Source: Sullivan Books
Recently, author Kevin Sullivan spoke with Rick Bognar who is better known as the Fake Razor Ramon from WWE’s mid-to-late 1990s period. The interview provided many highlights and we encourage you to read the entire interview at this link and to follow Sullivan on Twitter. You can read highlights of the interview below. Enjoy!
How did you learn you were going to be the new Razor Ramon?
I got the tryout from Bret Hart as Rick Titan. I wrestled Frank Stalletto. I was stiff with him because I wanted to make an impression on the office.
I had a match with Tracy Smothers planned, and thought it would be a really good match. But Vader went too long and the second match never happened.
Two weeks later, I was sitting around Calgary thinking nothing would happen. Then Vince called me and left me a message on the answering machine. I was pretty excited. He said, “I want you to be the new Razor Ramon. People want Razor Ramon back and I own the trademark, the copyright,” and so on …
I figured it was either going to bury my career or really enhance it. So, I agreed, mostly because I wanted my chance to get into the WWF.
What did you expect from your run as Razor Ramon?
I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I asked Vince if we could evolve the character and make it into something of my own after a while. He seemed to agree, but it didn’t really go that way.
Do you think the character deserved more of a chance?
They would’ve had to do something really tricky to make it work, and I don’t know what it is. I mean Scott Hall, those are pretty big boots to fill. They could’ve come up with something; they didn’t give it much of a chance … maybe because there was a bit of disconcerting feelings with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash going to WCW.
Does it bother you that most American fans remember you most as Fake Razor?
It bothered me a little at the time, but I saw things evolve and I wanted to get out of Japan because I always had the dream of being a star in the U.S. I wrestled in ECW as Rick Titan before that and wrestled in Japan as Big Titan. Then I ended up going back to New Japan Pro Wrestling after WWE and got pushed as a bigger star and made more money than ever before, so in a way it helped my career, but it didn’t last as long as I hoped it would last in the States.