10 Most Disastrous Wrestling Debuts Ever
5. Fake Diesel & Razor Ramon
If ever you needed proof of Vince McMahon’s complete and utter lack of shame, here it is.
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash left WWE for WCW in the summer of 1996. It was a seismic event that shifted the Monday Night Wars firmly in WCW’s favour: Hall and Nash were two of WWE’s biggest rising stars at the time, and Ted Turner & co. had secured a huge coup by snatching them from their rivals. Hall and Nash debuted, the nWo formed, and the rest is history. WCW were in the driving seat, and WWE were in trouble.
When Hall and Nash defected, WWE retained the rights to their character names. Thus, Diesel and Razor Ramon continued to exist within the WWE universe, but not as fans knew them. Three months after they’d left the company, announcer Jim Ross took to the ring to announce that Diesel and Razor were “coming home”, much to fans’ confusion.
Hall and Nash were tearing it up in WCW on a weekly basis, and they’d both signed big money guaranteed contracts, so how could they possibly be returning to WWE?
They weren’t. Rick Bognar and Glen Jacobs emerged dressed as Razor and Diesel respectively, and the fans responded with hellfire. JR’s heel act came apart at the seams, and WWE’s attempt at recreating two of their most successful characters with blatant imitations died a miserable death.
It was one of the worst ideas in WWE history, and was fortunately dropped shortly after.