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Rick Boogs On When He Learned He Was Being Paired With Shinsuke Nakamura

December 19, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
WWE Smackdown Rick Boogs Image Credit: WWE/Twitter

Rick Boogs recently discussed working with Shinsuke Nakamura, when he was told they would be paired up, and more. Boogs spoke with GiveMeSport’s Louis Dangoor for a new interview, and you can check out some highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On working with Nakamura: “I love Shin. Shinsuke’s like, he’s like a father figure to me now. He’s like a mentor. Anything that we have going on, I always like to get his two cents. Whether it’s TV, whether it’s live events, tag matches, singles matches for me, character stuff, all of that. I always run it by him. I want to get his feedback on it, because he’s extremely seasoned. He’s been through it all. It’s very helpful for newcomers like me to have such a great mentor.”

On how much advance knowledge he had that he would be paired with Nakamura: “I would probably say less than a day’s notice. First and foremost, it was basically ‘how are we going to mesh together?’ I think that’s instantly, people don’t think of Shinsuke and Rick Boogs being a combo together. I just wanted to see how that magic would play out. And then second of all it was like ‘man.’ He’s had that great WrestleMania moment with Anita Strauss playing his tunes.

“So it was like ‘I’ve got to follow that up now. This epic performance.’ With this little bit of time that I had, a few hours, I tried to get something that was a semblance of his epic tune. Just to not flop with that. And as cliched as it is too, you take it performance by performance, right? Show by show. I think we’re a pretty solid unit now. I’m very comfortable with him and I would like to think that he likes working with Rick Boogs. But it’s impossible to say. He’s just a sweet, humble guy.”

On using elements of his NXT character: “In NXT, my character in a sense, Rik B-U-G-E-Z, I was doing the high-pitched scream. That was one of those things that’s been a staple in my short career. And the inspiration came from Paul Heyman, because in a promo class, he said he had some exercise, some drill that he would put The Rock and Stone Cold threw. Just to see if they could sing like a girl or whatever, take them out of their comfort zone. I was like ‘absolutely, I’ll do that. I have no shame in anything. I’m not embarrassed to try anything.’ If that’s what it takes to take people out of their comfort zone, I’m just going to make that what I do. You’ve got to do what other people don’t do. You’ve got to stand out, one way or the other.

“So with the whole Shinsuke deal, I just busted that out. I’m not going to get rid of the screaming. And in terms of the guitar playing, I think it was just, they were just, the writers were just trying to think of what they could do with someone like me? And like any person, they go on social media and go ‘what’s this person all about?’ Time to time, I’d upload some silly guitar post or something. And they’re like ‘oh, just throw him with Shin and see what happens.’ So that’s the gist of it. I think it kind of worked out really well.”