For those that haven’t already heard, William Regal has been suspended for 60 days after his second violation of the WWE’s Substance Abuse and Drug Testing Policy.

This news couldn’t have come at a worse time for Regal who was in amidst of the biggest push of his entire career.

Regal, who has been under contract with the WWE since 2000 has had a history of drug abuse dating back to his days in WCW. Since then Regal has entered and successfully completed rehab and seemingly got his life back in shape.

He has suffered a few bumps in the road such as his heart condition which kept him out for over a year in 2003 and his first suspension under the WWE’s Wellness Program in August of 2007, when Regal, along with nine other superstars were found to be receiving “medication” which wasn’t compliant with the Wellness Program.

The William Regal character has taken a lot of twist and turns since 2000. He debuted as the “Goodwill Ambassador” for the WWE, an arrogant snob who felt as though it was his duty to teach these Americans slobs how to eat, talk and dress correctly. Shortly there after he replaced Mick Foley as Commissioner of the WWE, his character would take somewhat of a more comedic role, as he was paired with the newly signed Tajiri, who served as his lackey.

It was also around the time he and Chris Jericho began to feud after Jericho pee’d in his tea, which Regal (unaware it was urine in his cup of tea instead of a brew) drunk. Charming.

During the Invasion angle, Regal was getting over as a face due to being on the WWE’s side. He turned heel and joined the Alliance. He was largely misused during the entire Invasion much like a lot of other guys at the time.

It was after the Invasion angle that Regal took part in one of the more memorable segments in Raw history. William Regal literally kissed Vince McMahon’s bare arse to regain his job in the WWE. Regal really shined during this segment with his amazing facial expressions and willingness to do what I bet 90% of the people that were ever employed by Vince McMahon do verbally but not physically.

After this he had a feud with Edge, which resulted in Regal winning arguably his most prestigious title ever - the Intercontinental Championship. It was around this time Regal started integrating the brass knuckles gimmick into his matches. The Intercontinental Championship reign didn’t last that long as he lost the title two months later to Rob Van Dam in a largely forgettable match at Wrestlemania 18.

From here Willaim Regal wasn’t used as much as he was in previous months, he periodically appeared on TV until joining the Unamericians. Who themselves were underutilised/misused. After the Unamericans disbanded, Regal and Lance Storm began teaming and even became World Tag Team Champions before Regal had to be replaced by Chief Morley (Val Venis) due to health issues regarding his heart.

Regal made his return to TV after Wrestlemania in 2004. He was paired with Eric Bischoff’s retarded nephew, Eugene! This was classic Regal making the best of a nothing angle. Hilarity ensued during all of they’re segments; one classic skit was Regal helping young master Eugene to ‘learn the ropes’.

I still, to this day believe without Regal helping him get established on TV, Eugene would have never gotten as over as he did.

Over the course of their time together, Regal became friends with Eugene and after Eugene’s feud with HHH no less, they became tag team partners and eventually champions.

More tag team title tragedy struck for Regal, this time his partner Eugene went down with a knee injury in early 2005 which effectively ended their partnership and reign as champions.

However, Regal would hold tag team gold again very shortly after. William Regal and Tajiri were once again united and together they defeated La Résistance in Japan to win the tag titles. They would go on to hold the belts for 2 months until losing them during a Tag Team Turmoil match at Backlash.

From here, Regal really began to sink lower on the card. He was drafted to Smackdown where he primarily worked on Velocity. He did however have a great, if not forgotten match with one Chris Benoit during his time on Velocity. He formed a team with Paul Burchill which practically led to nothing apart from Burchill dressing as a pirate and Regal having to dress as a Buxom Wench. The word you’re looking for is FAILURE!

Regal began to introduce our new king at the time - King Booker to the ring. “All Hail King Booker” Regal would repeat, over and over again till you were begging this guy to shut up. It drew huge heat and again, helped a new character get established on TV.

We also got the pleasure of witnessing Finlay vs. Regal and Regal & Finlay teaming up. Sadly this didn’t last too long, after a few months Regal had had enough of King Booker’s belittlement of him, and Regal broke away from the king. He formed a team with the newly signed veteran, Dave Taylor. They didn’t have a whole lot of success and were rarely seen or used.

Things began to change when Regal was drafted to Raw in 2007. He quickly became the new General Manager of the show, reprising his former role of authority figure back in 2001. Regal was a top candidate for the role, although we didn’t get to see him in the ring that much, we did get some funny stuff during 2007 when Regal was GM.

Regal, channelling the spirit of Simon Cowell on WWE Idol was amazing, it was to be topped however with Regal dancing with Cryme Tyme in the best segment of all time at Summerslam.

