83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 323: Steven Regal

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take a deep dive into the legendary career of Lord Steven Regal aka William Regal and his time and journey in WCW. Eric shares stories of working with the ring general that you won't hear anywhere else. And, Eric discusses the infamous Regal/Goldberg match and shares what really happened behind the scenes after the match. All that plus so much more on this week's edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. BABBEL - Get up to 60% off at Babbel.com/WEEKS. Rules and restrictions may apply. SIGNOS - Signos removes the guesswork out of weight loss and provides the tools to develop healthier habits. Go to https://www.signos.com/ and get 20% off select plans by using code 83WEEKS. HENSON SHAVING - It’s time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that’ll last you a lifetime. Visit https://hensonshaving.com/BISCHOFF to pick the razor for you and use code BISCHOFF and you’ll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor–just make sure to add them to your cart. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com/, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at https://www.savewithconrad.com/ ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to https://www.podcastheat.com/advertise now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCqQc7Pa1u4plPXq-d1pHqQ/join BECOME A 83 WEEK MEMBER NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@83weeks/membership Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at https://www.patreon.com/adfreeshows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with there at Fischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I'm doing so well, I feel guilty about it. That's how well I'm doing. Well, man, I'm glad to hear it. I am so excited to sit down and talk with you today because we're doing something we haven't done in a while. It's a profile piece.

someone that we both hold in very high regard, Mr. Regal, whether you call him William or Steve. We all know Mr. Regal, and what an incredible legacy he has left, professional wrestling, and he's still making moves behind the scenes. We're going to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of all of your experiences with him today. And, boy, it's got a great finish to the story and still more chapters being written. But there's also going to be some chapters written this weekend. So as you're listening to this, tomorrow is the big show in Saudi.

And then on Sunday, an AEW pay-per-view in Vegas. Eric, this is a tale of two pay-per-views. I, for one, am not super pumped about it either. I'm going to watch both. But it doesn't feel like, I don't know, I'm not as hyped about pay-review weekend as I normally am. What say you? Yeah, I kind of feel the same way you do.

I don't know if it's kind of, after WrestleMania kind of lull and everybody's still coming down to a degree from so much that was going on really since the beginning of January all the way up until WrestleMania. I mean, if you just get the velocity of big things that were going on and volume of them, it was just packed full, not only with WrestleMania, but all the controversy in WWE and fan and stories. Oh, my God. And I think perhaps everybody's kind of just settling in and getting ready for another season of sorts. I think the other part of it, at least for me with King of the Ring, is one that's never been a pay-per-view that's really intrigued me too much. I don't mean to diminish it. If other people dig it, I'm just talking about my personal preference.

It's never been a tent pole event, me personally. now add another layer which is the which is i've seen consistently since saudi started becoming the creative leading to it just doesn't seem to have the same possess just not quite as compelling still compelling but it doesn't feel as focused that's the best way to say as other

premium live events and I suspect based on my very very limited time in WWE in 2019 when King of the Saudi, when Saudi any events in Saudi was on the table

and had to be built creatively, there was always this awkward juxtaposition with everything else that was going on storyline-wise, meaning adjustments were made because the Saudis had, at least at that time, I was led to believe, I was never part of the conversations, but led to believe from people who were, events for one and others that the Saudis had a particular wish list as well i i'm not implying

that it was contractual or anything like that but it was you know the saudis had some input on who they would like to see and sometimes concessions had to be made at least for the event that i was a part of planning for for a couple months really it started about eight weeks in advance that always seemed to be minor adjustments that had to be made to accommodate both Saudi buyers, the network, call them whatever you want. They had their own ideas. We, of course, with Superman had his own ideas. And then there were other issues as well.

Now, this is 2019. Perhaps things have changed. Perhaps not. I don't know. I'm not there. I don't ask questions. But there were certain people on the roster in 2019 who were very high profile, who were in the middle of really important stories, but opted out of Saudi for whatever reason. There were more than one or two.

So now you've got Saudis, at least at that time, having their preferences, you have to serve your domestic U.S. and international audience. by keeping your creative as intact as possible, yet accommodating the Saudi preferences, now you've got to deal with, oh, okay, let's go through the list of the people willing to go, and let's go through the people who aren't, and now try to satisfy both requisites. It's tricky, and I think perhaps that mitigation

and accommodation of the various challenges, maybe that's what's making it feel like, cool, I can't wait, but if I miss it, it's not the end of the world. That's kind of how I feel. Now, obviously, I'm not going to miss it because you and I are going to do a post game. We're going to talk about it. The challenges that a Saudi event creates or presents that are different than other events around world even.

We'll talk about all that. But we're going to do the post game. And then, of course, we're going to do the same thing from AEW's, a double or nothing. Of course, we're talking about all of this happening at 83 weeks.com. That's your home for all things, Eric Bischoff, doing some pretty exciting things over there. But this weekend, we're going to be doing live coverage after both shows. So it's going to be an afternoon affair on Saturday and then late night on Sunday. But hey, you've got Monday off.

Hang out with us, and we'll be talking about King and Queen of the Ring and AEW's Double or Nothing. It all happens at 83 weeks.com. The actual card this weekend at King of the Ring only has five matches announced as we're recording this. It's Gunther v. Smackdown winner. We've got a similar circumstance with the ladies for the queen of the ring.

Of course, we've also got a women's title match with Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan. The IC strap is on the line with Sammy Zane, Chad Gable, and Bronson Reed in a three-way. But then the main event, and this is the one I wanted to ask you about. Cody Rhodes v. Logan Paul. This is Cody's second premium live event defending the world title or the big belt, whatever you want to call it. And his first opponent was AJ

Stiles. It was over in France. What a spectacle it was. But going in, a lot of people were saying, hey, AJ has no shot. This is not compelling. He's not a threat for the title. Well, the match was a five-star affair with one of the hottest, if not the hottest crowd in WW history. This is going to be different. And I'm wondering if maybe we feel like the buzz isn't where it normally is on PLEs because of the daytime, I mean, just the day, the time of the show, or is it because there was really only like a two-week build for Logan Paul? And do you think that perhaps Logan Paul was one of those Saudi requests? I mean, he is a quote unquote, more mainstream star. Perhaps that is a Saudi request. I say that.

because we've seen Logan Paul get another title shot against Roman Raines, like, I don't know, 18 months ago, also in Saudi. What do you make of that? Do you think it's possible that the Saudis are pushing for Logan? I hate to be as definitive as I'm going to sound, but I can't imagine that that's absolutely not the issue. Right. It just makes too, if you take your wrestling hat off,

especially a wrestling fan hat, put on your business hat, there is probably a list of reasons why this makes so much sense. The Saudis, Logan, given everything that he's got going. The mega entrepreneur that he has become and the opportunity that exists in Saudi for him. So who wins? W.WE wins. They're servicing their client

and making a shit ton of money in the process. Saudis win. Logan wins. Look at Dano. We'll put a story together in two weeks. And that's what you've got. I would bet a lot of money, if I had a lot of money. I would bet a lot of money that would be the base.

We've also got a low. paper view on Sunday. AEW has 10 matches. You've got Will Osprey and Roger Strong. You've got John Moxley and Tecesta. You've got Trent Barretta and Orange Cassidy. You've got a lot of fun matches, including the Anarchy in the Arena match and the world title match.

