Triple H responsible for "slowly peeling" major layers of popular WWE team, reveals 40-year-old star

WWE and Triple H have been preparing for the premiere of RAW on Netflix in January 2025. Meanwhile, Ivar recently discussed a conversation he had with Triple H before returning with Erik as The War Raiders.

Under Vince McMahon's leadership, the duo were known as The Viking Raiders after their main roster call-up in 2019. They enjoyed a period of success as a tag team before Erik suffered an injury in late 2023, followed by Ivar's injury in May 2024.

Both superstars returned in October of this year and were repackaged as The War Raiders. Ivar and Erik defeated The Judgment Day's Finn Balor and JD McDonagh on the December 16, 2024, edition of WWE RAW to win the World Tag Team Championship.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on INSIGHT, the War Beard recalled a conversation with Triple H where they discussed transitioning him away from the heavy "Viking" persona to explore more diverse storylines. However, Ivar's injury and subsequent return plans were unexpectedly delayed.

"When I had this opportunity to do the singles run and it was going well, I had a conversation with Triple H where he said, 'Hey, how about we start pulling back off of the heavy Viking stuff, 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, and then Erik and I were ready to come back," he said. [H/T: CVV]

The 40-year-old WWE Superstar added:

"And then the next week, we [Ivar and Erik] got a phone call, 'Hey, how do you guys feel coming back as The War Raiders?' And we were like 'Yeah that sounds good. That sounds really good.'" [H/T: CVV]

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Ivar comments on serious injury before WWE return

Before returning as The War Raiders, Ivar suffered a serious neck injury during his match against Oba Femi for the NXT North American Championship in April 2024. The 40-year-old WWE star candidly discussed his journey to recovery from the career-threatening injury.

During the same interaction with Chris Van Vliet on INSIGHT, Ivar disclosed that his herniated disc had shifted away from his cervical cord, minimizing the severity of his symptoms and making surgical intervention less likely.

"This one, the herniation happened, instead of shooting in towards the cervical cord, it went out away from it. So he was pretty sure. Because my symptoms weren’t too bad, we could probably rehab it without having to do surgery. And if we did have to do surgery, he knew a different surgeon who would go in through the back and just shave the herniation down arthroscopically, which wouldn’t require fusion," he stated.

Fans will have to wait and see if The War Raiders manage to hold onto the World Tag Team Championship for a significant period.