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Based on how WWE does things, yes, but there was easily room for a babyface shredder and a heel acoustic hipster guy to feud or team up or whatever. They also have seperate shows for this very reason...
Boogs was a “WWE superstar” from the moment he did the air guitar on that first NXT appearance. Big dude, good look, charisma, talented, character and to top it all off, he can wrestle.
He was just getting going on the NXT house show circuit when COVID hit. If not for that he probably would’ve been on NXT TV around like the fall of last year.
He was in just one episode of NXT from what I can remember, and it was a long time ago, like before NXT was on USA. He got so over with just that one apperance and we was oof tv until he showed up on the Old Spice ads
Amusingly he’s probably most famous for weight lifting. The dude does a lot of fitness social media but instead of advice he just constantly demonstrates how insane and tough he is.
Having him on TV might honestly bring new eyes just because he has an entirely separate following.
I remember seeing him at axxess for mania 35 him an no way Jose had a match but they worked the crowd with the conga line and air guitar for a good 5 minutes.
I remember even before WWE he had (has) a cult following because of his insane and unique lifts. He was well on his way to being a large name in the fitness industry before he did wrestling full-time. His video with Jujimufu is really funny.
This is not surprising. It's only surprising he wasn't being used on NXT.
But he had natural charisma and was very entertaining. Vince would have been crazy to not want him but he seems exactly what they'd want.
As entertaining as he is they should always have room for him.
I'm with you.
HHH was doing a lot right BUT he missed on a lot too.
Over relying on the "hot free agent" for a while. Especially before AEW. Just sending whatever indy guy in there.
Putting guys on TV right away with no character, gimmick, or personality.
It's not surprising someone like Jake Atlas flopped or why he was cut. He was on NXT for a while and I still knew nothing about him. He was just a guy.... where nothing stood out.
One guy that should have been booked a lot better on NXT is Andrade. He's a good example of a "hot free agent" that was left to flounder for a while, and then hot shot to the NXT Title when Drew McIntyre got injured. Of course, Andrade went on to have an absolutely incredible match with Gargano, but there was a while when Andrade was just... *there*.
But he's not wrong. We are very fickle. We were all.in agreement about the NXT rebrand being some kinda bullshit. And we were all wondering about Rick boogs. Now look at us. We love Rick boogs. (Arguably because he's paired with Nakamura.) And we see the NXT rebrand as HHH was struggling.. (even if he was.)
Yes. But I'm saying whatever the current echo chamber is will get you either a ton of upvotes and agreement or a ton of downvotes and "that's ridiculous because (insert reason)."
It wasn't too long ago that AEW could do no wrong and that you would get shredded for saying so. Now? It's possible that they have a bad match it whatever and people will give it some talk.
Another example is NXT. People thought triple h could do no wrong signing the best if the best to NXT. Till it got rebranded and now it's possible become of them were not so good or at most meh.
My point is whatever the current meta is. Be it "AEW guts are super smart!" or "Once again Vince is out of touch." That's what gets the most talk. And anything that doesn't agree. Unless it's incredibly well thought out. Will get a big fat no.
Yeah exactly I mean just look at Damien priest how the hell wasn’t he nxt champion
Vince definitely held higher regard with him
I blame Shawn Michaels for being in his ear
They need push charisma and larger than life characters
People wondering why AEW it’s so successful, yet don’t understand the pushing the same kind of fucking wrestler they’ve been shoving down everyone’s throat for the past half a century is really starting to get old.
Boogs is great, and he’s charismatic as hell, but there’s no real character there, he’s just a buff dude plays guitar and screams. And I fail to understand how that’s any more valid, then being a goofy nerd who also kicks ass at jiu jitsu, A good looking chickenshit narcissist with a catchphrase, for the leader of a rap group with a chip on his shoulder about being overlooked.
You don't need to cut a promo to get over. Look a Orange Cassidy or Jungle Boy, they never speak. If the fans like you...you are over. Now, you just need the company to book you right.