But I think the one that a lot of people are talking about is Mercedes Monet. This will be the first time we see her inside of an AEW ring wrestling an actual match. She'll be challenging the AEW women's champion, Willow Nightingale, or I'm sorry, the TBS championship that Willow has. You know, she's been around for a while now. A lot of people think this is, you know, long overdue. People are itching to see Mercedes-Monnais actually wrestle

and not just have skits and promos and things like that. But I got to tell you, I'm a little surprised the buzz isn't bigger. You know, she was supposed to be this landmark signing for AEW, and I don't know that that has necessarily been reflected in ratings yet. I think we all know how capable she is in the ring, so I'm sure it's going to be a great match. But I did kind of think there might be more buzz around her finally wrestling in AEW. What do you make of all this with Mercedes Monet and AEW

and it finally happening this weekend to maybe less anticipation than we expect? It's flat. And nobody cares. her buzz is absolutely gone. It was self-inflicted. Poor booking. Just poor decision-making from day one until now. It's horrible.

She's, she, they, AW, and I'm going to suggest that perhaps not there, Mercedes herself, sure she had some influence over how she was going to be used. and whatever decisions were made collectively or independently of each other, they've just taken all the gas out of her tank. Her appearances have been borderline horrible, bad if you're in a good mood, and marginal if you're in a good mood. and when you you kill all the anticipation

by overexposing her in a way that she shouldn't have ever been used killed a character nobody cares she'll go down on that long list of amazingly talented people high degree of equity

audience connection to the audience value with the audience they end up in AEW and within a matter of months or Mercedes case very almost it just doesn't matter it's another name on the card well I know that the match is going to be outstanding

I don't think I've ever seen a bad quote unquote Sasha Banks match this will be the first time any of us see Mercedes Monet in an AEW ring but I even enjoyed her stuff pretty well in New Japan so I'm excited to see what she does best maybe not promos and skits

but actual bell to bell and it seems like AEW always delivers on pay-per-view. I mean, they always have critically acclaimed great matches. But I wonder, I mean, I've even heard some people in the industry say, there might be less interest in this pay-per-view than any AEW pay-per-view history. And when I heard somebody say that, I thought, wow, that's a hell of a statement. But I guess if you've been trending or taking a look at where ratings are and attendance is, it does feel like they're looking for some momentum.

Do you think a strong showing on pay-per-view could be the thing that gets you some momentum or does momentum start on television? It has to start on television. Look, AEW has, let me break this down a little bit differently. You said, yes, AEW has critically acclaimed paperboard, critically acclaim means internet wrestling audience. Right?

yeah the loudest portion of the internet wrestling community tends to lean into the in ring action quality of the match dave melzer ideology philosophy that's what they talk about it's what they like to compare not talking about the entire internet wrestling community internet talking about the the the the percentage of the loudest voices you tend to to hear because that's a very debatable topic it's an easy thing to talk about so it attracts people

to debate whatever critically acclaim means absolutely nothing in terms of trends it's just interesting and it's fun to watch because some of the perspectives are really really smart and insightful some of them are so bizarre that they make me laugh and there's everything in between What you don't hear people talking about is story. Now, last night, as this drops Friday morning, last night, we did a wise choice. We talked all about, well, not all about story. We get into what is going to be a three-part series where we break down story. And what we're going to define story because I think right now the biggest issue is there is no story.

And whatever stories there are are not very good. But people don't really know how to define a story. And, and I talked about last night on Wise Choices, I made a comparison between AEW in a microwave oven. As bizarre as that sounds, it's a really good example of what I mean. I'm not going to talk about it here, check out Wise Choices. But we're going to talk about that. But I think the reasons that I talked about Lesson and I won Wise Choices begin this journey into what is or isn't story. is that people are now

AEW has successfully created a product that is designed to appeal almost exclusively to that segment of the audience that only likes, only prioritizes great in ring action which is why it's flat

which is why the ratings are down which is why attendance is down which is why the goodwill that AEW came to the dance with is all but gone with the exception of a very small nucleus of that hardest of hard-growing action. I mean, I think that's it. There's no other explanation out there. You can blame it on hockey. But a good pay-per-view, AEW has been doing that for five years.

They have. Hasn't helped them yet. Hasn't helped them grow their audience yet. hasn't created a comeback opportunity to help rebuild momentum yet. And given how low the perception of AEW has become over the last couple months, six months really, I don't see them springing back simply by putting on a banger paper that it's critically acclaimed. It won't matter.

At the end of the day, it'll be fun for that audience, and I might even enjoy it. There's just aspects of that presentation I do. But in terms of it, you know, being a rebound opportunity, not a chance. You know, it's interesting because we often talk about here on 83. What was the moment? What was the tipping point, you know, when WCW started to lose minimum? And there's all these, you know, theories. Oh, it was Arcade 97 or Starcade 98.

The finger poke a, it was this moment or that moment. And I am curious, you know, if there was a, a, uh, a, uh, a, a point in time, or we can point to, and we can say, boy, this is when the momentum shifted downward for AEW, but we know that momentum can go either way. And I, for one, I'm hoping that it's an awesome pay-per-view and they get some momentum and they have a really, really strong build to Wembley. And I know we've got other pay-per-view along the way, but it does feel like Wembley is, it's got to be the focus right now, right, Eric?

I mean, coming out of this next pay-per-view, I mean, that's like your, kind of like your WrestleMania, you know, I hate to use it. If it's not, it should be. Right. Right.

So we'll see what happens. But the good, the bad and the ugly will be discussed over at 83 weeks.com. You heard Eric reference last night as you're listening. We had a live wise choices.

That's an Eric only show. You get to actually ask Eric questions. You can bust his balls right there live too. He can't go nowhere. Please do, by the way. Please do.

I'm going to make you pay for the opportunity. But mucker fathers bring your shit up. it's uh it's kind of fun it's almost like eric sitting in a dunking booth on youtube and it's it's free go watch it's 83 weeks dot com and of course this weekend uh we're your home i mean think about that on thursday night you got a live wise choices at 83 weeks dot com on friday morning you got our conversation that you're listening to now about mr regal on saturday late afternoon early evening you got some w e king and queen of the ring coverage And on late Sunday night, we're talking about AEW double or nothing, four big days

of incredible content, and it's totally free. It's 83 weeks.com. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and turn on the notifications bell so you know every time that Eric is live. And if you don't mind, throw us a thumbs up, throw us a comment. We want to hear your feedback. What do you like? What don't you like?

Hey, by the way, even if you throw us a thumbs down, we like that too. We want your feedback. The good, the bad. ugly, do it.83 weeks.com. And speaking of doing it, we got to talk about something you and I have both been doing. And of course, I'm talking about Babel. It's the best way to learn a language. You know, it's immersion where you're living where the language is spoken and using it every day. But if that's not in the cards for you this year, you can still learn a language the second best way. And that is with Babel. One in five Americans have learn a new language on their bucket

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slash weeks. That's B-A-B-B-B-B-E-L-com slash weeks. Rules and restrictions may apply. Hey, you know what I'm excited about? First of all, I love Babel. I love learning about new cultures and their language, and there's nothing cooler. Then when you, in your case or mine, when you travel on business and you're able just to do some of the basic things like ordering, especially ordering in a restaurant, because the service changes. When you go into a foreign country and you attempt to speak their language, this is everywhere but France. France, the bar is pretty high.

