Rick Boogs Wants To Prove Chris Jericho Wrong About WWE Name Change

Rick Boogs has been the man of many name changes during his WWE career so far. The former amateur wrestler used his real name Eric Bugenhagen during his first couple of years with WWE after signing a developmental deal in 2017. He changed to Rik Bugez in 2019, though, and he was repackaged again in May of this year as Rick Boogs ahead of his debut on SmackDown as Shinsuke Nakamura's guitar-playing hype man. 

One wrestler who wasn't a fan of Boogs' name change was All Elite Wrestling's Chris Jericho, who said on a July edition of Keepin' It 100 that 'Boogs' sounded like a "f*cking booger."

"I hate the fact they changed his name from Bugenhagen which is one of the coolest names. It was Bugenhagen! It was [Eric] Bugenhagen. That's a cool f*cking name, man. 'Boogs' sounds like a f*cking booger. I think he's super entertaining, very hyper. I think he would have a chance to do something if they were to give him his name, Bugenhagen," Jericho said.

Several months later, Boogs finally responded to Jericho's comments while speaking to GiveMeSport and the 34-year-old is aiming to prove Le Champion wrong. 

"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,'" Rick began.

"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. So, he had a lot of praise and I'm very grateful for that, and you know, hopefully, I can live up to that. I think that's what I'm doing and I just want to prove him wrong [about] the Rick Boogs schtick."

H/T to Fightful