William Regal Reveals Absurd WWE Pitch To Give Him An American Accent
"He didn't last long there," said William Regal of the WWE writer who pitched he go American.
The first episode of William Regal's upcoming Gentleman Villain podcast will see the current All Elite Wrestling star tell a bizarre story from his time as a WWE wrestler.
As transcribed by WrestlingNews.co, Regal reveals that at one stage in his WWE career, a member of the creative team asked if the Englishman could pull off an American accent. This was part of a pitch for him to play a character hailing from the United States on television.
In Regal's own words:-
“I remember once when one of the creative people in WWE said to me, ‘Can you do an American accent?’ It was his idea and only his idea. He didn’t last long there. His idea was to change the character of me to make me American. I was like, ‘That doesn’t make sense whatsoever.’ It was one of the few times that I actually said no to anything.”
A bold idea, given that Regal's Englishness has at least partly defined his professional wrestling career for much of his wrestling career, including his WWE run. Bumbling Hugh Grant-isms were particularly pertinent to the period he spent working babyface after his initial Stamford heel spell, though Regal's persona has always changed and evolved with the times.
Regal has been with AEW since debuting following Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley at Revolution 2022. The 54-year-old has since united Danielson, Moxley, and up-and-comer Wheeler Yuta as the Blackpool Combat Club.
Cohosted by Matt Koon, Gentleman Villain's first episode is due to hit podcasting platforms within the next 24 hours.