RECAP AND REVIEW: Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard on William Regal – his terrible first meeting with Vince McMahon, struggles with addiction, the big star he saw before anyone else did, why the UnAmericans didn’t work, his reaction to the “Real Man’s Man gimmick”

Something To Wrestle – William Regal

Running Time: 3:03:26

Recap By: Joe Aguinaldo

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

Skip to about 8:26 on the podcast as the first 8:25 is commercial reads and a quick summary of last week’s show,.

Intro:

• William Regal has one of the most unique and entertaining stories in wrestling. He was born Darren Matthews on May 10th, 1968. Most people think he’s older than he is but he’s only 50
• He came to the states when he was 19 or 20.

Influences

• Influences and big stars in the UK were Big Daddy who was like the Hulk Hogan of the British wrestling scene along with Giant Haystacks.
• Underneath them, you had guys who could work because these Big Daddy and Haystacks were giant guys at 400+. Guys like Fit Finlay and Steve Wright were the workers while Haystacks and Big Daddy would do the big man spots.

Early Life

• A lot of info comes from Regal’s book ‘Walking A Golden Mile’ which is a great read.
• His mom left at an early age. Kids would tease him and that turned him into a bit of a bully.
• There’s a story in the book about Regal going to the zoo, making fun of a gorilla and having the gorilla throw poop and hitting Regal in the face.
• He became closer with his dad but says he was even closer to his grandfather

Wanting To Be A Wrestler

• Regal always wanted to be a professional wrestler. Bruce says guys like Regal, A.J. Styles and Daniel Bryan love wrestling for the art form and would wrestle in big or small arenas. Those wrestler’s love for the business tend to shine through and the cream rises to the top.
• Regal’s dad brought him to wrestling shows to see Dale Martin. He got to see all the stars of the day and used them as inspiration as part of his act.
• He decided at an early age he wanted to be a wrestler or a clown or a comedian.
• After first seeing Dynamite Kid, Regal gets more serious about wanting to be in the business. When he discovers he likes the villains like Rollerball Rocco and Fit Finlay when he gets even more serious about it.

• He gets his first job in wrestling putting up the ring.
• Bruce says it was an honor to put up the ring and started a protocol in developmental where the developmental crew be the ring crew responsible for putting up and tearing down the ring.
• If the ring is put together properly, it’s safe and no one gets hurt. If something goes wrong and the ring breaks, everyone on that card should know how to fix it.
• Regal decides he wants to get into the business but needs to get in shape. There are no wrestling schools where he was so he joined a boxing club.
• He was determined to do whatever it took to learn so he made his own ring and tried to mimic what he saw on his own.
• Regal felt he was not in great shape or athletically gifted. He was also tall. Whenever he worked as a heel, he would hunch over so it would give the appearance he was the same size as the audience which is an old school, carnival way of working.

Early Days In Wrestling

• Regal has always been introduced for years as coming from Blackpool, England however locally, there was heat for that. Bruce doesn’t know why but he thought it sounded cool.
• Regal’s first ‘match’ was an old carnival angle where the wrestler would challenge someone from the crowd. The carnival would plant a small guy and a big guy in the crowd. The small guy would work with the wrestler making the audience think maybe they could last.
• The carnival would offer money for being able to stay in the ring with the wrestler for a certain number of rounds. The wrestler would work with the plants and make them look good while legit audience members would get beat in the first round.
• Regal was one of the small plants in the audience and the first guy he wrestled stretched him just to see if Regal had what it took and would come back.
• Back then, they would legitimately rough up people to see if they were tough enough and would come back. Regal came back.
• Regal becomes a pro in 1984 at age 16. He’s working 2 or 3 times a day, putting up the ring and being a ref.
• One of the things the guys would do to keep themselves entertained is create different names for people. They would come up with some of the daftest names for Regal such as Phil Hiscock from Cockermouth England.
• This was part of paying your dues. It was a challenging life but also an education you couldn’t get anywhere else. You learned how to survive.

