William Regal was one of the many victims of WWE budget cuts under the Vince McMahon regime. However, it did not last long, as Regal left AEW and is now back in WWE. William Regal recently discussed his departure from AEW.
William Regal left AEW at the end of 2022 after requesting that his contract renewal option not be exercised, which Tony Khan and AEW agreed to honor. Regal returned to WWE as an Executive Vice President, and now he can be around with his son, Charlie Dempsey, a lot more often.
William Regal recently appeared on Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip. He commented on his AEW exit in the interview which was recorded a few weeks ago. Regal acknowledged that it all happened ‘like a blink of an eye.’ He said that he went to AEW with a different plan, but that never transpired.
As you know, I left one company, I’ve gone to another, it’s like a blink of an eye, I start back with WWE again and it’s like nothing has ever happened and nothing has changed in the slightest. It’s weird. Anybody that is listening that’s young, I know you don’t like listening to older people; make the most of every second you have on this earth. It really is, you get to a certain age and time goes so quickly and we waste a lot of it. Sometimes you think, ‘I’m going to make the most of it.’ Even trying to make the most of it, you end up not making as much of it as you can and it’s gone. I just had a wonderful seven or eight months with a real good group of my friends, and boom, it’s gone in the blink of an eye. I haven’t even caught up with any of the stuff we’ve done because it’s just the way it is.
This will be the last thing that I’m doing. If you’re into the wrestling, it was a bit convoluted and finished off the way it finished off where I’ve been in AEW, but I’m back with the WWE by the time you hear this. I’ve had people asking me to do things. There is a lot that happened this year and a lot of things that made me go, ‘I’m quite happy being not in the limelight.’ I have been for many years. I had my time and I had a nice little gig with NXT for a long time where I just showed up occasionally, and then in the pandemic, I was used a lot more because we had to go into survival mode and there were certain characters and it changed things a little bit. I said, ‘Don’t use me as much, if you don’t mind, it should be about the talent, not about me.’ This (interview) will be the last thing I’m doing. Unless WWE asks me to do something as myself, I’m doing nothing else about anything or wrestling for at least a year. I’m happy with that. That was one of the things, in the last months of AEW, it was getting far too much about me. It should have been about the talent I was with, not about me. I’m quite happy being in the background. All it is is grief. I’ve had my run. I couldn’t have had a better last few months as far as TV and doing that, but I didn’t go there with that intention. The intention was to do something different, and it started off the way it did, but I didn’t expect it to end up being this thing that it was for the last seven months where I just became talent. I went there with a different plan because I was asked to go there to help out in a different capacity, and that never transpired. Okay, I’m done.
William Regal joined AEW in March 2022 at AEW Revolution, forming the Blackpool Combat Club with Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson. Throughout the year, the group would add Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli. They were popular with fans, but the faction never reached the same heights as other AEW factions, despite their amazing lineup.
William Regal was effectively written off AEW television when he was hit in the back of the head with brass knuckles by MJF on the November 30th episode of AEW Dynamite. This came after Regal turned on Jon Moxley to help MJF win the AEW World Title. He explained why he helped MJF in a pre-recorded promo the following week on Dynamite, and stated that BCC will remain strong.
William Regal is now the Vice President of Global Talent Development in WWE. Conditions of his AEW departure state that he will not appear on WWE television as a talent in 2023. The Blackpool Combat Club is still featured on AEW television. Keep an eye on Ringside News for the latest updates.
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