Regal began to act more seriously when he got involved in the Hornswoggle/McMahon saga. Often times aiding Vince in his attempt to hurt and embarrass his “son”. Regal even faced young Hornswoggle and showed a compassionate side by not smashing the little guy in the face with the brass knuckles.

Regal would prod along as GM for awhile during 2008, popping up here and there making a match that usually involved “Youmanga”.

In April of 2008, the King of the Ring was announced to be coming back and no one knew who was going to be in the tournament. The week before hand, Raw was in London England and for one night only, Regal turned babyface in a losing effort against then WWE Champion, Randy Orton.

Seemingly with his monthly match on Raw out of the way, no one even suspected Regal would be in the King of the Ring, yet alone win it.

The whole tournament basically served as purpose to get Regal over as a GM who’ll abuse his power to get his own way and take an easy road to glory.

His first match in the KOTR was against…Hornswoggle! You see, young Hornswoggle was out there with his “real” father Finlay, who had just defeated The Great Khali via DQ. The DQ came after Khali repeatedly rammed Finlay’s leg into the post.

Regal made light work of Hornswoggle in the greatest squashing of a midget you’ll ever see. Regal would go on to face Finlay who had a damaged leg due to the assault from Khali; this is where it made a lot of sense.

Not only did he book himself against a midget in a match he knew he’d barely have to break a sweat and he’d easily win, but he also booked the tournament so that he’d face Finlay, a man who by that time would been beaten up by the 7 foot Punjabi monster (One would assume Regal would have cut a deal with Khali before the match so it wouldn’t be Khali vs. Regal). Regal won the match within some 4 minutes, thus going into the finals against CM Punk.

By this time Punk had defeated Matt Hardy in a competitive match and he had also defeated Chris Jericho in another competitive match. While Regal came out fresh as a daisy, Punk hobbled out hold his back, clearly showing signs of fatigue from having to compete in highly competitive matches in the earlier rounds. Regal downed Mr. Money in the Bank in what was a fine match. So there it was, our new ruler, our new hero, our new king - William Regal!

I have also forgotten to mention how Regal won every match. Regal won every single match that night via the STF, which came across as a ruthless hold that was something no one could escape nor could they stand the pain to either not tap or stay conscious. Not only did Regal move himself up the card and get his move over, but he had a ready made feud with John Cena over the STF/STFU move.

The following week, in what I thought was one of the best angles done by the WWE; Regal made himself one of the biggest heels in the entire company. During the Main Event that pitted the newly crowned WWE Champion HHH against the former Champion Randy Orton with the WWE Championship at stake, the match ended abruptly. After some 18 minutes of back and forth action, the new king appeared in the production truck.

Let’s back track a little. Regal had his coronation ceremony earlier in the evening; he drew a lot of heat from the crowd and was interrupted by Mr. Kennedy. They verbally battled back and forth until Regal drilled Kennedy (and boy do I mean drilled) with a left hand.

Feeling besmirched by the fans and Mr. Kennedy, Regal demanded the director of the show turn it off early, as the fans at home and live in the arena didn’t deserve to see this finish of the main event.

After the director refused, Regal went nuts and it ruled! We cut back to the match but the screen was all black with JR (none the wiser) calling the action, and then - off, show over! This legitimately got hundreds, maybe even thousands of complaints from fans phoning in and e-mailing the WWE about Regal’s actions and not being able to see the finish of the main event.

We got even more Regal awesomeness in the following weeks, it was clearly working as he was getting incredible heat (which was somehow topped by Vickie Guerrero of all people).

Just as the future was looking great for Regal, it has seemingly been cut off at the knees. The results from a drug test came back positive and Regal had to serve his second suspension, this time for 60 days. Regal lost a ‘loser is fired’ match on Raw to Mr. Kennedy and it seems he has lost his Raw GM status too.

A mire 2 months ago, it was Jeff Hardy, who like Regal, had a future that looked great, but was cut off at the knees due to failing a drug test. Admittedly, Jeff has comeback and hasn’t been buried and could (and I stress the word COULD) have some form of a main event push in the future.

For Regal however, I just really doubt it. Vince isn’t a huge fan of his in-ring work, yet loves his personality. I fear for Regal as a big push in-ring is now likely behind him.

Providing he doesn’t fail another drug test (which will be his third strike thus having to be fired), I’m sure Regal will have a job for life in the WWE. He is well liked by many higher-ups plus has a wealth of experience which makes him a prefect candidate for a job as a road agent or working in a developmental territory.

Regal will return towards the end of July when the build for Summerslam usually begins. How will Regal return? On what show will Regal return too? These are just some of the questions the fans and Regal himself is probably thinking. It’ll be interesting times ahead for both.

Steve McLaren
steve@wwepreview.com