William Regal’s Wife

• Darrin met a girl and 14 months later, they got married. Bruce says she is the true love of his life.
• She has supported him from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.

Wrestling On TV

• William Regal got his name from a wrestler in the States named Steve Regal who was in the AWA at the time.
• Williams first TV match was in 1986 which was a big deal back then. He eventually became partners with Robbie Brookside who is now a coach at the PC.

• Bruce learned about Brookside from William Regal. He was a great worker but was a smaller guy.
• Unfortunately for Brookside, when he was in his prime, his physique did not lend itself to being in the big show however, if Robbie was in his prime today, Bruce thinks he would be on the main roster
• They did some different tours including a stop in Israel. Israel had cable TV but also tape trading which is why wrestling was popular there. They loved wrestling in Israel and saw it the same way as a Rock Band. They also offered huge money and it was an easy tour.
• On an Israel tour, Regal became friends with Dave Taylor who spent some time to WCW. Bruce says outside the ring Taylor was a funny and entertaining but when the red light came on, he became uptight and not as flamboyant. People couldn’t relate to him but he was a tremendous technician.
• In 1988, iTV (network channel) didn’t want wrestling on its channel and took it off air. British wrestling moved to Sky Sports which is a cable channel however, the WWE was on Sky Sports. People now had a choice, they could watch British wrestling or this new American WWE product. Bruce says this contributed to the downfall of the British wrestling scene.

Otto Wanz Promotion

• Regal starts touring and goes to Otto Wantz promotion in Germany. Regal says Wantz didn’t like him. Bruce says Wantz was a big, old timer tough guy. He liked shooters who could hold their own.
• For the most part, working in Germany was a good opportunity to go somewhere and make some money.

WWF Tryout

• In 1991 Regal gets invited to a WWF event at Royal Albert Hall for a tryout. When he got there, he met Jack Lanza.
• Terry Rudge got him the tryout who was friends with Lord Alfred Hayes
• Royal Albert Hall is akin to Madison Square Garden. It was a big honor to wrestle there.
• That night Regal wrestled Brian Maxine and Lanza invited Regal to Wembley to speak with some of the agents. They didn’t have anything for him but they would let him know when something came up.
• A few weeks later Regal got a call from WCW to work a week in London. The first night in, he wrestled Michael Hayes. He also worked Giant Haystacks that week. It was also the first time he got to speak on the mic.
• One of the first guys to give him an opportunity to get on the mic was Paul E. Dangerously who was doing the Dangerous Zone. Paul asked if they could do a live segment with Regal who everyone said did well.

Quick Steroid Story

• Regal mentions steroids in his book and that he did them to improve his physique. He had bought them legally but when he came back to the UK, he had policemen surrounding him as you couldn’t bring them back this way.

Rip Rogers

• During WCW’s tour in the UK, Regal met up with Rip Rogers and asked Rip how to get booked.
• Rip gave Regal advice on how to write a letter to the WCW for a job. A week later, he got a call from WCW and started working for them in January.
• Regal got on WWF’s radar when he first debuted in WCW as Lord Steven Regal. Bruce said he had something unique about him.
• In WCW, he was TV champion 4 times and tagged with Triple H for a short time. He was also working a tag team with Bobby Eaton.
• Bruce followed him from afar and thought he was a good solid hand.

