JohnCenaFan28
12-23-2008, 01:18 AM
FOR a lot of Americans, William Regal IS British wrestling.
The one-time World Of Sport jobber has been a mainstay at the top of WWE for years.
And Regal is currently enjoying one of his best ever runs as intercontinental champion, with the lovely Layla by his side.
So we thought it was about time to catch up with our No1 grappling export for a Christmas chat.
The Sun: Hi William. Whenever we chat you come across as chilled and northern, but in front of the WWE cameras there’s this proper English accent the Americans think is real. Where did you find that?
Regal: I was actually born in a little village in Staffordshire called Codsall Wood.
There were people like my dad and my granddad, who were born there, and then there were the people with money and big stately homes.
Being around these people, who used to talk down to us and looked down their noses at us, I always used to remember that as a kid — so I just fall into that.
I just make it up and bluff my way through it most of the time because I haven’t got a great vocabulary.
The Sun: No, it’s good, because when you mess up it’s funny. You go back to your northern accent and nobody notices!
Regal: I’m just a Carry On character. That’s how I’ve always looked at it, to get through this, do what I’ve got to do. Sid James was from South Africa and people think he was a Cockney. You just bluff your way through.
The Sun: Since you’ve been back you’ve been playing a more serious, wrestling role, rather than that Carry On character. But you have recently been wrestling the man who is perhaps the new generation of comedy character. What do you think of Santino Marella?
Regal: I think what he does, the entertainment aspect of it, is brilliant.
I try and help him a lot because obviously his wrestling is not where it should be — but he can get there.
He’s been thrown in the deep end straight out of wrestling school and he does a great job at what he does.
I think he’s got a great future but you can only get by doing so much comedy.
The Sun: What do you prefer doing, the straight wrestling or the comedy?
Regal: I prefer to do serious wrestling matches, which most people might find boring or whatever, but I’ve made myself very adaptable. If there’s a down period I can entertain people, I can make them laugh.
The vicious stuff I’m doing now is the way I like to wrestle, unfortunately there are not too many people — and this may sound very arrogant — who can keep up with me. Very few.
I’m looking to people like CM Punk and people like that to step up. The only ones who can keep up with me are of that style.
The Sun: Do you think sometimes the fans can’t keep up as well? They’ve become used to 'WWE style' and you don’t really wrestle that way.
Regal: I’m just a normal fella and you have to make yourself different. I can do that kind of match, if I couldn’t I wouldn’t have a job. I’ve kept different — not always good different, but it’s different. I can adapt to a lot of things and I’ve had a really good career.
I’ve just turned 40 and now I feel everything’s come into place where I can be a top man and get a run with it. There were bits I wasn’t confident with before, you know, I’d second guess myself. Little things. It was easy to fall back on being funny.
And there was a time I didn’t realise my heart was funny. I just didn’t have the go in me. I didn’t tell anybody but my legs would just go, then they found out I had that heart problem and put that right.
Since I’ve had that put right people are saying that I’m moving better as I’m getting older — and it's because I’ve got more go in me.
The Sun: We read your book again in preparation for this chat and it’s definitely one of the better ones. It very, very honest...
Regal: People would have liked it more if I’d have dished more dirt.
But I set out with a plan not to incriminate anyone but me. I did that because I don’t care what people think about me or know about me, but far too many people their families don’t need to know about them.
I’m not so happy with a lot of those type of books.
I don’t blame them for doing them but there’s no need to say things about people that no one needs to know. They wouldn’t have known otherwise.
There were a lot of stories I couldn’t say.
I’ve got a friend in Britain, Drew McDonald, who I wrestled with for all those years and I apologised because there wasn’t one story about him.
I’m thinking “I’ve got to put Drew in the book” but I couldn’t think of one that didn’t involve...
The Sun: Debauchery?
Regal: Yeah, debauchery!
So I had to apologise to him when I saw him. Chris Jericho’s put him in his book, though, and shown him up for what he is.
The Sun: What’s next for you? You’ve had the suspension which you’ve drawn a line under. You’ve won King of the Ring. What’s next? Main event?
Regal: I’d really like to make this intercontinental title into what used to be. It was the top belt for a while.
The Sun: You had the likes of Mr Perfect, Texas Tornado and Bret Hart as former champions. It used to mean something and they let it slip. Now it’s back?
Regal: Well I was in discussions to do this and they brought out a DVD this month, The History Of The Intercontinental Championship, with Don Muraco and the rest of them.
I would like it to get back to that level. I’d love to be world champion but I think I can make just as much of an impact for myself here.
People forget I’ve been intercontinental champion before but it wasn’t where it should have been then, I didn’t have the dynamic I’ve got now.
As long as I don’t get hurt or suspended again I’ll be fine. If not, then I’ll move onto something else. I’ll be back down Butlins again.
The Sun: Finally, what’s with the new long hair?
Regal: It’s all about High Definition TV.
I was there when they did the first things for HD and when you’ve got short hair with gel in it looks bald. I was going a bit grey and most people don’t realise I’ve got blond hair.
That’s why I started growing my hair. You’ve got to update yourself when you look like me, like a badly made bed.
