ Ivar Recalls First Teaming Up With Erik in ROH

– WWE Superstar Ivar of The Viking Raiders recently spoke to Insight with Chris Van Vliet about his career, forming a tag team with Erik, how Erik is currently recovering, and more. Below are some highlights:

Ivar on being paired with Erik while they were in Ring of Honor: “It was Ring of Honor, it was the 2014 Top Prospect Tournament in Ring of Honor, we’d never met before. And we ended up wrestling in the finals, where I won. I beat Erik in the finals, 2014 Top Prospect Tournament. But then Ring of Honor wasn’t sure what to do with us and they put us together as a team and then we set the world on fire.”

Ivar on how Erik is currently recovering: “He was just here. We just did the meet and greet for the weekends. It’s just, I mean, it’s neck surgery. So yeah, it’s just a matter of time. And everybody’s neck heals differently. So it’s a matter of getting cleared. So that I mean, he’s doing great, physically great. It’s just doctors need to clear him. And he needs to get back to in the ring and so it’ll take some more time.”

On his acclaimed match with Kofi Kingston: “Kofi is an amazing human being. That’s what it comes down to, unselfish, and all the stars aligned. It was the night that started this whole singles run, it was the night that Erik was taken off TV because they discovered atrophy and he needed the neck thing. So we were scheduled for a two out of three falls match with The New Day, that match got scrapped. And then they had they decided to put me and Kofi into a singles match instead, but they didn’t cut our time. So we had the same amount of time as we would have had for two or three falls match. Then I’m like, this is probably my last match because historically, when the one tag guy goes out, both tag guys go out. So I said to Kofi this is probably my last match, I’ll be out with [Erik] while he’s getting fixed up. It’s like, alright, let’s just do it, let’s just do the match, let’s kill it. And that’s what we did. And after the match, I got called over and they said, ‘Hey Ivar, do you mind sticking around in singles stuff while Erik is out?’ Absolutely!”

The Viking Raiders, formerly War Machine, signed with WWE in early 2018. A year later, they won their first WWE tag team gold, becoming NXT Tag Team Champions at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix in January 2019.