William Regal Was Planning To Take Time Off Until Bryan Danielson Contacted Him

When William Regal arrived in AEW after being released by WWE in early 2022, many wrestlers and fans alike were amazed that WWE would let such a monumental wrestling mind out of their grasp.

Regal quickly settled in to AEW and formed the Blackpool Combat Club with Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley, but during an appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Regal revealed he was ready to take some time away from the business before a call from Danielson:

"I was checked out. As you get older, and you hear all these things when you're younger about how 'time flies when you get old,' it may have only been a couple of months, but once I was no longer needed in my former line of work - I've done nothing but do this for a living since I was 16 full-time, apart from a couple of years off with different things that had gone on health-wise and a few injuries, I had done nothing but wrestling. That's it. I had a great run and I'm going to take maybe a year off except for, I was thinking about this time, I would start looking for the odd things in the UK, just so I could go and see my family and go home for a bit. Then, I get a call from Bryan Danielson. It sounded very exciting, just to go back and be talent, basically.

“As soon as I walk in the door, everyone seems to be asking me to do other things. 'You can do this.' A lot of that, but for the last ten years, I've been doing a lot of everything. It's been nice to just go out and be me. I'm going to do things anyway, I can't help that. The reason I ended up with the job before is I know Bryan and all these people, is because I will always be at the ring showing people stuff and I got to know a lot of people over the years because people did that for me in Britain. Once they realised I wasn't going anywhere, I couldn't have any better wrestlers take me under their wing and teach me and show me and put me into places. I felt that was part of my… if I don't do that, I'm not leaving this job in the right way.”

Regal continued by saying,

"I was checked out, Bryan called me, 'that sounds like fun, exciting.' I love being around young talent who want to do this. It turned into a job for me with my former employees. I had a great ten years being able to do that. A lot of other things, but that was the main thing, being around a group of talent. I would never like there to be a day where there isn't a wrestling business. Although I've worked for other companies, I've never worked for a company, I work for wrestling because I would help anybody who is interested. I wouldn't force myself, but if you come to me, I would hate to be at a time like when I was younger because there was no way to get into the wrestling business when I started. I never heard of a wrestling school until I came to America and you had to find a wrestler to get you in somehow or you were an amateur wrestler. Then you have to find a way and stay in it. I want there to be a wrestling business."

H/T: Fightful