SmackDown Star Rick Boogs Reportedly Among Talent Recently Cut By WWE

Rick Boogs has reportedly been released from WWE, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.

Another round of talent releases began on September 21, just one week after WWE and UFC merged to form TKO. After Mustafa Ali and Emma both announced their departures via Twitter/X, Sapp reported that Boogs was among those being let go.

Boogs, real name Eric Bugenhagen, made his WWE in-ring debut in 2017. An injury put him out of action for a year before he returned to the "NXT" live event loop in November 2018. Sporting a rockstar gimmick, Boogs made his televised debut in early 2019 while coming up short to Drew Gulak. He continued working the live event loop until early 2020 when he had the opportunity to work two EVOLVE pay-per-views against the likes of Joe Gacy and Anthony Greene.

In May 2021, Boogs made his way to "WWE SmackDown" and aligned with Shinsuke Nakamura. There, they battled various tag teams including Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode and Los Lotharios. In early 2022, Boogs even scored singles victories over Sami Zayn and Jey Uso. Boogs' biggest match came at WrestleMania 38 last year when he and Nakamura challenged The Usos for the "SmackDown" Tag Team Championship. Boogs, unfortunately, blew out his knee when trying to lift both of The Usos up on his shoulder, and The Usos ultimately retained.

Boogs returned to action this past January as a member of the "Raw" brand. He scored two wins over The Miz before disappearing from storylines again. His last match took place at SummerSlam as he competed in the battle royal that was won by LA Knight.