In early 1998, WWF/WWEs William Regal was WCWs Lord Steven Regal: same ferociously talented Darren Matthews, same midcard lifer gimmick, just working for the opposition. On February 9th 1998 at Nitro, Matthews was scheduled to lose to Bill Goldberg, then only a few months into his legendary undefeated streak angle, and take his place as the thirty-fifth man on the upstart behemoths list. As the heel (and a worldwide veteran of fifteen years), Regal was responsible for running the action in the ring. At the time, Goldberg would normally work slight variations on the same two to three minute squash match, so it was a surprise when the match took on an entirely different structure, Regal aggressively taking it to the big man. Goldberg appeared nonplussed throughout their patchy, uncoordinated near six minutes in the ring, before finally taking the win with the Jackhammer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4IdelJfk2k Scuttlebutt (like gossip going into business for itself) has whispered for years that the veteran Lord Steven Regal, narked at Goldbergs huge push, had taken it upon himself to teach the rookie a lesson. Those rumours seemed borne out by the fact that Matthews was fired by WCW only a short time later. Regal himself insists its nonsense: that the agent in charge of producing the match had instructed them both to work a competitive six minutes, and that Goldberg simply froze when he got out there, having being taken out of his comfort zone. Regal claims that Goldberg copped to all of this backstage after the match, and that any heat he had with Bischoff and management was only ever due to his drug and alcohol problem and correspondingly lacklustre performances. He says hed just gotten back from a seven-week suspension without pay (punishment for being arrested while wasted and unruly on a plane back from Japan) and thus was on his best behaviour that night at Nitro. Regals recollection of that time is a little hazy though the truth may be somewhere a little in between.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