But if you just attempt, it would be amazed at what happens to the level of service and attention. It's like all of a sudden they're trying to adopt you. Make sure you have a good time. Make sure you got everything. They help you through it just by making the attempt. And when I'm going to a different country, I always spend, you know, the first month, just babble a little bit just so I can, if it's just ordering a beer. Yeah.

Or ordering a meal. I ask, you know, hear about the history of the country. But it's so cool. And here's what else is going. This is what I'm looking forward to the most. This is why I love babble. They have babble for kids. leave it and when my grandson is old enough not there yet he's about three he gets to be about

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And they've been supporting our show here for quite a while. Let's support them. And you're going to be really surprised next time you're at that Mexican restaurant or that Chinese restaurant or that Japanese restaurant. you take the wife on vacation.

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And as luck would have it, we just called some audibles because we felt like we needed to. But back on May 10th, our man turned 56 years old. And of course, we probably all grew up watching him in WCW as Lord Stephen Ringle. But of course, we know he really became an even bigger star as an on-screen character in the WWE, William Ringle. Let's go back to the very beginning of y'all's relationship. When did you first meet, Mr. Reigel? Probably had to be 92.

93, I think. It was during the Bill Watts, I think, brought it in. So it was during the Bill Watts era, which was a relatively short era. I believe it was Bill Watts who brought him in. And that was the first time. I remember what I do remember, whenever that time period was, Jim Ross was really, really excited. Really excited.

Let's remind everybody, you said it. Bill Watts is the guy who brings Regal in, and I believe, as I've heard the story goes, this was a different era. It's not like there was social media and there was an opportunity for fans and other people within the industry to start tagging influencers and power brokers. You couldn't just throw on YouTube and find somebody's highlight reel. Back then, business was done where, hey, we're sending out tapes, we're sending out headshots were sending out letters.

And allegedly, Mr. Regal was encouraged by Rip Rogers. Hey, why don't you just write Bill Watts a letter? So he wrote Bill a letter and Watts agreed to bring him into Atlanta. Is that kind of the way it used to go down? I mean, you had to have like a kit. Here's your headshot. Here's your letter. I mean, we've seen Cactus's letters that he's written to promoters over the year.

That's kind of how the business was 30-something, right? Oh, absolutely. I remember in WCW specifically in the Booker's Room, we had group, come booking committee, come together, and there would always be three, four, five stacks, two or three foot and a half, two foot high, of people who sent in the H.S tapes, eight by tens, that week, that week. Because the agents at the time,

Terry Taylor, predominantly. Mike Graham, they got in for a while, for others in and out, would sit, you know, during their downtime and they would just look at tapes, talk about these guys, some of them they knew, had heard of, a lot of them they never did. But that was the point of entry back then. For any, you know, certainly with WCW, we didn't have any working arrangements with independent promoters or anything like that, like WWE did with various promoters, and I'm sure, and Smoky Mountain. Smoky Mountain OVW and others.

We didn't have any of that, really. Maybe some informal contacts, guys like Terry Taylor, because he was pretty well connected. But the primary way in was send a date. Let's take a look. Well, we know that it works out, but Mr. Regal actually wrote of this experience. Quote, when I landed in Atlanta,

the reality was a shock. There were no bright lights, no yellow taxis, no obvious glamour, no pavements either, which was weird. I was surprised there was no one from WCW at the airport to greet me. I would learn that as far as WCW, the organization went, that wasn't unusual. I booked myself into the Ramada Hotel near the airport, which would become my home for quite a while. Yeah, I mean, I imagine that is probably a bit of a shock.

If you're, you know, someone from across the pond watching WCW and the WWF and certainly have this perception, and then when you come over in 93, Well, things are a little different. The reality of wrestling in 93, probably a whole heck of a lot different than it would have been a few years earlier or a few years later. I mean, we're kind of in a down period here in 93, no?

Well, yes. But I think it's not so much the down period or any kind of financial limitations that would have made it impossible or not practical at the time to have a limo go over and pick Steve up. or even a Tom Carr or anything like that. I think, in effect, I hadn't read that quote before

and I find you kind of interesting because WCW never really went too far into accommodating new talent unless that talent was a, you know, Rick Flair when he came back from WWF, he got the red carpet treatment. Hulk Hogan certainly got the red carpet treatment. You know, others would have that we're engaging, you know, the idea of possibly coming to work at WCW. But to be honest, as much as I like and respect,

a good honesty, Regal, he wasn't that star. He was coming in for an opportunity that he asked for. And I find it surprising that he would expect WCW to send a car. I mean, that would have been like me when I, after I had worked in AEW for a few years and hosted a show on ESPN five days a week for a year or two. Getting it up, you know, setting my videotape into WCW, hoping to get a job.

When they finally say, sure, we'll send you the plane ticket, come on in, but then I got to get myself around. Nobody sent me a car. I was asking for a job. I wasn't being asked to come in. Two different things. I don't know where he landed. The last time I remember, because I lived in Atlanta in 1993,

There's payment everywhere. No doubt. There was no dirt roads anywhere near Atlanta that I was aware of. And I covered a lot of ground. Saturday mornings, DDP. Jump in his, he had a Mercedes, like a 450 SL, whatever it was, a convertible. A little Miami vice looking rig. Awesome.

And we would drive around with a top down drinking beers all over Atlanta, shooting debris, talking about wrestling, how we were going to change the world. covered a lot of ground but there was so many dirt roads not within 20 miles of Atlanta 30 anyway whatever I just I don't think he means dirt roads

I think he means sidewalks like it's not like you could land at the airport and get on a sidewalk and walk downtown oh yeah that's different I'm sorry I thought it'd been payment it's like where the fuck did we must have landed like Warner Robbins Georgia and took a cab

I mean I'm not saying that's what he means I'm just guessing no that makes sense that makes sense I get that. I do want to ask about, very quickly, I want to correct you. You didn't work for five years for AEW before tried to land a job with WCW. That was the AWA.

Oh, AWA, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He did write about Oli Anderson a little bit here. And I want to mention that to you. He's talking about Oli in his book. He says, quote, he was at WCW when I arrived and he ran the company for a while. He hated Eric Bischoff. Eric hated him.

Oli asked me to train his son, Brian, another good lad with talent. But as soon as Eric got the power, he got rid of Brian. It was wrong. Brian worked hard and ended up without a job because of politics. He grew sick of wrestling and ended up as a teacher. I did not remember this at all. I've read the book years ago, but of course doing this research for our episode, that jumped off the page.

What can you tell us about Oli's son and what did or didn't happen? you first of all and look this this was excuse me first of all this is steve's perception this is steve looking at the world through his eyes and making assumptions based on what he didn't know about me which is that's human nature how could he know what made me tick how could he know who i liked who i didn't like how could he possibly know who I hated and didn't hate because, well, he didn't know me. He didn't have that relationship. Steve hadn't been around long enough.

That's number one. Number two, I never hated Oli. I liked Oli. Before I got into management, I spent a lot of time, fun time, hanging with Oli, hearing stories, messing around. Remember wrestling with him in the production. suite at the CNN Center. Well, guys were trying to post-produce the show. I mean, I really liked Oli.

Oli was incorrigible. Oli did not play well with others. Putting O'I in a corporate environment at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta that is filled with Turner corporate executives, It was like the dumbest idea anybody ever had. Oli made it hard on Oli. I had to move Oli down to the power plant. I could have fired Oli a dozen times for cause.