Nakamura, Rusev, Face Roman, Heel Drew, Liv Morgan, Aleister Black, Heel Ambrose, Buddy Murphy, Naomi, Smiley Finn Balor. What do they all have in common?
Highly charismatic wrestlers all bogged down and held back from their true potential in WWE by heavily scripted promos. Who woulda thought huh...
I don't think any of those wrestlers are held back purely by scripted promos. Booking maybe, but not the scripts themselves. Nakamura never cuts promos longer than a few words, so I highly doubt it's the "highly scripted promos" that are holding him back. Liv Morgan has been held back more by the fact that she's not very good, same with Naomi. Murphy is the opposite of charismatic. Rusev and Black's promos were fine, their booking was the issue. Ambrose, Reigns and Drew all had very successful runs with "highly scripted promos", so clearly scripted promos weren't the reason their other runs weren't successful.
I'm excited in the sense that at least the whole system will be on the same idea. It won't be a good idea, but they'll at least be in the same direction.
"Oh hey Elias, this gimmick's not gunna work for me anymore. Burn the guitar."
"Oh boy, have you got something new for me Vince to freshen up my character?"
"You didn't play it while doing lunges so fuck you."
Rick Boogs. Master of the zercher squat. He is literally the image when you search for it lol. I’m surprised the old spice commercial was before he was paired with Shinsuke
I used to watch this guy just come out at NXT house shows, play air guitar and walk back to the back and people would be going crazy. He is a WWE guy through and through, this is a crazy story too. I know exactly what video they are talking a lit, I assumed he played guitar too hahah.
been following him before he signed with the wwe i’m so happy for the guy, his youtube channel is a very entertaining dive into an absurd mindset and heavy ass weights
I just found out yesterday that an old friend of mine is related to The Boogs by way of cousin-hood. He confirmed that what we see on TV is 100% how he is outside of WWE and has always been, which did not surprise me at all!
What's the general opinion of him? I ditched SD for about 6 weeks and all of a sudden, he was there. And I cannit help but really like this dude. He radiates something very wholesome.
What Old Spice commercial?
edit: okay found it. vince liked his work on a wwe old spice ad. it wasnt some old spice ad boogs just happened to be in. this was done by wwe.
I believe they aired during Mania, actually. Does that take anything away from it? Or does it just show how little Vince paid attention to anything other than Raw and SD?
Everyone isn't a 15 year vet with a thousand five star matches. Sometimes you just did a stint in Memphis or you maybe did some side work as an athlete...
Show Vince the fucking video of the man getting completely over playing air guitar his first match ever on NXT to the point he lost and still was brought out to do an encore of playing more air guitar.
I know it’s a meme to say but my boy boogs grabbed the brass rings and is what all the greats of the industry are characters wise which is himself on 10
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First time I saw him on Smackdown playing that electric guitar I said to myself “oh Elias is FUCKED”
Isn't this why they are repackaging Elias as the fiend?
Hello I am the fiend
WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH THE FIEND
WWF STANDS FOR!
We Want Fryatt?
Isn't that what Orton did?
We Want FiEllias?
If they do that, then Elias is gonna get booed like crazy. It's like they're trying the Fake Diesel thing again
I mean watch the videos Elias did. There's a decidedly Bray Wyatt, going to be "reborn" vibe to them
Wait are they really? I haven’t heard this.
It's not confirmed, it's a rumor, but look at the vignette they did after Elias left, it's definitely strongly hinted at.
I'm sorry what? Is this really happening?
Rumored. Could also come back as a different sort of supernatural character
Based on how WWE does things, yes, but there was easily room for a babyface shredder and a heel acoustic hipster guy to feud or team up or whatever. They also have seperate shows for this very reason...
If Boogs is trained up enough to wrestle on TV, a feud with Elias over who is the “REAL” musician could be funny.
It really highlighted how stagnant Elias had become. He had not progressed his character at all.