Meeting Vince McMahon

• March 1998, Regal is fired from WCW and there are rumors that he may have substance abuse issues. He called the WWF who offered him a job.
• Bruce says he called Regal to find out what his situation was and to let Regal know they were excited and felt they had something for him on the roster. Bruce also wanted to make sure Regal had his full release. Regal sounded excited and was looking forward to working with the WWF
• Bruce thinks Vince would have thought Regal was boring and it was going to be a challenge. During that time, both Vince Russo and McMahon were booking over the top characters, however, Bruce was confident in what he had seen in Regal and felt Regal had the talent to pull anything off.
• Regal was recovering from pneumonia at this time but also has a four month non-compete clause from WCW.
• In April, Regal woke up coughing up blood and learned not only did he have pneumonia but a viral infection and fluid around his heart. His lungs are full of blood and he was in bad shape.
• In the first week of May, he flew to NY to meet Vince McMahon, J.R. and everyone.
• He says he managed to get some pills from somewhere but doesn’t remember anything from that point on.
• From Bruce’s vantage point, he noticed Regal didn’t look good and thought he was sick. Regal passed out on Vince’s desk during his meeting with Vince. Bruce thinks Vince may have written him off at that time.
• Regal doesn’t remember passing out. J.R,. has said this was one of his most embarrassing moments in the business. Bruce adds that Regal was in horrible shape. It looked like he hadn’t seen a gym in 6 months which is something Vince also picked up. Overall, the meeting was terrible.

GHB

• May 10th, 1998 , Regal woke up and was coughing up blood. He went to the hospital and felt like he was falling apart. He was also ‘white knuckling’ it for drugs.
• Regal started getting GHB shipped to his house as could be sold legally in the US. He would use this to give him a buzz and take the edge off.
• Bruce said they never noticed Regal’s drug issue and were using his sickness as the excuse for his behavior.
• Regal debuts the night after King Of The Ring. He worked with Darren Drozdov and looked bad.

• He was told by the company to go to the training center to get in shape
• Bruce says his debut was awful and looked terrible. He was off several steps and was clumsy in the ring. It was embarrassing.
• When Regal got home, he lived like a hermit who did nothing but drink over the counter GHB. He and his wife were living separate lives.
• One day, he broke both his ankle and leg. Bruce and the office are now wondering if they have damaged goods.
• Regal would lay in bed, out of his head on GHB until he threw up then he’d get mad about throwing up and wasting the GHB so he’d drink more until he threw up again. The only time he would venture out was at night to raid the fridge after everyone went to bed.
• Eventually, the cast comes off and Vince calls him asking if Regal is ready to come back to work. Regal says yes but it’s a lie. He wasn’t ready and had done no rehab on the ankle.

The Man’s Man

• Vince tells Regal about the idea for the Man’s Man which was a Vince Russo idea.
• Regal was told to get gear for the character and then go to Connecticut to film some vignettes.
• Regal hated the gimmick and so did Bruce.
• Regal gets a sleep test done and put him on a drug when mixed with somas would make him unable to speak. One night he was supposed to cut a promo and wrestle Goldust which was a train wreck.
• Regal was the Man’s Man for 5 or 6 weeks. Life meant nothing to him. He was 30 years old and looked like death.
• Bruce said Regal was soldiering through this gimmick but was also giving suggestions. Vince and Vince were determined to do the Man Man’s gimmick as they felt it was the only way to get him over.

Addiction:

• Eventually J.R. and Brisco bring Regal into the office and have a talk with him. Regal tells them what is going on but doesn’t tell them about taking the fake GHB. His wife was ready to leave and take the kids. He didn’t think any of this was his fault.
• They told him to report to a recovery center to see if he had a problem. He went in and bluffed his way through but when he showed up to work he was told to contact Bruce right away.
• Bruce told Regal he had to go to rehab because no one wanted to work with him. Everyone felt he was a danger to them and himself.
• Regal went to a four day evaluation and found out he had to stay for a few weeks.
• Regal was furious and contacted the office to get him out of there. Regal felt he could kick it on his own on the road but the professionals said he needed to be in.
• By this point, the WWE couldn’t take the excuses anymore and said he had to be in rehab or they had nothing for him.
• They wanted Regal to be in rehab for 14 weeks but Regal left early and returned to England.
• As soon as Regal got out, he started to take GHB again.
• Back in England, he found a drug dealer to find a bunch of goodies. At one point he was taking up to 40 valiums a day.
• A couple of days before leaving for England, Brisco called him to say Regal had to go back to rehab but Regal refused.
• At this point, they hadn’t given up on Regal and wanted to help him. Plus, they really liked him. Vince wasn’t happy and said if Regal didn’t go to rehab he wouldn’t have a job at the WWE.
• Regal finished the treatment but has a relapse almost immediately and wound up back in rehab.
• During the first week in rehab, they have a call with Regal but also fire him. (April 99)
• He gets hired back at WCW but gets released in February 2000.
• Regal calls Triple H to let him know he’s sober and gets a second chance in the WWE. Bruce was happy to welcome him back.