And probably as an executive I should have and was probably guilty of not fulfilling my obligations in my role for not doing so for a lot of reasons. But because I liked OLEC, I was trying to work around him. So I sent him down to the power plant. This all has to do with Steve's reception. So I sent him down to the power plant because I thought,

well, there's no executive's going to come down here and ask me what the fuck I'm doing, keeping this guy on a payroll. And Oli could be, only had the capacity to be a great teacher, a great teacher, especially when it came to psychology. Really, really good. So my hope was, I'm going to get him out of corporate.

Wanted to be in corporate because he was booking up with Sharon Sadello, who was the VP of marketing? And while that was convenient, wasn't it? But I put him down to Power Plan, and he fucked that up. First thing he did is go, and it was the very reason I moved him out, he punched a hole through the wall in one of the office, in a hallway in CNN Center. Because somebody didn't like his booking ID. You can't have somebody like that around in a corporate environment. I would want him around and in a non-corporate. But certainly in a corporate environment,

somebody that's threatened to beat somebody's ass or do this or do you know, always trying to intimidate. Because he didn't really know how to communicate. If he wasn't intimidating, he didn't know how to communicate. Had to be in character all the time. Shipped him down power plant. Brings all his negative bullshit down there. Black Jack Mulligan knocks him out.

That's when I fired him because there was nowhere else to put him. He was a square peg that didn't even fit in a square hole. This wouldn't work. It wasn't because I hated Oly. It was because Oly hated everything about WCW and I tried to keep him. Oly bringing his kid in was just not going to work. Nepotism. This was right off the Bill Watts disaster for crying out.

Now, there's no way that Steve could know this. Right. Because he just got there. Right. But the Bill Watts, Eric Watts, and it's really unfair to Eric Watts, too. Eric took a lot of heat that he's never. Eric had one foot in the grave and the other on muddy ground the day he showed up because of it. It's a tough position to be in.

And only wanted to do the same thing. We were still trying to repair a lot of this bullshit that comes along with nepotism and booking because of Bill Watts. And now here's only trying to rinse and repeat the same mistake. But there's no way Steve could. I really appreciate. And we have actually a shirt that's available now called Context is King. And I really appreciate you adding context because I don't think even after all these podcasts,

you and I have done together, that you've really. you had ever communicated as effectively the real oldie story. So thanks for that. I hope a lot of people hear that. Let's talk about Bill Watts because Steve wrote about Bill Watts being fired. Here's what he had to say. As soon as Bill went, I thought I would be the next one straight out the door. As in any other business, so in wrestling. The new man in charge would bring in his own guys and get rid of the fellows associated with the old regime. I thought that would happen to me. And if I'm honest, I wasn't too upset at the prospect. Yes. I was earning $1,500 a week, but I had to pay for the hotel I was living in, and for the rental cars, too.

I had to pay 40% to my tax bill at the end of the year, had to send money home to pay my bills in England. Now, listen, I know $1,500 a week, boy, there's a lot of folks I know who would consider that a great living today. But again, you're not able to just have one set of bills. He's got a UK set of bills, and now he's got his U.S. bills. it's not a ton of cash but I think it's probably natural for him to feel pensive maybe is the right word about

oh gosh, Watts is out what does this mean for me? That uncertainty in wrestling is there for a lot of performers then, now and maybe forever, huh? Actors, actresses, musicians, anybody in the performing arts

from ballet down to wrestling it's the nature of the beast it's one of the things that makes it so difficult is that uncertainty that's why i have so much respect for people who are not able to be successful for a period of time but to make an entire career out of it and come out the other end as a sane human being i don't care who you are you got my respect because it's incredibly tough and also keep in mind again i'm trying to look at this from steve's point of view back in 1993 he came into a shit storm wcw was at its lowest point probably until the very end

2001 from a morale perspective from a performance perspective wcd was in a fucking toilet they were just abysmal with no no hope even on the horizon and from the office to the locker rooms and everything in between, it was everybody. Hell, at this point in time, when Stephen came in, I was looking for a way out of WCW. Before I got to not as executive producer once Bill Watts got fired. Up until that point that Bill Watts got fired and I found out they were bringing in

an executive producer, I was packing my shit. I was on my way to L.A. I was selling shows already at that time. So my first show. The Fox Network, 1993, and I'm looking at Lori going, this place is fucking crazy, WCW, my contract was coming to an end. Everybody was so miserable, including me, who just a year and a half before was just kissing the ground. Every time I walked into CNN Center, I was so grateful for that job.

Within 18 months or so, I was ready to pack my shit. So that's what Steve came in. So the fact that he was, you know, first of all, I can't imagine how he made it. on $75,000 a year. Now you've got to pay double taxes and you're living in a hotel. Even a cheap hotel, it gets real expensive with you live in it. Buying your food out. I mean, that's almost, I don't know how he did it, be honest.

But on top of that, he stepped into WCW at one of the worst possible time. Not only that, when he first debuts on WCW television, he doesn't have this character. I mean, he's quote unquote, just a wrestler. There's not a lot of emphasis on character. He's going to be thrown into the title tournament for the vacant television title. He'll get a win over the Barbarian in the first round and then lose to Johnny Be Bad in the quarterfinal.

But as we fast forward to June 12th on an episode of WCW Saturday night, which again, just to add this context, that's the A show. This is pre-nitro, so this is the A show. He's going to turn heel, and he's going to claim dissent from Will William the Conqueror and Sir William began serving as his manager. Of course, in real life, Sir William is Memphis legend Bill Dundee. What do you recall about this heel turn and him becoming Lord Stephen Regal? And then what can you tell us about Bill Dundee being his manager?

That's really my first memory was as far as Steve as a character was in that Lord Stephen Regal character. I don't remember watching him or paying attention to him. to him when he was just Steve from the UK, all right? I like the character because Steve did it so well. He mastered the little tiny nuances, almost to the point of being a caricature of what that character was, which I guess made sense because it was a very animated cartoonish type character.

than a real guy. This is back in the, we're going to do what WWE does. They're doing big characters. We're going to do big characters. So I really liked it. I used to love to watch Steve prepare for a promo. Now,

this was back when I was an announcer, right? Not like looking at things with a critical eye and how to make it better or anything that shit. I'm just a fan that happened to be an announcer. All I am. But I love to watch. I love to watch people that were trying to get better at what they,

And I would watch Steve in about 10, 15, 20 minutes before he step up and start doing whatever he was going to do if he was cutting promos or whatever, he would actually start his body, his posture would change. Like he would be, you would see him become Lord Stephen Regal over a course of about 10 or 15 minutes before he actually got like, like, shook his little head, kept his chin up properly. kind of look down his nose, even though he was making eye contact. I mean, he saw all these little fucking things. But he was getting into that character before he stepped up to the microphone.

I was so impressed with that. And you've heard me talk about little details. I said that television is, someone else told me this. This was a me. Someone I have a ton of respect for it. So great television is nothing more, but a great attention to little details. And I didn't, I hadn't heard that back then, but I used to just watch the you.

