Fantastic William Regal interview

[ClassicsGuy]

Apologies if this has already been posted, but there's a fantastic 50 minute + audio interview with William Regal on a British comedy website, taped in London at the tv tapings a few weeks ago.

 

Regal talks about his career, growing up, what inspires him, influences him, and all of his philosophies towards wrestling.

 

It's absolutely fascinating, with Regal doing all the talking. I read his book years ago, and there's a lot he says here that wasn't in his book.

 

Well worth going out of you way to listen. Starts at the 15 minute mark.

 

http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/mat_ricar...ndon_varieties/

[SteelEdge]

Just off to bed now but favourited this for a listen tomorrow. I bloody love Regal, so I'm sure it will be a great listen.

[Frankie Crisp]

Will listen to it tomorrow, but the thread title made me think that a great ring name would have been Fantastic William Regal. Bye.

[gmoney]

Thanks for the heads up! Can't believe Steve Furst is back doing Lenny Beige though. Good luck I suppose, anything's better than Orange Wednesday ads.

[Wideload]

I never realised hat was him! Consider my mind blown.

 

(Steve Furst, not William Regal)

[CTXRussomark]

What a great little interview. The story about the embroidered shirts is fantastic. I love little attentions to detail like that.

[fye]

I enjoyed that. He talks so much sense and always seems to remember where he has been and be grateful for what he's got. I really related to the reluctant dad as I have always tried to surprise them with the shows I run. I figure the reluctant dad who is bored for 3 hours wont come back, the pleasantly surprised dad is likely to be even more receptive to his kids requests for tickets next time we're in town.

[King Pitcos]

Absolutely excellent interview, one of the best I've ever heard. Regal's fantastic.

[Sixteen Degrees]

I have to agree with the others in here. A cracking interview that's very informative. Definitely the best interview I've heard. His comments on working the crowd as soon as he comes down the ramp were pretty mind blowing.

[ColinBollocks]

I listened to this yesterday, you can tell Regal was up for talking for another hour. I still crave something like this from Hogan, where he reveals a chunk of his tricks.

[Philo_Vance]

The fella that did the interview, Mat Ricardo, is running a lovely little variety show at Bethnal Green WMC, each show features three acts then an interview for the podcast. It's not wrestling-related, but it's a bloody brilliant night out for anyone in/near London. Some of the Lucha Britannia lot were at the last one I went to, which leads me to wonder if there'll be any wrestling-related goodness in the future.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

William Regal is a great man. It would take a strange individual to not like at least something about him. Probably is our greatest export now, as far as the Americans go. He's gave more back to the business in terms of training people and putting people over and helping current wrestlers than the other Brits before him I'd say. Steve Austin, Triple H, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan will all probably agree with that. His just a really interesting person to listen to, and enjoyable whether he's in the ring, on commentary, on twitter, as a GM or just talking normally. Everything you want in a wrestler. Just completely engaging inside and outside the ring. He's a huge asset to the careers on Antonio Cesero, Dean Ambrose and the other wrestlers in FCW who seemed to be linked with him.

[Astro Hollywood]

Absolutely superb interview, thanks for finding it.

[Kaz Hayashi]

Complete legend, he would be a great uncle.

[Dirty Eddie]

William Regal is a great man. It would take a strange individual to not like at least something about him. Probably is our greatest export now, as far as the Americans go. He's gave more back to the business in terms of training people and putting people over and helping current wrestlers than the other Brits before him I'd say. Steve Austin, Triple H, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan will all probably agree with that.

 

 

Yeah I agree. I made that point a while back in some thread about UK exports and pretty much got shouted down (mostly by the words "Summerslam 92").

 

I thinks it's completely right though. For all the money that Davey Boy made at the time and the level of success he had, his sad demise at a young age brought it all crashing down. For as amazing as Dynamite was, he ended up broke and wheelchair bound and never made the money that reflected his influence on wrestling.

 

Finlay has had an amazing run, but he never reached the heights Regal did.

 

If only Willy hadn't got busted that time, he might have become a (most likely transitional) Champion and his place would be secured at the top. He's spent around 20 years as a consistent TV wrestling character, and from a personality and entertainment point of view, he's gotten better and better with age.