Working the Developmental Territories and Coming Back to the WWE

• Regal is sent down to the Memphis developmental territory. He’s supposed to be there for 6 months, however, he has an amazing match at the Brian Pillman Memorial show against Chris Benoit that gets rave reviews.
• After finishing up in Memphis, he is working house shows when Vince calls him into his office to lay out the plan. Regal is to be the goodwill ambassador, waving and smiling at people while telling them how to live their lives and be more civilized knowing people are going to hate him for that.
• Vince didn’t want Regal to be just a wrestler. He thought giving Regal more of a talking role and a more authoritative role would give him more exposure. After Vince told him this, Regal went to a tailor to get some $3,000 suits made for the part. He was ready to do whatever it took to succeed.
• On Raw he does the Goodwill Ambassador character live and has Chris Jericho in the skit. This is where he found out his name was William Regal.

Notable Matches

• October 16 Raw – beats Al Snow to win the European Title.
• October 30th Raw – he does an interview running down Boston for throwing tea into the water 230 years ago.
• Survivor Series – William Regal retains the European title over Hardcore Holly.
• Bruce says Regal was a different guy when he came back. He was doing anything above and beyond and was physically in shape. You could see the change in him and it was a good change
• December 2nd – Rebellion PPV – Regal drops the European title to Crash Holly but wins it back a couple days later on RAW.
• November 26th – Strap match between Regal and Austin on Smackdown that Austin wins
• December 18th – Regal beats Austin by DQ
• Steve Austin was friends with Regal and he tried to help Regal along the way. They also had a good time working together because Austin could wrestle
• December 29 Raw – Stephanie McMahon is the special referee, Regal beats Austin in a number one contender match. A couple of days later, Austin destroys Regal with a pipe. On Jan 8, Austin clocks Regal with a chair that leads to an Austin/Angle fight.
• A few weeks later, Regal is diagnosed with two herniated discs in his back. Bruce says this was an accumulation of injuries over the years.
• January 21st – Regal participates in the Royal Rumble and is eliminated by Test. The next night on Raw, Test wins the European title from Regal because of the neck injury.
• February 8th Smackdown – Trish is out there with Regal working a storyline between Triple H and Austin. Regal got to kiss Trish at the end of the segment.
• No Way Out 2001 – Regal isn’t wrestling but Stephanie pins Trish. Regal was part of this storyline and Bruce says whenever you’re programmed with the McMahons, it means they have confidence in you.
• Brian Gewirtz said Regal could make a living as a professional actor outside the wrestling business. He was that good with everything he was given.
• Feb 26th Raw – Regal and Steph wrestle Vince and Trish. Vince turns on Trish and dump slop on her after Regal gave her a neck breaker
• A few weeks later, Regal beats Al Snow for the right to become the the new commissioner
• 10 days later, Jericho pees in Regal’s tea. Regal’s facial expression in this segment were classic. Later on the show Regal, Austin and Benoit get a win over Rock and Chris Jericho
• March 22nd, Smackdown Raven wrestles Jericho for the hardcore title. The fight ends up in Regals office which they tear up. Regal throws coffee into Jericho’s face then Raven hits Jericho with a pan to retain the title.
• Bruce says Regal was great in the commissioners role. He was the kind of talent you wanted to write for because you knew he would make it better
• WrestleMania 17 – Jericho pins Regal to retain the IC title.

