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Dans une entrevue pour GiveMeSport, Rick Boogs fait un retour sur son parcours qui l’a mené, contre toute attente, à briller aux côtés de Shinsuke Nakamura à Smackdown.
Boogs rappelle qu’il a joint le Performance Center de la WWE en 2017, mais que des blessures ont ralenti sa progression. Il a tout de même persévéré, travaillant notamment ses promos et son personnage. Sa forte personnalité lui a permis de faire une percée à NXT.
La campagne publicitaire d’Old Spice, diffusée l’an dernier et dans laquelle il a participé, lui a permis – tout en continuant d’être présent dans des galas non télévisés en Floride – de se démarquer davantage pour éventuellement joindre Smackdown.
“There were years then of not getting TV time, but obviously doing Florida shows and all that. Getting reps in, doing PC stuff and maintaining promo work, and all that. It was like just itching, like itching, like ‘use me. Do something with me.’ And ultimately, I believe — I was in an Old Spice campaign and that got me seen by everyone within the company. They decided to call me up from there, and really it worked out great. Like I said, I don’t think it could’ve worked out any better, because I got a taste of it early on when I was inexperienced, and I had years to develop in a sense. And then just got called up and put in a great position paired with Shinsuke. Being on TV every single week, and now we’re rocking and we’re rolling. It’s great.”
Boogs soutient que son énergie débordante – il faisait partie des spectateurs durant la pandémie pour RAW, Smackdown et NXT – a été remarquée, mais faisait peur à certains dirigeants de la WWE. Vince McMahon lui a toutefois demander de rester lui-même, ce qui a été payant à long terme.
“At first, it was funny. The first day we did it, I was more high energy than ever because I was fresh and the whole pandemic was going on, so we weren’t doing anything at the time too. I was just screaming my head off and going crazy. The higher-ups were like, ‘you’ve got to tone it down a little bit. Take it back a notch.’ I was like, ‘eh, we’ll see about that.’ I just kept it up and I heard that Vince wanted it. He was like, ‘no, just let him be himself.’ And then eventually, doing that over and over again and all that, I got a lot of people, especially when I got called up and I was in the locker room with everyone on the regular, they all stressed how much they appreciated the high energy.”
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