Bruce Prichard Explains Why WWE "Recast" Razor Ramon And Diesel
In 1996, WCW planted the seeds for the beginning of the Monday Night War when they officially signed both Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to contracts. Hall and Nash left the WWE as Razor Ramon and Diesel, two major stars with big roles on WWE television, and were an integral part in the success of WCW in the late 90s.
After Hall and Nash came to WCW, WWE thought they had a great idea in trying to recast both Razor and Diesel using two other people not named Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Being backstage with WWE at the time that decision was made, Bruce Prichard spoke about the fake Diesel and Razor Ramon ideas, and where the idea originally came from on the latest episode of Something to Wrestle With.
"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."
Scott Hall revealed during an interview with Eric Bischoff that he's still making six figures from his nWo merchandise with WWE, proving his decision to leave WWE was well worth it. The infamous "Curtain Call" took place the night Hall and Nash wrestled their last match in WWE at Madison Square Garden, and Hall also said during that conversation that he thought Triple H was thrown under the bus by Shawn Michaels during that time.
In place of Scott Hall as Razor Ramon came Rick Bognar, an ECW talent at the time. Prichard spoke about who came up with the idea for Bognar to be the fake Razor, saying Paul Heyman was the one with the idea.
"This was actually a Paul Heyman idea," Prichard said. "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 sh**.' 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 bitch, we may have a guy. I said 'Hey, get me Rick Bognar.' I think Rick was in Calgary at the time."
When asked whether or not the fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon were the worst gimmicks in the history of WWE, Prichard had this to say:
"Those were great gimmicks," Prichard said. "There was no fake Diesel and fake Razor. There is Razor and Diesel played by different people."
On the podcast, Prichard also spoke about one of the faces of wrestling commentary, Jim Ross. Prichard shared some harsh words for the AEW commentator, stating that Ross loves to be the hero and never wanted to be portrayed as a heel announcer at any time while he was with WWE.
"I think Jim would like to be the champion and the play-by-play guy, and the biggest babyface in the company," Prichard stated. "I say that and I'm not being facetious in that. I just think that Jim would like to be John Wayne. In that regard, Jim wants to be the guy that kills everybody in the end and walks away with the leading lady, and be the top guy. And I don't think Jim likes to be booed. Jim wants you to love him, and I think in that regard, Jim wasn't comfortable being a heel. Some people don't embrace the hate."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle With with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.