• April 19th Smackdown – Kiss My Flag match with Regal and Bradshaw. Bradshaw wins clean and Regal has to kiss the Texas flag.
• Backlash – Regal beats Jericho in a Duchess of Queensbury match. It was Regal’s idea to do something different and suggested this match.
• Judgement Day – Regal gets a quick win over Rikishi. After this, Regal is doing a lot with Tajiri on TV.

Teaming with Tajiri

• During this time, Paul Heyman was on the creative team and was pushing Tajiri, which may have been to Tajiri’s detriment.
• Teaming Tajiri with Regal was a way to get Tajiri on TV. Their chemistry was off the chart that they had to continue it.
• July 9th, Taz beats Regal by DQ when Tajiri turns on Taz and they beat up on Taz. This set up the Invasion PPV where Raven beat William Regal.
• Tajiri and Regal continue their hijinx such as bringing out a bunch of pies for Vince only to find out that’s not the kind of pies the Rock likes.
• Regal’s skits with Tajiri turned Regal from heel to babyface.

Kiss My A** Club

• On October 8th Raw, Regal turns heel again when he hit Kurt Angle with the title belt allowing Austin to regain the WWF title.
• The Rock beat William Regal a month later to defend the WCW title
• A month later, Regal wins over Tajiri on the Survivor Series show
• The next night, Regal joined the Kiss My Ass club. Vince wasn’t sure how far to take it but it was Regal’s idea to go all the way. He was at ease at doing it.
• Bruce confirms it was Regal’s idea and they knew it would dump a bunch of heat on Regal. In addition, people though that might be crass but the way Regal did it was the right thing to do for that story.

More Notable Matches

• Raw Nov 26th – Regal beats Big Show.
• Vengeance Dec 9th – Edge retains IC title over Regal.
• Regal and Test beat RVD and Edge when Regal pins Edge after hitting him with brass knuckles. The brass knuckles was an idea from Regal and Fit Finlay.
• Royal Rumble – Regal beats Edge for the IC title in a pretty good match.
• RVD beats Regal in a non-title match on January 24th and a few days later, RVD beats Regal on RAW by DQ.
• Regal beats Edge at the No Way Out PPV in a Brass Knuckles on a pole match. Bruce thought it was a good old school wrestling match.
• WrestleMania 18 – RVD beats Regal for the IC title
• March 21st – Regal beats DDP to win the European Title (Smackdown).
• March 25th – 1st WWE Draft. Regal is drafted to RAW. Brian Gewirtz wanted him on RAW
• April 8th – Spike Dudley beats Regal to win the European title.
• April 29th – Regal is doing an interview surrounded by Hulk Hogan merchandise. Later in the show he wrestles Hogan. Regal asks Hogan to have tea with him before the match. Hogan takes a sip and spits it in Regal’s face. William Regal’s facials and reactions are really well done
• Insurrextion – May 4th – Spike beats Regal to retain the European Title.
• May 27th – Trish and Spike beat Regal and Molly. Afterwards, Regal and Molly have a weird relationship that Bruce calls sexually frustrated platonic.
• July 8th – Jeff Hardy beats Regal for the European title. After the match, Coach goes to interview Regal who starts weeping. Chris Nowinski appears to console Regal. This was just another layer to add to the character.

The UnAmericans

• September 9th – Regal joins the UnAmericans. He was a good fit because he was the only one not afraid of heat. The other guys were afraid of the heat.
• Unforgiven PPV – Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray and Kane take on the UnAmericans.
• September 30th – all members of the UnAmericans lose their matches causing their group to separate. The group was separated because they were all uncomfortable with the heat (except for Regal).