Source: TheSun
The one-time World Of Sport jobber has been a mainstay at the top of WWE for years.
And Regal is currently enjoying one of his best ever runs as intercontinental champion, with the lovely Layla by his side.
So we thought it was about time to catch up with our No1 grappling export for a Christmas chat.
The Sun: Hi William. Whenever we chat you come across as chilled and northern, but in front of the WWE cameras there’s this proper English accent the Americans think is real. Where did you find that?
Regal: I was actually born in a little village in Staffordshire called Codsall Wood.
There were people like my dad and my granddad, who were born there, and then there were the people with money and big stately homes.
Being around these people, who used to talk down to us and looked down their noses at us, I always used to remember that as a kid — so I just fall into that.
I just make it up and bluff my way through it most of the time because I haven’t got a great vocabulary.
The Sun: No, it’s good, because when you mess up it’s funny. You go back to your northern accent and nobody notices!
Regal: I’m just a Carry On character. That’s how I’ve always looked at it, to get through this, do what I’ve got to do. Sid James was from South Africa and people think he was a Cockney. You just bluff your way through.
The Sun: Since you’ve been back you’ve been playing a more serious, wrestling role, rather than that Carry On character. But you have recently been wrestling the man who is perhaps the new generation of comedy character. What do you think of Santino Marella?
Regal: I think what he does, the entertainment aspect of it, is brilliant.
I try and help him a lot because obviously his wrestling is not where it should be — but he can get there.
He’s been thrown in the deep end straight out of wrestling school and he does a great job at what he does.
I think he’s got a great future but you can only get by doing so much comedy.
The Sun: What do you prefer doing, the straight wrestling or the comedy?
Regal: I prefer to do serious wrestling matches, which most people might find boring or whatever, but I’ve made myself very adaptable. If there’s a down period I can entertain people, I can make them laugh.
The vicious stuff I’m doing now is the way I like to wrestle, unfortunately there are not too many people — and this may sound very arrogant — who can keep up with me. Very few.
I’m looking to people like CM Punk and people like that to step up. The only ones who can keep up with me are of that style.
The Sun: Do you think sometimes the fans can’t keep up as well? They’ve become used to 'WWE style' and you don’t really wrestle that way.
Regal: I’m just a normal fella and you have to make yourself different. I can do that kind of match, if I couldn’t I wouldn’t have a job. I’ve kept different — not always good different, but it’s different. I can adapt to a lot of things and I’ve had a really good career.
I’ve just turned 40 and now I feel everything’s come into place where I can be a top man and get a run with it. There were bits I wasn’t confident with before, you know, I’d second guess myself. Little things. It was easy to fall back on being funny.
And there was a time I didn’t realise my heart was funny. I just didn’t have the go in me. I didn’t tell anybody but my legs would just go, then they found out I had that heart problem and put that right.
Since I’ve had that put right people are saying that I’m moving better as I’m getting older — and it's because I’ve got more go in me.
The Sun: We read your book again in preparation for this chat and it’s definitely one of the better ones. It very, very honest...
Regal: People would have liked it more if I’d have dished more dirt.
But I set out with a plan not to incriminate anyone but me. I did that because I don’t care what people think about me or know about me, but far too many people their families don’t need to know about them.
I’m not so happy with a lot of those type of books.
I don’t blame them for doing them but there’s no need to say things about people that no one needs to know. They wouldn’t have known otherwise.
There were a lot of stories I couldn’t say.
I’ve got a friend in Britain, Drew McDonald, who I wrestled with for all those years and I apologised because there wasn’t one story about him.
I’m thinking “I’ve got to put Drew in the book” but I couldn’t think of one that didn’t involve...
The Sun: Debauchery?
Regal: Yeah, debauchery!
So I had to apologise to him when I saw him. Chris Jericho’s put him in his book, though, and shown him up for what he is.
The Sun: What’s next for you? You’ve had the suspension which you’ve drawn a line under. You’ve won King of the Ring. What’s next? Main event?
Regal: I’d really like to make this intercontinental title into what used to be. It was the top belt for a while.
The Sun: You had the likes of Mr Perfect, Texas Tornado and Bret Hart as former champions. It used to mean something and they let it slip. Now it’s back?
Regal: Well I was in discussions to do this and they brought out a DVD this month, The History Of The Intercontinental Championship, with Don Muraco and the rest of them.
I would like it to get back to that level. I’d love to be world champion but I think I can make just as much of an impact for myself here.
People forget I’ve been intercontinental champion before but it wasn’t where it should have been then, I didn’t have the dynamic I’ve got now.
As long as I don’t get hurt or suspended again I’ll be fine. If not, then I’ll move onto something else. I’ll be back down Butlins again.
The Sun: Finally, what’s with the new long hair?
Regal: It’s all about High Definition TV.
I was there when they did the first things for HD and when you’ve got short hair with gel in it looks bald. I was going a bit grey and most people don’t realise I’ve got blond hair.
That’s why I started growing my hair. You’ve got to update yourself when you look like me, like a badly made bed.
Source: TheSun