Major concern about Viking Raiders' future as Ivar could reportedly be out for a year

As reported earlier in the day, Ivar is scheduled to undergo neck surgery today in Birmingham, Alabama. The surgery is being done to fix an injury caused by the Viking Raider hitting his head on Bobby Lashley's shoulder during the dive from last week's RAW.

Dave Meltzer has now reported on the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio that Ivar could be reportedly out of action for a year or even longer, depending on his injury's seriousness.

What happens to Raymond Rowe on RAW in Ivar's absence?

The lengthy recovery timeline for Ivar isn't a good sign regarding the Viking Raiders' future as WWE could very well send Raymond Rowe, aka Erik, back home until his tag team partner fully recovers.

Meltzer noted that jobbing out the fit Superstar on TV is another known booking decision that the WWE usually reserves for tag teams. In Rowe's case, it has already happened as he was beaten in a squash match by Bobby Lashley on this week's episode of RAW.

Here's what was discussed on the Wrestling Observer Radio with regards to Ivar's future:

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Meltzer: Yeah, that's a bad deal because usually, neck surgery means about a year out. It could be long or even longer. So, it impacts him greatly. It impacts Raymond Rowe a lot too because as you've seen, usually when they have a tag team and one of the guys gets out and is injured, sometimes they'll send the guy home and wait for the other guy to come back, which in this case is a year, or they will just job the other guy out.

Alvarez: That's kind of what they did tonight.

Meltzer: Yeah, in a one minute match. That wasn't promising whatsoever. So, yeah, and then what happens when they do that for a while is that when the team comes back, they are dead. I mean, we have seen a lot of teams with a lot of momentum, not that the Viking Raiders have a lot of momentum, they were still like something.

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Ivar's return comes down to his surgery and how well his rehabilitation phase goes, and we, at Sportskeeda, wish the former RAW Tag Team Champion a speedy recovery.

As always, we'll keep you updated on any new details about his injury status.