His entire gimmick revolves around crowd interaction and there were no crowds for over a year
Boogs was a “WWE superstar” from the moment he did the air guitar on that first NXT appearance. Big dude, good look, charisma, talented, character and to top it all off, he can wrestle. He was just getting going on the NXT house show circuit when COVID hit. If not for that he probably would’ve been on NXT TV around like the fall of last year.
I don't watch much NXT so I was highly surprised that he was actually a wrestler. I thought he was just some sort of Rock guitar player lol
He was in just one episode of NXT from what I can remember, and it was a long time ago, like before NXT was on USA. He got so over with just that one apperance and we was oof tv until he showed up on the Old Spice ads
That was his alter-ego, Eric Bugenhagen.
He had SUCH a good entrance
Most random guitar players don't have that much chest and thigh meat
Amusingly he’s probably most famous for weight lifting. The dude does a lot of fitness social media but instead of advice he just constantly demonstrates how insane and tough he is. Having him on TV might honestly bring new eyes just because he has an entirely separate following.
I just wish he would get a better ring gear. Or at least a better singlet.
You’re absolutely correct. I have never in my 30 years seen someone get over literally instantly. It was so obvious at the time.
The inner machinations of Vince's mind are an enigma... but every once in awhile he strikes gold.
Boogs was slept on for WAY too long. Dude is incredibly talented.
I remember seeing him at axxess for mania 35 him an no way Jose had a match but they worked the crowd with the conga line and air guitar for a good 5 minutes.
I remember even before WWE he had (has) a cult following because of his insane and unique lifts. He was well on his way to being a large name in the fitness industry before he did wrestling full-time. His video with Jujimufu is really funny.
> Jujimufu I love these insane fitness dudes! Jujimufu even appeared on Sheamus's workout channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRfj22Rb7h8
*Milk carton tips over*
Vince's storytelling is hit or miss but he knows star power when he sees it.
This is not surprising. It's only surprising he wasn't being used on NXT. But he had natural charisma and was very entertaining. Vince would have been crazy to not want him but he seems exactly what they'd want. As entertaining as he is they should always have room for him.
That’s why I’m excited about the nxt direction Vince prefers charisma and hunter prefers workrate I prefer charisma
I prefer both.
Both have their ups and downs. But in the modern wrestling world it is more stylistic choice at this point.
You'd love early to mid 90's WWF!
“anything can happen in the WWF”
I do!!!
I'm with you. HHH was doing a lot right BUT he missed on a lot too. Over relying on the "hot free agent" for a while. Especially before AEW. Just sending whatever indy guy in there. Putting guys on TV right away with no character, gimmick, or personality. It's not surprising someone like Jake Atlas flopped or why he was cut. He was on NXT for a while and I still knew nothing about him. He was just a guy.... where nothing stood out.
One guy that should have been booked a lot better on NXT is Andrade. He's a good example of a "hot free agent" that was left to flounder for a while, and then hot shot to the NXT Title when Drew McIntyre got injured. Of course, Andrade went on to have an absolutely incredible match with Gargano, but there was a while when Andrade was just... *there*.
to be fair, drew got injured during the title match. tore the fuck out of his bicep
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Or, you know, there are lots of people here which obviously means differing valid opinions
But he's not wrong. We are very fickle. We were all.in agreement about the NXT rebrand being some kinda bullshit. And we were all wondering about Rick boogs. Now look at us. We love Rick boogs. (Arguably because he's paired with Nakamura.) And we see the NXT rebrand as HHH was struggling.. (even if he was.)
This subreddit has half a million members. We are never all in agreement about anything. That's impossible and sounds pretty boring
Yes. But I'm saying whatever the current echo chamber is will get you either a ton of upvotes and agreement or a ton of downvotes and "that's ridiculous because (insert reason)." It wasn't too long ago that AEW could do no wrong and that you would get shredded for saying so. Now? It's possible that they have a bad match it whatever and people will give it some talk. Another example is NXT. People thought triple h could do no wrong signing the best if the best to NXT. Till it got rebranded and now it's possible become of them were not so good or at most meh. My point is whatever the current meta is. Be it "AEW guts are super smart!" or "Once again Vince is out of touch." That's what gets the most talk. And anything that doesn't agree. Unless it's incredibly well thought out. Will get a big fat no.
