The Viking Raiders make surprising return to WWE NXT
Erik and Ivar of The Viking Raiders have made an unexpected return to WWE NXT 2.0 on the latest episode of the show.
The duo held the NXT Tag Team Championship once during the brand's black-and-gold era. They're not the only stars on the main roster to recently show up on NXT 2.0. Former SmackDown Women's Champion Natalya is currently involved in a program with Cora Jade. Meanwhile, Dolph Ziggler, Dominik, and Rey Mysterio also appeared on the show several weeks ago.
The Viking Raiders initially showed up during a backstage segment with Rodderick Strong, Malcolm Bivens, and The Creed Brothers of Diamond Mine. Later in the show, they took on Edris Enofe and Malik Blade in their first match on NXT since 2019.
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#WWENXT @Erik_WWE @Ivar_WWE @DiamondMineWWE https://t.co/FL8tQ6YXJY
Erik and Ivar won the bout and shook hands with their opponents after the victory. The duo will face The Creed Brothers on next Tuesday's NXT Spring Breakin'.
WWE rejected The Viking Raiders' idea to be the modern-day version of The APA
The Viking Raiders are one of the top tag teams in WWE today. They have held tag team gold on Monday Night RAW and on NXT. They competed in a lot of memorable bouts on the developmental brand.
Speaking on The Universal Wrestling Podcast, former WWE writer Chris Dunn stated that the duo pitched to the creative team to become a new version of JBL and Ron Simmons' APA, but it was rejected.
“We had a lot of tag teams pitch that [APA idea]. The best one I heard that I tried to advocate for was for The Viking Raiders to have one. Those guys are so entertaining and, for my money, arguably the best tag team going right now. Unfortunately, it kind of got scrapped. So many tag teams wanted to be The APA,” Dunn said.
The #VikingRaiders lay waste to @Edris_Enofe & @MalikBladeWWE on #WWENXT!
@Erik_WWE @Ivar_WWE https://t.co/OXW7sFCwaM
The former RAW Tag Team Champions are currently on SmackDown, but they don't have a major storyline on the blue brand yet. However, they had a title match against The Usos several weeks ago. It would be interesting to see how Erik and Ivar fare against Julius and Brutus Creed next week's Spring Breakin' special.