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Since starting out together in Ring of Honor in 2014, The Viking Raiders have quickly gone on to become one of the most dominant tag teams in pro wrestling. Erik and Ivar were interviewed on The Bump (H/T: WINC) recently and during the interview, Ivar spoke about how the duo met in Ring of Honor's Top Prospect Tournament
"This is my favorite story. Erik and I have been in the business, like, 10 years before we met. There was a tournament - it was sort of like a top prospect. We ended up meeting in that finals tournament, for the first time ever. Well, I beat him! From there, we just joined forces."
Later on in the interview, Erik talked about his tough upbringing and discussed the stuff he had been involved in while growing up:
"I came up in a pretty rough background. I had a very different outlook on life when I was younger. I was involved in some stuff - like I said, some pretty rough stuff growing up."
Erik opens up about his nasty motorcycle accident and how he almost lost his life because of it
Erik went on to explain how he almost died in a nasty motorcycle accident and added that the doctors had told him that he 'should be dead.'
Erik described how he was told that he might never wrestle again after a surgery on his 30th birthday and how he met Ivar months later:
"I was in a motorcycle wreck that almost killed me. Every medical professional that I talked to said that I should be dead. I went under the operation knife on my 30th birthday. They had to put 16 screws and two titanium plates in my arm. I was told that I may never wrestle again. Six months later, I was teaming up with Ivar, and we were unstoppable. We've taken over the world since then."
After making a name for themselves in Ring of Honor, Erik and Ivar signed with WWE in 2018. They debuted in NXT later that year and quickly won the NXT Tag Team Championships. Erik and Ivar were called up to the main roster in 2019 and are former RAW Tag Team Champions.
