Over the course of William Regal‘s tenure in AEW, he developed quite an interesting bond with commentator, Excalibur.
After joining All Elite Wrestling in March, Regal stringed together the Blackpool Combat Club. The group compiled of himself, Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli. Accordingly, the mentor would often assume a commentary position during their matches. Gradually, he formed a bond with the “Man in the Mask,” Excalibur. As the two called the matches, Regal often aimed to “lighten the load” for Excalibur with his charming, affectionate banter.
During an appearance at an ITR Live show in October, William Regal explained how the on-screen presentation blossomed into a running theme between the two. “What happened, the first week or whatever, me just being me, not a thought, mentioned something to Excalibur, and it went from there. At the time, I was watching [the] ‘Brassic’ [television show], and everybody’s calling everybody ‘sweetheart’ on that show, and I thought, ‘Oh, l like that,'” he said.
“I’ve always called people ‘sunshine’ and ‘flower’ and ‘petal,’ and northern sayings. So I thought, ‘Ah.’ So I did it once, and I’ve never once put any thought for the slightest bit in what I’m gonna say. If you actually watched, I actually hesitated. I had no idea what I was gonna say, and a second [later], then I went, ‘Blah blah blah,’ which I’ve done every single week, and it’s become a thing now. I’ve left it alone for a few weeks because I felt the matches were too serious to do it. Don’t keep expecting it because I don’t put any thought into it.”
Regal later explained his main motivation to “try to make everybody as good as they can be” on screen. He just “happened to be able to do all this stuff that I do,” he said. In addition, Regal stressed that the announcers had “a brutal job” of calling all the professional wrestling action. “If I can go out and make Excalibur smile for 20 seconds, he’s got all these things that he’s got to get out there and perfect. I want to just go out, lighten the load,” Regal said.
“If I see him smile through that or the other two laugh or whatever, good…I’m doing my bit to lighten the load a little bit. That’s why I do it.”
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