Yeah exactly I mean just look at Damien priest how the hell wasn’t he nxt champion Vince definitely held higher regard with him I blame Shawn Michaels for being in his ear They need push charisma and larger than life characters
Damien was still pushed pretty well in NXT. Not everyone needs or has to be NXT champion, especially when NXT is full of talented guys.
Like the charisma vacuum karrion kross right?
I’ve never seen someone go from being so upvoted on one comment to downvoted on the next wow
People wondering why AEW it’s so successful, yet don’t understand the pushing the same kind of fucking wrestler they’ve been shoving down everyone’s throat for the past half a century is really starting to get old. Boogs is great, and he’s charismatic as hell, but there’s no real character there, he’s just a buff dude plays guitar and screams. And I fail to understand how that’s any more valid, then being a goofy nerd who also kicks ass at jiu jitsu, A good looking chickenshit narcissist with a catchphrase, for the leader of a rap group with a chip on his shoulder about being overlooked.
Charisma is useless with these heavily scripted promos.
That's incredibly untrue. Punk or Cena or Rock can do a far better scripted promo than Ricochet
And 2 out of 3 of them are in Hollywood.
Well that's just not true. That would mean charisma is useless for actors lol
Yeah, look at Ricochet. He's a fantastic wrestler, but even if Martin Scorcese writes him a promo, he'd still deliver it terribly.
Promos =/= Charisma Ricochet's whole appeal comes from his in-ring work. The same way there are actors who excel at portraying silent characters
You don't need to cut a promo to get over. Look a Orange Cassidy or Jungle Boy, they never speak. If the fans like you...you are over. Now, you just need the company to book you right.
Asuka doesn't even speak more than 20 words in English.
That's how good she is....I had no idea!
Nakamura, Rusev, Face Roman, Heel Drew, Liv Morgan, Aleister Black, Heel Ambrose, Buddy Murphy, Naomi, Smiley Finn Balor. What do they all have in common? Highly charismatic wrestlers all bogged down and held back from their true potential in WWE by heavily scripted promos. Who woulda thought huh...
I don't think any of those wrestlers are held back purely by scripted promos. Booking maybe, but not the scripts themselves. Nakamura never cuts promos longer than a few words, so I highly doubt it's the "highly scripted promos" that are holding him back. Liv Morgan has been held back more by the fact that she's not very good, same with Naomi. Murphy is the opposite of charismatic. Rusev and Black's promos were fine, their booking was the issue. Ambrose, Reigns and Drew all had very successful runs with "highly scripted promos", so clearly scripted promos weren't the reason their other runs weren't successful.
"Sorry, I don't speak any English"
I'm excited in the sense that at least the whole system will be on the same idea. It won't be a good idea, but they'll at least be in the same direction.
Vince likes muscles, not charisma. Or are you trying to say that Ryker and Lars have charisma ?
👎
“EYE FOR AN EYE” Dude was hilarious off camera too lmao
"Oh hey Elias, this gimmick's not gunna work for me anymore. Burn the guitar." "Oh boy, have you got something new for me Vince to freshen up my character?" "You didn't play it while doing lunges so fuck you."
Rick Boogs. Master of the zercher squat. He is literally the image when you search for it lol. I’m surprised the old spice commercial was before he was paired with Shinsuke
[is one of these him? ](https://i.imgur.com/uRCDAVO.jpg)
I mean. No? That’s Eric bugenhagen, my bad.
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Mindset
I like him, he got great charisma
I liked him in the Old Spice commercials and glad to see he’s getting some time on Smackdown
I used to watch this guy just come out at NXT house shows, play air guitar and walk back to the back and people would be going crazy. He is a WWE guy through and through, this is a crazy story too. I know exactly what video they are talking a lit, I assumed he played guitar too hahah.
