Rick Boogs On How He Was Paired With Shinsuke Nakamura, Original Plan For Him

Rick Boogs says he wasn’t originally supposed to be paired with Shinsuke Nakamura and revealed the original plan for him in WWE. Boogs made his WWE Smackdown debut in May of 2021 as Nakamura’s guitar player and was paired with him until he was injured during their match against The Usos at WrestleMania 38.

Boogs was asked about the pairing in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He noted that it was “totally random” and that he was originally supposed to be part of Alpha Academy. You can see highlights below:

On WWE Not Referencing His Freestyle Background Because Of How Entertaining He Was:

“Well, funny enough, when I first got to the PC, I wasn’t that entertaining. I kind of leaned into being more serious and stuff. Then I kind of lost my mind a year in. I think that’s very common to the PC. And then you just are like I don’t even know what’s gonna happen, I gotta change somehow. Promo classes were great, man, they were long, but they would sometimes put you on the spot.”

On How He Got Paired With Shinsuke Nakamura:

“Totally random. Originally, I was supposed to be with Alpha Academy, I believe. I’m an amateur wrestler, it would have been great too. Freaking Otis! You kidding me? This is great.”

On Shinsuke Leg Sweeping Berto When Berto Stole His Guitar:

“But then they stripped it for no reason!… I think they wanted to make Shin more dark and serious and look where that got him. No disrespect, Shin is awesome.”