30 One-Time-Only WWE Royal Rumble Entrants You Totally Don't Remember
6. 'Razor Ramon' (1997)
Time In Match: 0:17
It is a remarkable statistic that the original Razor Ramon, Scott Hall, has a grand total of zero Royal Rumble match appearances to his name. He was on the card for every event between 1993 and 1996, but always in singles matches with titles on the line (Bret Hart in '93, IRS in '94, Jeff Jarrett in '95 and Goldust in '96). With the final three of those all contesting the Intercontinental Championship, you can see why Hall felt he had no chance of upwards momentum in the WWF and was so eager to accept WCW's mega-money offer to come in as a main eventer.
Indeed, the only appearance of 'Razor Ramon' in the Royal Rumble came eight months after Hall's departure from the company. Vince McMahon woke up one morning with the bright idea that since he owned the intellectual property of the Razor Ramon (and Diesel) character, he could market anyone in that role, showing that he was the man who made Razor Ramon a star, not the man portraying him. McMahon then opted for limited indy wrestler Rick Bognar, a man who was brought to Vince's attention because one of his talent scouts happened to hear him doing a crummy Scott Hall impression at an ECW show. Bognar was hired, fitted for the Razor gimmick and taught a few moves and mannerisms by Jim Cornette. Then the fans took a colossal dump on the whole thing and murdered the angle immediately.
Three months after his debut, Bognar was practically done. He appeared in the 1997 Rumble to fill out the numbers, taking an early bath seventeen seconds in courtesy of oily powerhouse Ahmed Johnson.