Eric Bugenhagen, best known for his time in WWE as Rick Boogs, has admitted that he may not be done with wrestling.
Boogs was among many stars released from his contract in September 2023, which was the first round of releases following TKO officially acquiring WWE. Wile other previously released stars went on to sign with major promotions or work the independents, Boogs has remained out of the ring. In an early interview in 2024, Boogs stated that he didn’t ant to continue wrestling:
“No [I don’t want to wrestle again]. When I first decided I was going to do wrestling, pursue it, I had to be all in on something. So like, I was doing strength and conditioning stuff, personal training. I was like, if I’m gonna commit to this other endeavour, I just quit my job. I have a wife and a daughter. I just got unemployed for the sake of you know, getting hungry that I really wanted to make it happen, which my wife was not happy about. She was like, ‘Why did you have to quit?'”
When asked by Chris Van Vliet if he is done with wrestling in a follow-up interview in 2026, Bugenhagen responded, “I don’t think so, man.”
Van Vliet noted that the former WWE star had been away from the ring for almost 3 years, to which Bugenhagen admitted there were some ill feelings:
“I was a little soiled, sour flavor in my mouth.”
Bugenhagen confirmed that he was approached by promotions and conventions to make appearances, but turned them down, which was by design. Asked if his mindset had changed, Bugenhagen noted that a lot can change in 3 years. Seeing the positive side of his hiatus, Bugenhagen noted that he could have picked up an injury in wrestling, which would have affected his chances of being selected for American Gladiators:
“Yeah. I mean, as I get older and wiser. 3 years, you’ve almost graduated high school. That’s a freshman to a senior. Look at how much you’ve developed in that point in time. Or in college, baby-faced freshman to, like, grizzled, a real man. I’m going out to the real world. But I’m also glad, though, because if anything would have happened, it’s hard, man, pro wrestling is tough. What if I had a kink in my shoulder, I can’t do the tryout, I can’t do any push-ups. So I missed the tryout for American Gladiators because of that. Or what if I can go but I got a kink in my shoulder, and I can only do 6 push-ups instead of 100.”
Bugenhagen’s last match was at SummerSlam 2023, where he was part of a battle royal. The match was won by LA Knight.
Rick Boogs was best known as Shinsuke Nakamura’s tag team partner. Boogs played Nakamura’s theme on guitar and accompanied the former US Champion to the ring.
Eric Bugenhagen Talks Life After Wrestling
The former Rick Boogs is back on TV as he is “The Bull” in American Gladiators. Speaking about how he was chosen for the show, Bugenhagen stated that he first reached out to the show, which was followed by a Zoom call. After the call, Bugenhagen was selected for a try-out, which consisted of various fitness challenges:
“So I think it was a week or two [later]. It’s like, we got the in-person tryout. It’s gonna be push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups. There might be some wrestling. So all I did, because I’m a man of specificity, I understand the thing called specificity. Alright, normally I lift heavy barbells. Lots of deadlift variations. I’m like, for this next couple of weeks, all I’m doing is push-ups, planks, sit-ups, and the wrestling part I had. So when I went to that tryout, if Amazon Prime is watching this, Amazon MGM, release the tryout footage. Release the footage. Please put it on YouTube or something like that. The Bull’s tryout, the first thing I did was as many push ups you can do in 60 seconds. I hit 100, or maybe it was 99. After the try-out, it was like you got the most push-ups. I weighed, I think it was 274 or something, 100 push-ups. Then we did pull-ups. I think I got 36 or 37, just put myself over. Sit-ups, I can’t remember, but I did okay with these gym class sit-ups. Hadn’t done those since gym class, PE elementary school. The rope, climb up and down as fast as you can twice in a row. It’s a big rope too, and then a little tussling, like it was sumo wrestling stuff. I mean, I’m a Greco-Roman state champion.”
Featured image: WWE