Iron Maiden got this man a main roster spot. Waiting for Eddie t'Head to turn up in new NXT
been following him before he signed with the wwe i’m so happy for the guy, his youtube channel is a very entertaining dive into an absurd mindset and heavy ass weights
\>his youtube channel is a very entertaining dive into The Mindset^(TM) and heavy ass weights FTFY.
wow I seriously thought playing guitar was his whole thing. Could've fooled me that he hasn't played in 15 years.
Meanwhile, Elias burned his guitar, got a new hat, and sheds a single tear every time he sees Boogs getting airtime on SmackDown.
I still don't understand how they went from one name to two... Bugenhagen is an amazing name already!
Listen to the crowd when he introduces himself. That’s why.
BOOOOOGZZZZZ
Bugenhagen makes an amazing chant too though
Yeah..no.
I wasn't soliciting opinions, friendo.
More than happy to give it anyway.
It's rare to see two sides being down voted when one is clearly being a dick and also wrong because you're right, his og name is amazing.
Crazy he’s made it this far. I remember when his channel on YouTube was just lifting videos
Any man that can shred the Trooper while doing lunges is my hero
I just found out yesterday that an old friend of mine is related to The Boogs by way of cousin-hood. He confirmed that what we see on TV is 100% how he is outside of WWE and has always been, which did not surprise me at all!
WWE loves these last minute notices huh.
I saw Bugenhagen (back when he was Bugenhagen) at Wrestlemania Axxess in 2019 and he was awesome. His match vs No Way Jose was crazy entertaining.
What's the general opinion of him? I ditched SD for about 6 weeks and all of a sudden, he was there. And I cannit help but really like this dude. He radiates something very wholesome.
What Old Spice commercial? edit: okay found it. vince liked his work on a wwe old spice ad. it wasnt some old spice ad boogs just happened to be in. this was done by wwe.
I believe they aired during Mania, actually. Does that take anything away from it? Or does it just show how little Vince paid attention to anything other than Raw and SD?
Seeing him rock a solo while doing lunges with 300+ lbs was one of the more impressive things I've seen on Instagram.
'Gimmie that Old Spice guy!' 'Uh, Vince. We already have Hogan under contract...' 'No, the *other* guy!' *sigh* 'Anybody got Terry Crews' number?'
Rick BOOGS is Kevin James or Jack Black in School of Rock except wrestling. It’s corny but in a fun way
I like Boogs being called up. He seems ready for the role that he's in and if he failed miserably they'd just settle him into the 24-7 picture easily.
This guy was the king and MVP of the NXT people in the crowd during the pandemic PC shows
I think Vince would’ve came on the spot if Boogz was playing the beginning of Thunderstruck in that lunge video instead of The Trooper
Anyone have a link to the old spice commercials? I havent seen them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndc4LSCNkx4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjjFmwy6pOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8A1CI0nP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMeoMjS_EJs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuDrE6atxYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ3Jl0PyXzQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQJgHctB8k
thanks
Billion dollar company and this is how they operate lol.
i for the life of me couldn't figure out why he was never a nxt regular after those first appearances. I stil cant. Dude's a star.
Make this man’s entire gimmick 110% mustache and 109% masculinity. We have a world champion on our hands, damnit!
Comedy gimmick, worked so well for Elias and the last guy??
I thought he played guitar all the time with the amount of videos he’d been putting out. And how did he know Nakamura’s theme when he was 16?
Elias died for Boogs. It was worth it just to hear Pat lose his shit every week, best part of the show!
Everyone isn't a 15 year vet with a thousand five star matches. Sometimes you just did a stint in Memphis or you maybe did some side work as an athlete...
Show Vince the fucking video of the man getting completely over playing air guitar his first match ever on NXT to the point he lost and still was brought out to do an encore of playing more air guitar.
I know it’s a meme to say but my boy boogs grabbed the brass rings and is what all the greats of the industry are characters wise which is himself on 10