It was pretty cool. It goes from just being polite, very soft-spoken, very respectful, very, very respectful, very respectful guy on assuming as hell. I don't really notice him in a room. There were 10 people in a room. He might be the last person you'd recognize or notice because he just was very, very reserved and very respected. And within about 10 minutes, and he'd just start.

change it, morph, become that character. It's really cool to watch. He didn't need Bill Dundee. I don't know why, nothing against Bill Dundee. But typically when you have manager, it's because there's a flaw, the hole in the game. Talent can't really conduct an interview, effective. So you bring somebody in, like a Bill Dundee, who is good on, who was good, is good, on the mic. but Steve Regal was so looking good in promos that even then I was one or well why what's

is that not distracting from person you want to focus on want to get the character over why would you have another character in the limelight that is completely unnecessary Steve could do all of the talk and he needs to do he was really really good for No, we don't spend a lot of time talking about Bill Dundee, and I know it's because he was never really a national television star for WCW or WD. I know that he was on camera quite a bit, different gimmicks and presentation, but never a superstar Bill Dundee,

who became a real territory legend in the South. What was your experience working with Bill Dundee like, and why don't you think he gets more flowers? Do you think it's because he wasn't? isn't, you know, on TV during the big booms on a national scale? I think, yeah, I think that's the most obvious, right? I mean, that's the biggest reason. Probably overshadows just about everything else

because it was certainly a great talent in the ring, had a great success in a territory that wasn't always easy to have success in. And he was in there competing with and amongst some of the biggest names at that time, some of them were legends today. So that, I mean, I can't explain it any more than that is, you know, bad timing, I guess. If reaching that national kind of notoriety and aim is high on your list of things to accomplish, it's pretty hard to do during that era, you're a regional, you're a regional guy. As far as my working relationship with him, I did, you know, it was cordial, but minimal.

I didn't really work a lot. He never really got into e-depth conversations about creative or talent. He, you know, Bill kind of worked with Mike Graham and Terry Taylor and whoever was in the room at the time on the creative side. And I stayed out of that. I wasn't involved with creative, you know, 93, 94, really until 95. So I put my toe in the water. so Bill's era was prior to that and these era was prior to be putting my toes in a one

five and as a result I just never really talked to him I always heard he was such a brilliant mind for wrestling and I knew that he had developed a reputation fairly or unfairly I wasn't there I was a kid hell know that he would hot shot territories but if you had a territory that needed fans you know next Monday night at the big arena show

he could figure out how to do that. And part of that, I'm sure, was how successful he had been doing that with Jarrett's and Mr. Lawler in Memphis, weekend, week out. I mean, just a real legend. I mean, I think everybody listening to this knows that Jerry Lawler was like

the top star in Memphis. But he also had to have someone to wrestle. And his dance partner, more often than not, was Bill Dundee. Let's talk a little bit more about Regal, though. Dusty Rhodes came up to him according to Riegel's book and said, we've got a great idea for you.

We're going to turn you heel and you're going to be called Lord Stephen Riegel. I didn't care whose idea it had been. It was going to happen. That was all I cared about. I think that's interesting that this wasn't necessarily because he did the character so well and so effectively. I think most people, myself included, would have thought, hey, this was his idea and his presentation and he brought it with him.

But to be told, no, he was. told and sort of dictated to this is your new character this is your new name and that's what he came up with he was so good at it I felt like it was his idea Eric he took ownership and bought in

and I know that Bruce has been receiving a lot of criticism for the entire run of his podcast something to wrestle because he sort of took Terry Taylor to task early on and said he didn't embrace the Red Rooster gimmick it could have worked Terry didn't want it to work

and people made fun of of that and said, I don't know about that. But I could see this same gimmick on someone else, Eric, being a laughing stock, it not working, people making fun of it. And then we just move on as just an ill-fated idea. But when Regal had it, boy, it was a home run. Regal deserves all the credit for that. The real life, Darren, deserves all the credit for this success of the character.

Don't you agree? Not only do I agree, but it's one of the reasons. reasons why my level of respect for Steve Regal for Darren, for Darren, played the character, is because that, what you just said, the way you just described how Steve Wrigal embraced that character despite the fact it wasn't his idea, he may not even have liked But that is the definition of who Darren is. And it has worked for him, obviously, because he's incredibly successful and more importantly, incredibly valuable to WWE, we'll talk about later, show, I'm sure. But it defines who he is as a human being and the way he approaches his business.

if you ask him to do something he doesn't analyze whether it's a good idea or bad idea he just approaches it in a way that provides him the best opportunity to be as good as he possibly should he's been that to me is the definition of a professional that's a professional wrestler in my mind and I guess I said that work ethic that was taught to him early on. And this is one of the things that, you know, you and I were in Dallas. It was a Starcast, I think, event.

Yeah, Dallas a couple years ago. They all shared an Airbnb. And Steve, I'm going to stick to calling him, Steve now, because when I have that much respect for a character, I always refer to them by their character name, not their name. So, for me, it's either Mr. Regal or Steve. Same. If it's in public and there are other people around, I don't know, it's Mr. Regal.

Yes. If we're very, very familiar, it'll be Steve. Never be Darren. It's going to make that point. So nobody's confused throughout the rest of the show. But I sat outside in that Airbnb because Steve spent a night or two there with us. One morning, we both got up early, sitting out on the back deck, having coffee. And we just got into this long conversation.

And I was really curious about where Steve came from. What was his life like in wrestling and personally before he got to WCW? Because that aspect of someone's career is probably one of the most interesting to me. It's like, how did this happen? How does you end up in this crazy business? Take me, take me, take me for a ride from the day one, you know? It's almost always how I approach people that I know well. And we got to this long conversation.

He talked to me about guys, Terry Rudge, Dave Taylor, Pete Roberts. These were all established professional wrestlers in the UK that took young Steve Riegel under their wing and taught him very foundation and basics of professional wrestling at that time in the UK and work ethic. And being a professional was at the top of the list. Nothing else mattered. You weren't a professional in the ring and out of the ring. And I think there's no, I think Steve Regal has, has carried that philosophy, the system with him to this very day. Because he had some ups and downs in between.

Sure, it's life. Bucker Fathers, we all have it. I certainly have, continue to have, just life. Steve, because of the way he was brought up at 16 years old. There were periods of time at 16 years old during the summer. I had to write it down. He told me there was so many matches. He was working five days a week, three shows a day for 20 weeks.

At 16 years old. That's, that's, you know, talk about blowing your mind. Think about that. That's how he learned. That's where his foundation was built. That's where his philosophy with regards to the business was built and how he reacts with people and how, when giving a task or character in this case, just do it. If it's, here's your match, here's your opponent, it's 10 minutes.

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that starts the fire for Regal and the rest of his wrestling career, probably. He's going to continue on his path of his lordship, if you will. But what's fun is to hear who he traveled with behind the scenes, because you have this perception of this character

that you see on TV. I know I did. But then you find out, wait, he's sharing a car with Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and Brian Pilman. This guy's a cut up. I mean, that is not what you expect from this character. I mean, these are guys who, well, they have a little fun. They have a reputation for being fun.

And that's just not your perception of Regal. But the real life Darren, or as we're going to call him here today, the real life, Mr. Regal, boy, he had to have a blast with that carload. My goodness. Had a blast and how much that carload of friends could learn. from Steve. I mean, this is a guy, Steve Regal

wrestled in sand pits in India. Like, that was a thing. I can't remember the name of the style. It's a style of Indian wrestling that was very common. And Steve would go there and wrestle as a professional. Now, Steve was in there with the, and these were shooters of sorts in this,

it was a legitimate sport. It wasn't professional wrestling as we know it here today or even now in India. This is free WWE influence, really. So they, and I've never seen it. I'm going to pursue my Google machine and watch them because it sounds fascinating.

