10 Stiffest WWE Wrestlers Ever

10. William Regal

Contrary to the besmirched bumbling Englishman he once played on WWE television, William Regal was a rugged, hard-nosed worker in his prime, imparting levels of believability into his own work even when the product around him was largely cartoonish.

"I hit people very hard in very safe places," said Regal of his style on an old episode of Tough Enough. No wrestler has ever captured the duality of stiffness so succinctly. Chops striking a bare chest make an incredible noise and red, welted skin is a ghoulish visual, but deal little-to-no lasting damage. A hard forearm to the side of the neck is preferable to one to the skull. Bruises fade, broken skin heals, and these techniques give the impression of severe punishment when the impact is typically superficial.

Such was the genius of William Regal, the wrestler, whose ugly, ugly wars with Finlay in 1996 are amongst the stiffest American wrestling has ever seen. Even in WWE, where working softer is more prevalent, Regal still found ways to lay it in when paired with fellow hard in-ring hitters like Chris Benoit.