William Regal has been largely a joy since joining AEW, but that doesn’t mean he has anything bad to say about WWE or Vince McMahon. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. He’s been a driving force behind making The Blackpool Combat Club click on a level they might not be able to get to otherwise.
Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, and Wheeler Yuta all benefit from Regal being there to manage them on screen, and he’s still one of the best speakers and expressionists in the business. AEW has been a fantastic fit for him to this point. Danielson has been dealing with an injury, Yuta has been in NJPW and Moxley was thrust into the world championship picture with CM Punk injured, so BCC has taken a bit of a backseat for AEW lately. Regal has still actively been a part of broadcasts, though, and he has his new Gentleman Villain podcast to work on as well.
On the most recent edition of the Gentleman Villain, Regal was asked if he had any funny stories about McMahon. He said that he didn’t really, before sharing the fact that he feels he owes Vince his life. “I would have died in 1999, so I owe my life,” Regal stated. “When I had my neck surgery, he might not have even known, but it was his company that paid for me to get the best surgeon, the only surgeon in the world, who could do the surgery that I needed.” (h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
Regal noted that he had no hard feelings directed toward WWE for releasing him earlier in 2022, and said that he’ll always have “a loyalty” to McMahon because of that live-saving procedure done in 1999. It’s not the kind of dirt some fans were likely hoping to hear from The Man’s Man, but it’s good to see that he isn’t using his podcasting platform to blast others in the industry as a way to make headlines. Fans are exposed to former WWE superstars who want to do that on a near-daily basis, so hearing Regal’s perspective on McMahon is refreshing.
As for what he’s got going on in AEW, Danielson and Moxley will both likely be big parts of the upcoming Forbidden Door pay-per-view with NJPW. Moxley is already set to square off with Hiroshi Tanahashi for the interim AEW World Championship, while Danielson was recently called out by one of New Japan’s best technical wrestlers. Yuta doesn’t appear to have anything going on at Forbidden Door, but he is coming off of an excellent showing at NJPW’s Best Of The Super Juniors tournament. Look for Regal and the Blackpool Combat Club to be front and center on AEW programming as soon as Forbidden Door is over.
Sources: Gentleman Villain, WrestlingNews.co
