20 Wrestling Gimmicks That Got WEIRD Rip-Offs
14. Razor Ramon & Diesel (‘Fake’ Razor & Diesel)
Imagine John Cena had been far too busy in Hollywood to commit to a year long retirement tour, so Triple H and the creative gang then decided to sign ex-TNA man Josh Alexander, slap Cena's outfit on him and claim it was the same guy. Nobody would buy that, and the audience would be insulted that WWE thought they were thick. Now, picture how people felt in 1996 when "Razor Ramon" and "Diesel" returned to the federation.
Rick Bognar and Glenn Jacobs (the future Kane) dressed up as Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to become the 'Fake' Razor and Diesel. This outrageously stupid move made a mockery of the WWF product. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash were getting over as part of the super-cool nWo in WCW, and they had to be laughing hard at Vince McMahon for thinking this cosplay knock off stuff was a sensible plan.
Yes, WWE ripped themselves off by even trying this chaos.
Poor Jim Ross had to be the one pretending that "Razor" and "Diesel" were the real deal. He'd vowed during several heel promos to bring the fan faves back to the World Wrestling Federation, and JR looked every bit the idiot for alleging that these goofs were somehow superior to those with "artificial body parts" over on the other channel.
Younger? Sure. Better? Not a chance. The WWF realised the error of their ways by early-1997, and the horror show was over for 'Fake' Razor and Diesel. The fed charged people real money to watch them wrestle for the tag belts on pay-per-view at In Your House 12 first.
Refund requests should've been rife.