One WWE star has admitted that when they were pitched a light-hearted segment they thought it was going to be the beginning of the end of their time in the company.
In 2020, WWE was forced to think outside the box due to restrictions in place during the COVID pandemic. While The Undertaker’s Boneyard match and the Firefly Funhouse match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt were very well received, the zombie lumberjack match and RETRIBUTION are not looked upon as fondly.
During the pandemic era, The Viking Raiders feuded with The Street Profits. On top of having numerous matches on Raw, the tag teams also took part in a series of non-wrestling contests such as axe throwing, mini golf and a decathlon.
Although fans were entertained by the segments and got to see a different side to The Viking Raiders, the current World Tag Team Champions did not see things the same way. Speaking about the segments with Chris Van Vliet, Ivar admitted he thought it would lead to their release:
“So it was this whole scary time. I feel like half the roster got fired, the lockdown, and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the whole world. It was a scary time. We were told we were doing it and at first, I don’t know, the first hour or two after we were we were told we were like, Oh, this is not good. This is going to be the precursor to you’re out of here.
A lot of times when they take serious characters, or historically when you’ve seen serious characters, and then they take a really sharp turn into the comedy stuff. Then they’re doing that for a short period of time and they’re gone. We’re like all right, well this is the hand we’re dealt, so let’s do the absolute best that we can with it and make sure that they can’t get rid of us because we’re so good at what we do, and that’s kind of what we did.”
“I Was Proud Of What We Did”: Ivar On WWE Comedy Segments
Continuing, Ivar stated that although he believes the segments were designed for The Street Profits’ benefit, he is proud of what they achieved in that time period:
“I felt like originally, that whole feud, it wasn’t for us. It was for The Street Profits, because that’s their thing, or at least at the time that was their thing. They’re the comedic, funny tag team. So it just felt like everything was for them, which is fine, totally fine. It is what it is. So it was our job to do the best that we could in that role, and I think we did.
I can watch it back, I see memories of it and stuff, or just randomly running the fans. It’s funny because I’ve heard a lot of people online talk trash about that stuff, never one to my face. But I was proud of the fun, comedic stuff that we did.”
Now known as The War Raiders, Ivar discussed his recent return to WWE.
In other news, a WWE Hall of Famer spoke about the idea of a wrestling offseason.
Over WrestleMania weekend, The War Raiders spoke out on their recent name change.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit the source and leave a h/t to ITR Wrestling.