By early 1997, even WWF management had soured on the idea of Rick Bognar playing the role of Razor Ramon. The character had been brought back during the last few months of 1996, with Vince McMahon apparently reasoning that anybody could pull of the 'Bad Guy' persona. Of course, that proved to be false. Fans did not take to Bognar the same way they had Scott Hall. Even though he was going nowhere by January, Bognar was called upon to make up the numbers in the Royal Rumble match. It's evident from crowd response that people were not enthused when the bogus Ramon made his way through the curtain. There were problems with the countdown clock, meaning fans were suddenly presented with a wrestler they had little time for to begin with. Lasting a grand total of 17 seconds, the 'Fake' Razor Ramon was promptly chucked out by Ahmed Johnson. As if Bognar needed any indication of his standing on the roster at that time, he was used as a complete throwaway entrant in the yearly bout. Johnson barely even broke up his brawl with Crush to throw Razor out of the match and pretty much out of the WWF.