William Regal discusses his departure from All Elite Wrestling.
After WWE released Regal in January 2022, he signed with AEW and debuted at the Revolution pay-per-view on March 6. Regal was a founding member of the Blackpool Combat Club, a group that initially featured Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley before Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli eventually joined the stable. The veteran betrayed Moxley by helping MJF win the AEW World Championship, and he was written off TV when “The Salt of the Earth” attacked him on the November 30 episode of AEW Dynamite. AEW President Tony Khan then confirmed that Regal asked the company not to renew his contract so he could return to WWE and work with his son, Charlie Dempsey.
Speaking on the on the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip, Regal opened up about his AEW exit and noted that, when he initially went to the company, he had a different plan. He described how he was asked to come in and help talent in a different capacity, whereas he wound up working as a talent for the duration of his time there.
“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.” (Transcribed by Jeremy Lambert of Fightful)
After his departure, Regal reflected on his time with AEW and made it clear that he had a great time. More information is available here.
Regal started with WWE earlier in January, and he is the Vice President of Global Talent Development.
RELATED: William Regal Explains His On-Screen Dynamic With Excalibur
