BWWE Wiki
Advertisement
Erik

On the June 9, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Rowe competed against Mark Henry in a losing effort.

On January 16, 2018, WWE announced that Erik, then going by Rowe, had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the WWE Performance Center. On the April 11, 2018, episode of NXT, he and Hanson, now called the War Raiders, made their television debuts, attacking Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight) and the team of Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli. The War Raiders faced The Undisputed Era at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix on January 26, 2019, where they won the NXT Tag Team Championships.

During the Superstar Shakeup event, Rowe and his partner Hanson would debut on Raw and be renamed Ivar and Erik. They also would be repackaged with the new name "The Viking Experience". The following week the team was renamed to The Viking Raiders.

On the October 14, 2019 episode of Monday Night Raw, Erik would capture the Raw Tag Team Championships alongside his partner Ivar by defeating the team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. At TLC, The Viking Raiders would host an open challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championships and The O.C. would answer the challenge, but the match would end in a double countout. Erik and Ivar would lose the titles to the team of Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy on the January 20, 2020 episode of Monday Night Raw after their reign lasted for 98 days. During the summer, The Viking Raiders would feud with The Street Profits, which would lead to a match between the two teams at Backlash. At the event, the match had never started because both teams would begin fighting in the parking lot and eventually team up as "the Viking Profits" to take out Akira Tozawa and his ninjas.

On the September 7 episode Raw, The Viking Raiders teamed up with Apollo Crews and Ricochet in an eight-man tag team match against The Hurt Business in a losing effort, where Cedric Alexander scored the pinfall over Ricochet. The match was forced to an abrupt ending due to Ivar suffering a legitimate cervical injury during the match. On October 7, Erik would announce that he would be out of action after having surgery on his bicep.

On the April 13, 2021 episode of Raw, Erik along with Ivar, would return and defeat the team of Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. On the June 7 episode of Raw, The Viking Raiders would win a battle royal to determine the number one contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championships. It would be announced that The Viking Raiders would face Raw Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos at Money in the Bank. At the event, The Viking Raiders would be unsuccessful, as Styles and Omos would retain their titles. On the July 19 episode of Raw, alongside Riddle, The Viking Raiders would defeat the team of John Morrison, AJ Styles and Omos. Later that night, it would be announced that The Viking Raiders would face AJ Styles and Omos for the Raw Tag Championships in a rematch on the following week's episode of Raw.

As part of the 2021 Draft, both Erik and Ivar were drafted to the SmackDown brand. On February 19, 2022, at the Elimination Chamber event, they were attacked by The Usos before their match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but on the March 4 episode of SmackDown, they unsuccessfully challenged the Usos for the titles. On the June 24 episode of SmackDown, the Viking Raiders would return with new gear and face paint, and would violently attack The New Day and Shanky, thus turning heel for the first time since 2018. As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, both Erik and Ivar were drafted to the Raw brand. In October 2023, it was announced that Erik was injured. After a year-long hiatus, Erik returned from injury alongside Ivar on the October 14, 2024 episode of Raw, where they defeated Alpha Academy while reverting back to their War Raiders name and gimmick. Two weeks later, they defeated the LWO and The New Day in a triple threat tag team match to become number one contenders to the World Tag Team Championships held by The Judgment Day's Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh. On the November 25 episode of Raw, they failed to win the titles from Bálor and McDonagh after interference from Dominik Mysterio and Carlito.

Advertisement