Rick Boogs suffers injury in WWE WrestleMania opening match

WWE’s Rick Boogs suffered an apparent serious leg injury during the opening match of WrestleMania Saturday. 

Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura challenged the Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team titles in the opener. During a spot where he lifted both Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso in a fireman’s carry, Boogs’ right leg appeared to buckle, and he stayed on the floor for the remainder of the match after tagging out. 

The Usos retained the titles by pinning Nakamura after hitting a 1-D. Boogs then was carried to the back by WWE personnel. 

Michael Cole announced later in the broadcast that Boogs suffered a patella injury and a quadriceps injury and will be undergoing surgery to repair the damage within the next few days.

Dave Meltzer reports that a preliminary diagnosis indicated a torn quadriceps and a patella injury. 

Fans in the building posted photos of Boogs being carried out. 

The injury to Boogs appeared to cut the match short, as there was an additional video package shown between the end of the bout and the start of the next. The match’s finish may have also been changed as a result of the injury. 

Boogs suffered a serious knee injury early in his WWE NXT career, tearing his ACL, MCL, and meniscus in 2017 and missing more than a year of in-ring action

Boogs debuted in NXT in 2017 and wrestled there until 2020 under a variety of variations of his name. 

After appearing as Joe Average in a series of WWE-themed Old Spice commercials, Boogs was called up to the SmackDown brand in May 2021 and paired with Nakamura. 

Boogs made his SmackDown in-ring debut in August 2021.