Ivar and Erik of the War Raiders had missed a significant amount of time due to injuries, as Erik got neck surgery in February 2022, and Ivar went down with a spinal injury earlier this year.
They returned on the October 14th episode of Raw. It turns out that they were originally slated to come back on the September 9th Raw episode in Calgary, which featured an appearance by Bret Hart.
This is something Ivar discussed while appearing on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. Here are the highlights:
On his singles run in 2023 before getting injured: “When I had this opportunity to do the singles run, it was going well. I had a conversation with Triple H where he said, ‘Hey, how about we start like, pulling back off of the heavy viking stuff, slowly, so slowly peeling some of those layers off so we can tell more stories with you.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ So as we started to do that, I got hurt again.”
On the original plans for their return: “Erik and I were ready to come back. We were actually scheduled to return in Calgary. The Calgary Raw. At the last second, they pulled our travel and said they were gonna hold off on it. They said nothing but, ‘We’re just gonna hold off for better creative.’…..The next week, we get a phone call, ‘Hey, how do you guys feel about coming back as The War Raiders?’ We were like, ‘Yeah, that sounds good.’”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight With Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