More Notable Matches

• October 10th – Las Vegas Showgirls match – Regal beats Goldust. A lot of people thought Regal would hate this, but in reality he had a blast doing it and threw in some comedy bits he saw growing up. Bruce thought it was excellent and another example of Regal embracing what he was given.
• In 2002, Regal was working mainly house shows.
• At the Armageddon PPV on Dec 15 – Booker T and Goldust win the tag titles beating Christian and Jericho, The Dudley Boys and Regal And Lance Storm.
• On the 500th Raw – Dec 23rd – J.R. is in the ring tagging with Jerry Lawler and they get a win over Regal and Storm.
• January 1st 2003, Raw – Regal and Storm beat Booker and Goldust for the tag titles.
• Royal Rumble – Dudleys win the tag titles. Next night on Raw, Regal and Storm regain the titles in 19 seconds.
• No Way Out 2003 – Regal and Storm beat RVD and Kane to retain the WWE tag titles in Regal’s last match for over a year. A few weeks prior, he and a lot of guys got sick but the afternoon of that PPV, he started swelling up. He got knocked out during the match and ended up getting a concussion. He kept swelling up and after several tests, they discovered he had congestive heart failure. He was told he would have to stop wrestling.
• They did a procedure where they had to stop and restart his heart which helped get it back to normal.
• John Laurinaitis invited Regal back to be a road agent. He agreed to do it but only lasted 6 weeks because he came back too soon.
• He worked himself into shape where he could do 500 squats and 200 pushups but the doctors wouldn’t clear him for insurance reasons.
• WWE eventually sent him to a cardiologist. The doctor took all his meds away and said if Regal was OK after a month they would clear him to wrestle which is what happened.
• Afterwards, the office called him up and teamed him Eugene. Regal provided great entertainment for this storyline.

Eugene

• The storyline with Regal and Eugene turned Regal babyface against Evolution. He got a win over Ric Flair on August 23rd but Batista beats him the next week continuing the Evolution feud.
• During this time, Regal is tagging with Eugene on the house shows against La Resistance for the tag titles.

More Notable Matches

• Oct 25th – Snitsky beats Regal in 25 seconds.
• November 15th – Eugene and Regal win the tag titles beating La Resistance and Tajiri and Rhyno in a triple threat match.
• January 16th, 2004 – La Resistance get a win over Coach and Regal at a house show.
• March 21st – Regal, Tajiri and Christy Hemme beat Maven, Molly Holly and Simon Dean.
• Backlash, May 1st 2005 – Regal and Tajiri lose the titles to Rosey and Hurricane in a gauntlet match.
• June 23rd, Regal is sent to Smackdown during an 11 person trade.
• He starts working with Bobby Lashley during house shows in July and August.
• He is put in a team with Paul Burchill and they start working house shows against LOD (Animal and Heidenreich)
• Eddie Guerrero tribute show RAW, Nov 13, 2005 – Ric Flair beat Regal.
• Armageddon PPV – Dec 18 – Lashley beats Regal and Burchill in a handicap match.
• Bruce says Regal wasn’t one to bitch about creative. He would come with suggestions to make something better.
• February 3rd – Smackdown – Regal and Burchill decide to break up as a team. This leads to a match where Burchill starts a rivalry with Regal. Regal wants Burchill to return to their team. Regal loses their first match and the stipulation is if Regal loses, he has to dress like a buxom wench (which he does).
• April 2nd – JBL beats Regal to retain the US Title.
• Throughout June, Regal is putting over US champ Bobby Lashley.
• Around this time Booker T becomes King of The Ring and Regal joins his court as a town cryer.
• Great American Bash 2006 – Fit Finlay retains US title over Regal.
• No Mercy – Benoit loses to Regal. Booker calls Regal useless and slaps him. Regal punches Booker and leaves the group.
• Regal cuts a promo 12 days later stating he had been one of the greatest wrestlers but has since become a doormat. He introduces his new tag partner Dave Taylor. However, Taylor tears his meniscus in his left knee.