But they put this young kids, Steve Regal, in there with these athletes, because it was illegitimate, like judo. Indian judo, I guess, is the best way I could describe it

based on what I've heard. And Steve would wrestle these sandpits. These sand pits were filled with, I think it was, turmeric spice it's yellow because the tumoric acted as a antibacterial thing so you could rustle in the sand you're all sweaty you're outside and it would blend in this turmeric with the sand so that you wouldn't get infected if you got cuts and all that kind of stuff and it was really cool except for the first time Steve did it he came out of the pit and he was he was yellow because

That turmeric got all over in his skin. It took him forever to get it out. But he wrestled in sandpits. He wrestled in sandpits. You know how they got paid? It would be out in the middle of a field somewhere and they would pass a bucket around and people would put whatever they could in the bucket and the wrestlers would split it. Talk about a payday.

Can you imagine? There's so much fascinating shit about this guy. So the guy's in that car with him, Austin. I mean, that's a life experience and a wrestling. experience and I'm pretty sure they hadn't heard before. And that kind of, you know, you've heard wrestlers talk about, I have since the beginning of my wrestling time, some of the best ideas were in a car, drinking a couple of beers, going from town to town.

They were collaborating. They didn't call it that. They were shooting and shit and having a good time. But essentially, they were collaborating. And I think when you have a car full of guys that we just saw there a few moments ago, they all learn them a little bit from each other while they're having fun and i'm sure steve looking at this photo if you're watching along with us on youtube or on edfrey shows probably got the urge to wrestle in the sand i don't know if anybody else did but i bet steve did check out the photo

over at 83 weeks dot com from left to right you'll see rickie the dragon steamboat kevin sullivan aran anderson steve austin and steve regal all enjoying some beach time i want to give a special shout out to our friend Kevin Sullivan who's well had some challenges recently and I don't know what we should or shouldn't share but hey if you believe in that sort of thing

let's throw one up for Kevin Sullivan we're hoping that he has a very speedy recovery and he's back good as new sooner rather than later let's talk about Regal he's going to get a big win against Marcus Alexander Bagwell and I know

what you're thinking wait that's a big win Yeah, it's a clash of the champions. So it's going to be a bigger than normal audience. It happens on June 16th. And at the next clash of the champion, Regal is actually going to be substituting for the now injured Brian Pillman. Can I throw something in your, Conrad?

I don't mean to throw you off. Yeah. Just to add to what you just said, the reason Bagwell and Regal was a big deal, way bigger than anybody could possibly know or think wasn't in the office at the time, Dusty loved Bagwell Yes

Dusty wanted to build Bagwell So for Dusty to book that Really suggests what Dusty saw in Regal Because up until this point Dusty was very protective of Bagwell Because he really believed it And now at the next clash

He's going to be team with Austin To defend the world tag team titles So as a reminder Austin and Pilman are the tag champs. But with Pilman out, Austin looks to Regal to substitute. Regal catches the pin. So the tag titles are now switching hands to Arne Anderson and Paul Roma. It's Regal who was pinned.

That ends the Hollywood Blonde's run. But still, he's in a major, I mean, he's in a tag team title match. He just beat Bagwell at another clash. He's getting some momentum here. And at Fall Brawl 93, he gets his biggest win to date. He's going to get a win over Ricky Steamboat and he becomes the television champion.

He also unknowingly breaks his neck during the match as well. I mean, process this. You've got your biggest break yet. It's a pay-per-view. It's for a singles championship. You're going over. But oh, by the way, you broke your neck.

Boy, that's the ups and downs of pro wrestling in a sentence or a story, is it not? Yes, what makes it so, such a tough career. I mean, everything can be going your way one minute and then, boom, you're on the sidelines or starting over in some cases. Of course, we at home would think, hey, man, he's the television champion. That must mean he's on his way up the card. I mean, that is the way it looks, right?

But Steve wrote, I was holding the belt in my hands backstage, walking on air, when Aaron Anderson saw me and started laughing. What are you laughing for, Arne? I asked. And he said, that's the kiss of death belt. I soon learned what he meant. Yes, it's a big win on pay-per-view. Yes, he's a new champion.

But, well, Arn had had his time with that title and been around long enough to see that maybe that didn't always go the way you hoped. Riegel would write. You know what? You know what's so sad about that, Conrad? Number one, it's sad because it's true. but what's sad about it as well is that what Steve initially felt is the way he should have felt if WCW at that time was functioning properly.

If that belt actually had value and there was a strategy that came with that belt because it had value, then Steve's feelings in that moment before Arne inflated it is exactly the way he should have felt and business would have been a whole lot different in WCW if that would have been the case but unfortunately it wasn't it was just something to put on TV so you could say you had a championship match Riegel would write

it earned the name because whoever was given it kept the thing for a long time they would have to be very talented because they would have to work with everybody work a lot you would be on every single show because it was the TV title meaning it was be defended on every TV show

and sometimes you would tape three TV shows one night which meant wrestling three times in the same evening with run-ins and interviews your nights on TV would become non-stop so I get why certain performers would think

man that's a lot of work I don't know if I want to do that. But on the other hand, hey, it's a lot of TV time. It's a big opportunity. And from a WCW perspective, it means they had a lot of confidence in Regal, right? Yes and no. I think, yes, they had a lot. You know, Dusty, everybody loved Steve Regal.

Everybody saw the potential in him. He was a pro's pro. And everybody gets comfortable with a pros pro very quickly. and he could have some very exciting very interesting and a little in a different style he brought some of that billy robinson the british style whoever he was in by he brought that style to the ring which was different than a lot of the other characters that we saw so there was the absolute value sure but um i don't think the company took advantage of the opportunity in order to an And because the company really didn't, neither did Steve, Steve Regal take advantage of the opportunity of that television time because from a creative point of view, we weren't utilizing Steve's exposure to maximize him as a character. We were utilizing Steve in his role to create television, two different things. Yep, you could put him on TV. You could say you're having a television title match, therefore people should watch because there's stakes, presumably.

although they never put any value in a title, so the stakes were more of an illusion than a reality, obviously. But what could have been and what should have been weren't anything close to the way we used to. He used him just as a utility player that happened to have a belt as opposed to let's build the fuck out of this guy so he's ready for the next step. Well, we know that he's going to get lots of television time.

And as a reminder, the TV title is one of those deals where, you know, you have to win the belt in a certain number of minutes. So we start to see a lot of 15-minute television draws, including one with Davey Boy Smith, the former British Bulldog at Halloween Havoc. They go the full 15 minutes. We've mentioned before as we covered that episode that the timing was off due to the timekeeper

going on in the back. But, you know, this idea of time limit draws as a storytelling device is not something we really see much of in modern wrestling what did you think of that then and do you think that it could be effective now in 2024 i liked it then i liked it then i think it could be even more effective now because it's framework it's the foundation of a potential story from the beginning of the match to the end of the match the stakes are inherently there it's not only a battle against your opponent, it's a battle against the clock.

