Rick Boogs has explained that Vince McMahon was fond of his antics at the WWE Performance Center over the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the height of the pandemic, WWE put on almost all of its shows from the WWE Performance Center in front of no fans, with NXT stars serving as members of the audience.

One of the people in the crowd during those shows was Rick Boogs, who has since been moved up to the main roster for his partnership with Shinsuke Nakamura.

In an exclusive interview with GiveMeSport' Louis Dangoor, Rick Boogs explained that he saw the opportunity to be lively and over-the-top at that time, given that he was on TV for the first time.

It seems like Vince McMahon liked that Boogs was doing too, as the WWE Chairman apparently told producers to let the SmackDown star be himself at the show.

In the interview, Boogs said that he was told to "tone it down" by higher-ups, but Vince McMahon apparently thought differently and wanted him to continue being over-the-top:

So I was like screaming my head off and going crazy. Higher ups are like 'We've got to just tone it down a little bit. Take it back a notch...' I heard that like Vince [McMahon] was like 'Nah don't, just let him just be himself'. 

During the interview, Boogs also explained that it wasn't just Vince McMahon who appreciated what he was doing, but also other members of the WWE roster too.

Many WWE stars have spoken about how tough it was performing in front of no fans, but it seems like the energy brought by guys like Rick Boogs really helped them adapt to performing at the PC:

"I got a lot of people, especially like when I got called up and I was in the locker room with everyone on the regular, they all expressed how much they appreciated the high energy".

You can watch Rick Boogs every single week live over here in the UK on Friday Night SmackDown on BT Sport.