• Armageddon Dec 16th – Brian Kendrick and Paul London retain the tag belts against MNM, The Hardys and Regal/Taylor. Joey Mercury sustained a horrible injury after getting hit in the face with a ladder.
• Regal and Taylor were taking on Henry Godwinn and Cousin Ray (Ray Gordy) on house shows.
• Throughout March and April –  Regal and Taylor are teaming up on house shows. Regal really wanted to be in this team with Taylor to give back to Dave.
• June 17th – Regal gets drafted back to Raw. Towards the end of the month we see the Benoit tragedy unfold. During the Raw tribute to Chris, Regal was the only person who didn’t say anything about Chris as a person, only as a wrestler.
• July 2nd – Regal serves as Raw interim GM. He introduces the Beat the Clock match which was used to determine who would challenge Cena at that year’s Great American Bash.
• A week later he gets a win over Sandman.
• In early August, Regal becomes the new General Manager by winning a Battle Royal
• New Years Eve – Triple H is wrestling Ric Flair. This was during Ric Flair’s win or retire stipulation. If Triple H lost, he would not participate in the Royal Rumble. Regal ends up attacking Flair disqualifying Triple H. Brian Gewirtz wrote this storyline.
• Next night on Raw, Regal was squashed by Triple H in a first blood match.
• Jan 14th, Flair gets a win over Regal
• April 21st RAW – King Of The Ring tournament – Regal beats Finlay, Regal beats Hornswoggle by submission and in the finals, Regal beats CM Punk to win KOTR.
• May 19th RAW – Regal does a coronation for himself and Vince comes out to give his 100% endorsement to Regal.
• Regal loses to Mr. Kennedy in a loser gets fired match. Behind the scenes, Regal had failed a drug test and got suspended for 60 days. It appeared to be an over the counter drug that had something on the banned list.
• Regal returns on July 28th and is defeated by CM Punk. He works house shows with Jamie Noble
• November 3rd – Regal wins a battle Royal to get an IC title shot.
• Next week in England, Regal beats Santino Marella to win the IC title.
• Survivor Series – Regal teams up with Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Mark Henry and Shelton Benjamin against Batista, CM Punk, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy. He’s pinned 11 seconds into the match by CM Punk.
• January 19th Raw – Regal loses the IC title to CM Punk.

Working the Developmental Territories and NXT

• When Bruce left the WWE, Regal would check in on him.
• He got heavily involved in FCW and now NXT. He’s been the NXT GM since 2014.
• Behind the scenes, Regal has been crucial to bringing in new talent. WWE has been referring to Regal as Director of Talent Development and Head of Global Recruiting.
• Regal has a great eye for talent and was the one who said Daniel Bryan was going to be a big star. He was one constantly telling the office about Daniel Bryan and saw it before anyone else did.

Williams Regal’s Legacy

• Bruce says Regal legacy will be as a worker and an entertainer but Bruce also says Regal’s behind the scenes work such as being a talent scout is where he is most valuable.
• Bruce thinks Regal is in the top 5 GMs for Raw. He was memorable.
• Bruce’s favorite Regal match is the one against Benoit at the Pillman Memorial Show.
• Bruce thinks Regal is deserving of the HoF and will be there in a few years.

Twitter Question segment (no recap)

Rating – 7/10

I am a fan of William Regal especially after reading his book. He had one of the more unique journey’s into the business and a really fascinating story. That said, I was not a huge fan of this podcast. I did enjoy the first part of the podcast when they were talking about his early days in England and how he broke into the wrestling business. After that, it became more about a listing of Regal’s notable matches and titles which started sounding mechanic after awhile (and the 3 hour running time didn’t help). This wasn’t a bad podcast, but I wouldn’t call it a great one either.

About Joe:

Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. He is a co-host on the Pull Apart Podcast with Jeff Rush and Caitlin Lavelle as well as a contributor to www.pwpodcasts.com. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post-show podcasts. He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, he just likes wrestling. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram @ja113.