So just from a storytelling kind of psychology perspective, there's enough meat on that bone that as an announcer, I can tell a story that'll be at least more interesting than the story you just heard or the one you're going to hear next because it's different. I think that's as valuable is that was back in 1993. I think value of that strategy, that creative strategy, 50-minute time of championship matches on a regular basis, I think it probably has more value today than it ever has. Because today, what we see too much of everywhere,

I'm not picking on anybody here, is very little framework, almost no stakes. Rules are pretty much out the window. Sometimes they exist. Sometimes they don't. And I think adding some parameters and some stakes to matches like this could make them really, really interesting in their own unique way. He's going to have a bunch of great matches here with Johnny B. Bad, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes,

Brian Pillman, a whole host of characters. But there's really no story. He's just this sort of snotty Englishman who's the television champion. but then in the spring of 94 on Worldwide, he challenges Rick Flair to a best of five series under Queensberry rules. Regal's going to lose to Flair with one win, two losses, and two draws. I mean, Flair is your top star here in 94, of course, until Hogan. But for him to say, hey, I want to work with Regal,

boy, that's pretty cool for Regal. I mean, you're wrestling someone who's considered at the time to be the best wrestler in the world. And now you're wrestling him on television in a series of matches. This is a big deal for Regal and for WCW

for him to have this opportunity. What do you think Flair thought of working with Regal? I think Flair saw Regal is a fantastic opportunity for Flair as well he should have. You know, Rick Flair, from as long as I can remember,

since I've known Rick, One thing that his peers, people in the locker room would say who work with, is that he can make a broomstick look like a superstar. And I think what Rick saw in Steve Regal was the opportunity to work with somebody who, in his own way, with his style, the British style. Rick knew that Steve was someone that could make Rick Blair look good too. Steve was that good. It's different. Steve could wrestle himself. He could put himself into chokeholds for crying out of loud.

You just had to hang on. Just don't hold on too tight. He'll take you where he can put on a match and make it look like he was getting his ass kick, but he'd be kicking his own ass. Rick was smart enough to know that and knew that. And for the fans, that's a match that's going to work on television. That's a match that's going to be able to, he, Rick Flair knew he could tell a story in the ring with Steve Reed. as opposed to having a chain wrestling match,

somebody that knew a little bit of amateur wrestling. It's a whole different game here. And I think, I don't know, I never talked to Rick about it, but knowing Rick a little bit and how he approached things and how he looked at talent around him and knowing what Steve brought to the table, I think it was like best of both worlds. Very cool.

Very cool, indeed. I really enjoyed those matches. And I know that when Flair was on, his sort of farewell tour for the WWV, he handpicked Regal to wrestle in Japan and was excited that his last match in Japan was with someone of Regal's caliber. I know Flair saying that to me, it meant a lot to Regal as well, and it's funny because, man, they're throwing the whole kitchen sink at Regal here in WCW. He's going to start a feud with Larry's Obisco, who'd been retired for a bit at this point

and have been doing commentary. Was Larry pushing to get back in the ring? Why was Mr. Regal the right guy? If you put Larry behind an announcer's desk today, and you said, Larry, you're going to be our color commentator on this show, whatever show it is. Larry, because Larry's about as chill as chill as chill could get. I mean, he's really chill.

And at first, Larry would be like, cool, man, that's great. This would be funny. And, you know, he'd do a great job. He's Larry's still one of the best, really. But after about three weeks, I call on other people's matches, he'd be in the gym. He'd be telling you how much he's benching. Hey, just want to let you know, got the bench up to two and a quarter, 12 reps, feeling good. And after a couple more weeks, he'd be doing cardio.

And he'd be in a ring bouncing around. And then every time you'd run into him after that, it'll be, hey, kind of an idea. Let me run something by you. And he would be subtly working himself back in. Because he, Larry, Larry love, love business. He loved the arts of it. He loved, I've talked about it so many times here before. That rush that you get, when you're out there in front of 3,000, 5,000, 20,000, 50,000.

It doesn't matter. It's live. And you're within feet of the audience, really. That rush that you get, you cannot get in. anywhere else. And Larry loved that rush. Larry loved it. So, yeah, he was always trying to get himself back in.

Hell, that's what he got me into the rain. Larry's idea. That wasn't my idea. Larry just wanted to get in there. Awesome. Well, Larry and Regal are going to trade the TV title back and forth over a couple of months. And Regal wrote this in his book.

We had a match on Memorial Day weekend for the TV champion. He beat me and it got the highest. TV rating that ever had up until then for that particular weekend. I believe the Nielsen rating was a 3.2. That's how they measure these things, and the bosses were ecstatic.

They thought it was incredible. It'll follow up at the next big show, a clash of the champions in Charleston, South Carolina. When I won the title back, it's funny that, you know, he's talking about Memorial Day weekend, and here we are on Memorial Day weekend talking about that.

Was that always a difficult time to draw I mean because fans are I mean real life people they're on the beach they're at the lake they're in the backyard like they're doing stuff

they're not sitting home watching wrestling but lately they were interested to see what Larry and Mr. Regal were up to yeah a little bit a little bit of a sidebar on that topic

we're coming off of we got down with football in February right Super Bowl yep As far as a weekly NFL, it ends sometime in January, whatever it is. But football is over in February, and then boom, you're right. You've already started NBA, it's already been in play.

But now you're getting closer and closer very, very quickly into the playoffs. So television competition becomes, you get a little bit of a break after the NFL season, and then boom, you're right back into hockey and NBA. That's always been the case, by the way. It's not like something. springtime, you finally get through the NBA and all of the challenges that presents from just television viewership and to a much, much lesser extent, the NHL. But you finally get through that and now you're into Memorial Day weekend.

All of a sudden you're at the peak of daylight. It's light till 10 o'clock at night. It's warm outside. So the vast majority of the country is not coming home from work. slam it down at dinner and sitting in front of television. They may be going out, they may be going to play softball. They may be going to do all kinds of things. People that have been cooped up, and I'm talking about a large chunk of the United States

and major television markets, like New York and Chicago, for example, winners are tough on those people. When it comes Memorial Day weekend, you are looking for an excuse to do shit outside. You go outside and rake your freaking lawn just to get outside. side at that. So in Nielsen ratings, it's called the hut level, which stands for households using television. So immediately after all that head-to-head competition for television coming out of the spring going into the summer, now you're into one of the lowest parts of the year in terms of hot levels or people using television, households using television. So anytime you're introducing a new

story. Tony, a new angle, a new character. If you're smart and you've paid attention a little bit, you know that the worst possible time to do it is in the spring or early summer because that's when the hot levels are at generally their lowest levels. So why are you putting your best product out there? During a point in time when you know, no one's at least not to the same extent watching television like they were just a few months. They will be again starting in August, September. Kids are back in school.

Summers past us. Vacations are over. Softball leagues are done. Some. All of that extra curricular activity that takes place because now it's finally summertime. We've gotten through all that and now we're back into settling in. for our television routine. So Steve's right here. You know, and popping a big rating on Memorial Day is freaking, or it was then, I don't know what it's like now.

I'm not paying close enough attention now. But it was significant. And I, and I'm sure he was right. Everybody was ecstatic. He should have been. In a 3.2 on WCW Saturday night in 19, because that's when they were using ratings.

Now we talk about households exclusively. But that rating would have represented, into 3.2 would have represented about 5 to 6 million viewers. Not of the big deal even then. No doubt about it.

And it's another big deal that he gets a match against Antonio Anoki. Steve would write, I made my first trip to Japan that year. It was marvelous opening it itself, but had come about because of an even greater opportunity.

