A new WWE tag team has caught the attention of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fans for the wrong reasons. The Viking Experience’s entrance video seems to be be using art assets from Bethesda’s 2011 RPG.
Twitter user AdamHatesLife shared images pointing some imagery shown during the team’s entrance. Specifically, a shield projected on one of the LED walls during the entrance looks exactly like the Iron Shield item from Skyrim.
https://twitter.com/AdamHatesLife/status/1118133685566439424
Formerly known as the War Raiders, The Viking Experience consist of wrestlers Ivar and Erik. The team currently holds the NXT tag team championship. They made their Raw debut this Monday joining the Revival to fight Aleister Black, Ricochet, and RAW tag team champions Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was Bethesda’s most recent numbered release in their The Elder Scrolls franchise. The game released in 2011 to critical acclaim and strong sales. The game remains popular to this day thanks in part to a strong modding community. In 2017, Bethesda released Skyrim on Nintendo Switch, making it the first Bethesda game released on a Nintendo console since 1991’s Home Alone.
The WWE art teams use of the image is most likely a mistake. An image of the said Skyrim item is the first thing that pops up when searching for “iron shield” on Google. However, said image is still clearly marked as from Skyrim. This feels like a massive oversight on the WWE’s part.
Copyright issues with entrances have gotten the WWE in legal trouble before. In 2013, Papa Berg lodged a lawsuit against WWE chairman Vince McMahon, claiming that the WWE had misappropriated his songs. Berg claimed to have written a number of entrance songs for wrestlers for the company who’s copyrights he.
With this in mind, the WWE will likely want to avoid any legal issues with Bethesda and parent company Zenimax.
