10 Things We Learned From William Regal On Talk Is Jericho
2. He Wrestled Decades With A Broken Neck
F*cking hell.
According to Regal, he wrestled approx 30 years with a broken neck. He'd snapped it during a match at WCW's Fall Brawl 1993 pay-per-view vs. Ricky Steamboat. For the finish, the pair worked a German suplex spot - William bridged fine, but landed on his neck and heard a loud crack.
He knew it hurt, obviously, but he didn't think much of it at the time. "My arms went dead". Scary! Jericho was amazed by that, and even more stunned that his mate wouldn't get it fixed properly until decades later. To this day, Regal is the only wrestler he knows of who has four discs fused in his neck (most workers have two of three at most).
Doctors later told him that his neck was in a worse state than some folks who were already wheelchair-bound, which is downright terrifying. Shockingly, that was only just the tip of the iceberg on the pod when it came to discussing Regal's health...