WWE’s Bruce Prichard: There Was No 'Fake' Razor Ramon & Diesel - We Recasted
“We could put anybody we want in there, no different than a movie and a television show.”
One of the most infamous angles in WWE history was when ‘fake’ Diesel and Razor Ramon turned up in 1996, in the wake of the originals leaving for WCW.
But according to Bruce Prichard on the Something to Wrestle With podcast, there were no ‘fakes’, WWE simply recast the characters:
“It was spurned over a telephone call one weekend over the fact that we owned Razor and Diesel,” Prichard said. “We created Razor and Diesel. We could put anybody we want in there, no different than a movie and a television show. You look at BeWitched, how many Darrin Stephens were there? A lot of different television shows have had a lot of different characters play title characters before and they just put them in with no explanation at all.”
Glen Jacobs would take on the Diesel persona, whilst ECW talent Rick Bognar would become The Bad Guy, apparently at the suggestion of Paul Heyman: “This was actually a Paul Heyman idea. Paul Heyman says, ‘I’ve got a guy sitting in the ECW locker room who does a better Razor Ramon than Scott Hall could ever do!’ That’s a quote, I said ‘Really? Well s***.’ We were just talking one day and he told me about this guy Rick Bognar, and how he would always come in and do a Razor imitation.
“We were talking and I’m like, well, by God, that’s a coincidence. Paul told me about it before we were going to do the Razor – Diesel gimmick, and I recalled that and it was very recent in those conversations. And said, son of a b****, we may have a guy. I said ‘Hey, get me Rick Bognar.’ I think Rick was in Calgary at the time.”
The angle sank like a stone, with WWE fans outright rejecting the ‘new’ Razor and Diesel, whilst Nash and Hall in WCW looked even cooler by default. But were fake Diesel and Razor the worst characters in WWE history?
“Those were great gimmicks,” Prichard said. “There was no fake Diesel and fake Razor. There is Razor and Diesel played by different people.”
H/T: Wrestling Inc.
