Alongside Shinsuke Nakamura, Rick Boogs has become a prominent figure on WWE SmackDown.
He’s on TV practically every week, and it’s fair to consider him one of WWE’s breakout stars of the year, considering the fact that he debuted as Joseph Average, or The Nightpanther, on the road to WrestleMania 37.
In an interview with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, Boogs shared his thoughts on his run on the blue brand. In one highlight, he described his relationship with Nakamura by referring to him as a “father figure” who has helped him out along the way.
“Me and Shin, we are just crushing it, he is like a father figure to me,” said Boogs. “He is helping me out, giving me guidance, telling me where to play air drums, to do a powerslide here, it’s great! This is directly from a novel. There is the trials and tribulations, you’ve got your highs and your lows.”
Whereas Boogs initially served as Nakamura’s hype man with his guitar, Boogs and the former WWE Intercontinental Champion have been pairing up in tag team action. Looking ahead to the future, when asked about the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, Boogs expressed his interest in the gold, but he emphasized his happiness with his place on the showw. He called his journey up to this point “like a fairytale.”
“I have no quarrels of where we are,” said Boogs. “The direction, the pace, I can’t reiterate this enough, it’s like a fairytale. Everything has been so great so far and it’s just a matter of yeah, we are going to get those titles. April 2nd or 3rd, in a sold out venue in Dallas, and maybe in front of you.”
Since he arrived on WWE SmackDown, Boogs has stood out as a loud character; his signature yell when he plays Shinsuke Nakamura’s theme song has become a constant part of the show. In the interview, Boogs, who has started to showcase his in-ring skills in recent months, described how he prioritizes having an attention-grabbing personality on TV. He noted fan of Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior as a kid, recalled how he wrestled for the University of Wisconsin so he focused on the physical element of the sport before he later honed in on the character work.
“I’ve been through the highs of amateur wrestling so you know what? I’m going to tune back into these old school promos again, because they are very entertaining,” said Boogs. “From that point on, as I started finishing up with college wrestling, I started to upload a lot of videos of my own through YouTube, Instagram
and all that stuff. I was being crazy and over the top trying to draw inspiration from that old school ’80s promos. I eventually started to get comments where people were like ‘You should try out for WWE, you would be a great professional wrestler, sports entertainer, superstar if you will.’
“Like I said, when I was a kid I was so drawn to the over the top crazy promos, that’s probably why I put so much work into that character’s sense of high energy. I’ve kind of morphed my being into that, because that was what I was all about as a kid.”
“Now it’s like you were saying, some people overlook the character, but that’s the most important thing. It’s what drives people to not change the channel, and I love it.”
