William Regal Comments On The Reaction He Gets From UK WWE Fans
"I became a Carry On character, and that’s what it was based on – ‘Carry On Wrestling’."
Mar 31, 2021
William Regal has commented on why he believes United Kingdom wrestling fans always give him such a positive reaction.
Regal, without fail, is widely cheered when WWE brings the NXT general manager to feature in front of the UK audience. Regal won the Intercontinental Championship in 2008 in Manchester, to the home fans' delight.
The now 52-year-old believes his wrestling style keeps the UK audience tied in with him, as it is almost letting them in on an inside joke that the American audience might not quite get.
Speaking to the Independent, Regal said: "When I came to America, the person who brought me here wanted me to be a British-style wrestler because of other British wrestlers who’d been here in the past, and it wasn’t quite clicking.
"It wasn’t because I couldn’t do the wrestling, but you can only do that style with people of the same skill level, so I became a Carry On character, and that’s what it was based on – ‘Carry On Wrestling’.
"I always thought that people in America would hate it, but that anyone who watched it in the UK would be: ‘Wink wink, we’re in on the gag with you.’
"By the time I’d got to WWE, by that point it had been four years, and everything was still under that kind of [style]. People used to say: ‘How do people go so mad for you when you come to England?’ And I never used to tell them, but it was because people were in on the ride with me, and got that I wasn’t really what I was playing, and it was all little bits of comedy characters and British things.
"Any time I used to go out and get these reactions, it was a nice thing [because] who am I? I’ve never beat anybody, I’m nobody, right? But I used to get these reactions in Britain because I brought people along with me.
"It was nice when I used to get those – people had just figured out that I was one of them.”
