ONE OF THE BEST WORKERS IN WWE ANNOUNCES HE WILL BE RETIRING
by Mike Johnson @ 8:21 PM on 11/9/2010
At today's WWE Raw house show in London at the 02 Arena, William Regal told the live crowd that the current British tour would be his last as he would be retiring soon. Regal got one of the biggest reactions of the night for his match against Bryan Danielson.
Regal, who has been extremely underutilized in recent years by WWE, is easily one of the best workers in the company right now, having decades of experience under his belt.
Debuting as a teenager in the early 1980s wrestling in carnivals, he became one of the best young workers on the British circuit before being hired by Bill Watts to come to WCW in 1992. Since then, Regal wrestled almost exclusively for WWE and WCW, with the exception of the occasional New Japan tour.
In WCW, Regal had a very good run as their World Television champion after he was turned heel and rechristened Lord Steven Regal, winning the belt four times. He moved onto WWF, although drug problems at the time destroyed his run as a "Man's Man" almost immediately. After attempts at rehab failed, he was let go and returned to WCW, where he was used in a preliminary tag role with David Taylor.
After being let go, Regal cleaned up and rejuvenated his career with an off the charts physical match against Chris Benoit at the 2000 Brian Pillman Memorial show. That led to him being hired again b by the WWF, where he worked in the old Memphis developmental territory (including helping the training of a young Bryan Danielson) before being brought back to WWE as William Regal as they already had a pretty famous Steve in Steve Austin.
Regal excelled as a comedy figure, used as the "Goodwill Ambassador" of the company and the Raw General Manager for backstage vignettes that utilized his facial expressions and comedy timing more than anything else.
During his current run, Regal worked for all the WWE brands and had runs with the Intercontinental, Tag Team, Hardcore and European championships. He worked as a heel and as a babyface, teaming with the likes of Eugene, Lance Storm and Yoshihiro Tajiri among others. Although he was never pushed regularly as a threat or a top star, he would routinely have good to very good matches on many of the house shows and was well liked by everyone in the company from Triple H on down.
Regal's most recent and serious push saw WWE crown Regal the 2008 King of the Ring but he was issued a WWE Wellness violation (his second) shortly after, which killed his push and he was rarely used in a pushed manner after his return. In recent years, he was used in comedic sketches (primarily since he has great facial expressions) and in lower card matches with younger talents.
If you haven't had the chance, I absolutely would suggest reading his autobiography "Walking the Golden Mile" as it's one of the best WWE-released autobiographies ever. An extremely honest book that delves into his drug problems, it's also the best book to ever cover the British wrestling scene that gave birth to Regal the wrestler.
