Rick Boogs is back on his feet and walking without crutches a mere two weeks after tearing his quad at WrestleMania 38. For those who don’t recall, Boogs attempted to hoist up both Jimmy and Jey Uso during WrestleMania’s first match with the SmackDown Tag Team Championships on the line. His leg gave out, resulting in him being helped to the back by trainers shortly after Shinsuke Nakamura took the pin from the tag champs. He underwent surgery days later and initially posted a video of himself moving around his neighborhood on crutches. Then on Saturday, he showed he was able to start walking while holding the two crutches over his head, showing just how dedicated he is to getting back in the ring.ย
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“10th day after surgery…I asked the Doc when I could stop using crutches, he said whenever I feel up for it. Usually takes people around a month to start weaning off crutches….I just beat biology and became the marvel of modern medicine,” Boogs wrote.ย
The former 24/7 Champion was brought up to WWE’s main roster in May 2021 and has been working alongside Nakamura ever since. Fans (and even some wrestlers) were initially against WWE changing his name from Eric Bugenhagen (he had become quite popular on NXT under that name), but he’s made it his mission to push past that.ย
“I was definitely happy for the most part, and then the only thing that was negative was you’re saying that Rick Boogs was gonna hold me back that name and I accept that as a challenge. Because I don’t think so. I think Rick Boogs is gonna, it’s gonna get way more over in a sense. I think I take that as, ‘Let’s see what we can do with this name [of] Rick Boogs.’ As of right now. I mean, let’s look at the entrance [with] Shinsuke. Right? I’m ‘Rick Boogs’ I’m saying like, what would we have done with Bugenhagen in that sense? ‘My name’s Eric Bu-gen-ha-gen!’ I mean maybe that could have worked but I think Rick Boogs works better in that sense,” Boogs told GiveMeSport late last year.
“So, he had a lot of praise and I’m very grateful for that, and you know, hopefully, I can live up to that,” Boogs said. “I think that’s what I’m doing and I just want to prove him wrong [about] the Rick Boogs schtick.”