A chance to wrestle Antonio Anoki. WCW was trying to set up a talent swapping deal with Anoki's company, New Japan Pro Wrestling. As I remember it, part of the deal was that Anoki wanted to come to America and beat one of WCW stars, and he chose me. Man, this is a cool deal. I mean, when you find out that, you know, a real legend,

and I know that a lot of fans here in America aren't familiar with his word, but you're talking about, I mean, this is a guy who shared a ring with Muhammad Ali. This is a guy who helped create and found New Japan Pro Wrestling. I mean a bona fide wrestling legend and now he's coming to America and he's working Regal man this is a huge vote of confidence this had to be something a great honor for Mr. Regal I'm sure it was because of the mutual respect for because of the respect that

Steve had for Roanokey it was well I know this in talking to Steve, that was an incredibly big moment in his career. It was a milestone, Steve, sure. He's going to get sent to Japan to build for this match. So he's going to defeat a lot of challengers from New Japan. And this is something that we used to hear about, you know, guys from Japan coming here

or guys from Mexico. And, I mean, they call it going on excursion. And we don't see that as often now as we used to back then. But this match happens at the clash of the champion. Regal versus Anoki. Silva just had a graphic up there at 83 weeks.com. And Regal's going to write that he need Anoki too hard in the ribs, but Anoki loved the match.

Of course, Anoke eventually wins. And it's written here shortly afterwards, WCW signed a contract with New Japan for a huge amount of money to swap talent. I knew our match had played a part in that happening. I mean, this is a big deal. And as you said, a real milestone and a real highlight for Regal and his career. Could there have been a better opponent for Inoki?

I don't know that that even existed. No, and what really made this particular match so critical to the foundation of this new relationship that we were building with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Keep in mind that Bill Watts had burned that relationship to the ground. He screwed New Japan out of about 750. $50,000 from what I was told I wasn't part of the process. Obviously, I wasn't even in management at the time, but in my conversations with people who I definitely trust from New Japan. Now, this is one more thing about context here.

New Japan pro wrestling during this particular time that we're talking about, the 90s, is nothing like the New Japan today. No disrespect to New Japan today. but they were two completely different companies and New Japan was at its peak they were putting 60, 70,000 whatever it was people in a Tokyo Dome every year for the Big New Zeev show they had a lot of other shows throughout Japan

and we're doing massive, massive gates. New Japan today is in that 3 to 4,000 kind of attendance average category. Andoki was Nokia was like Elvis in Japan he was not only regarding it again because the Japanese culture looks at professional looked at professional wrestling

so much different than Americans did they had anoki on a pedestal and he was a he was a so in the Japanese diet Japanese diet not what you eat but the political arm Japanese diet is equivalent to the Senate even the United States

so not only did you have this large than life, professional wrestling character that in Japan is given as much respect and reverence as any other professional athlete, but you've got a guy who is a very prominent politician. Now, Kazwatts had burned that relationship to the ground. New Japan's perspective screwed him out of $750,000 in a process. There was so much disdain and resentment towards WCW. My mission, was to try to rebuild that relationship. The hardest part of it wasn't the money part.

The hardest part of it was rebuilding trust. Within a culture, the Japanese culture, where trust and respect is primary. Starting with respect, working away towards trust, once you've established respect. And lots have blown that up. So my attempt to rebuild that was to, to give Inoki, in this case, give you your choice.

What do you want to work with? Within reason. Ogun was off the table. A couple of the guys were busy. But Inoki chose Regal for a reason, because Inoki recognized the unique talents and skills and style that Regal had that nobody in WCW had. So when Regal says in his comment,

I believed I was important in helping to establish that relationship, should have said reestablished. But again, he didn't know. He wasn't aware of history. That's an understatement. That's an understanding because Steve, he didn't know it at the time, but going in there and giving the performance that he gave is it's what Anoki was looking for. Is the style of a match Anoki wanted? And nokey didn't want to come here and Russell an American style match. That wasn't his strong suit necessarily.

But he knew he could come here and have a phenomenal match. That was his, inoki style, with probably the only person of the company that was capable of doing it. If you go back and watch that match, watch the finish. Mr. Regal was on Sean Waltman's podcast years ago. And he said that was the finish. And I knew he wanted me to tap. but I wasn't going to tap. I knew it would just be better if I didn't.

I'd been put out before. We know nowadays that's not a smart thing to do, but I didn't at the time, and I knew it would be over really quick, and it was. He put it on, and I didn't tap, and I was out before I knew it. He's talking about tapping out to a sleeper,

a rear naked choke, as we would call it in the UFC. He didn't just do the honors for a no-key. He got choked out. like it was a legitimate MMA match. That's a pretty special finish. Go out of your way to see it, Regal and Anoki at the Clash of the Champion. We know Regal eventually loses the TV title to Johnny Be Bad at Fall Brawl, and from there, on the November 26th edition of Saturday night,

he starts scouting a young wrestler who he thinks has promised. The new Jean-Paul Levecque, he wants them to be his tag team partner. Eventually, they form a tag team. Steve wrote this. I met Paul Leveck when he first came into WCW, and I liked him from the start. I didn't know then he would become Triple H, one of the biggest stars this business had ever seen, but it was obvious he was going to do well. His attitude set him apart straight away.

He had a real desire to get on and love for this business. I like anyone who has that. I don't meet many people like that these days, but they're the ones who succeed. We used to train together at the power plant, WCW's training facility. in Atlanta. Of course, we know now, boy, that's a relationship that has bared some fruit for Mr. Regal and

Paul LeVec. These days, they're both working behind the scenes in WWV and real power brokers. But it is interesting that while Triple H is the top dog these days in WWW, once upon a time, he was looking, hey, man, help me out.

And who else, but Mr. Regal was there, what a cool story that is, especially with the benefit of hindsight, is it not? It really is, and it's fascinating to watch, fascinating to see where both of these individuals are at. Because they both have the same work ethic. They both approach the industry the same way, and I think over time, I would imagine, I don't know,

I don't talk to Paul Levick on a personal basis, but I would imagine that Paul has learned to have even more respect for Steve Riegel. And what Steve can contribute. And I talked about that at the very beginning of the show. And I said more on that later. But if you look at where Steve is at now, I wouldn't necessarily call him a power broker. I would disagree. I think, or maybe just phrase it differently.

What Steve does now is work with, amongst other things. I'm sure a lot of other things. What I understand. He's working with young, emerging talent in NXT, teaching them psychology, teaching them how to make the most of every single bank. You're artistically efficient when you approach a match the way Steve Riegel would want you to approach a match. You make every little detail important. That's what Terry... Rudge taught him.

That's what Dave Taylor taught him. That's what Pete Roberts taught him. An Indian wrestler by the name of Delabar Singh. Delabar Singh, Indian, British, born in the UK. His family was one of the first Indian families to migrate to the UK after World War II. Delabar Singh was a very popular professional wrestler at the time who worked with young Stephen Reed. All of this influence, everything he learned in Germany, touring Germany in his late teens, early 20s,

all of that experience has taught Steve Riegel to pay attention to little details, make everything count. And I have it on very good authority that some of the top talent today in WWE, they come through the curtain. One of the first people they're looking for is Steve Riegall. to get his input on whether they sufficiently paid attention to the little details. So it's not just the NXT talent that Steve probably works with primarily. It's with the season talent.

Some of them at the highest levels are still looking for input. Steve Riegel is paying attention to the little details in teaching the talent how to do the same. So when you see a pinfall in WWE, analyze it, believable, look real, look like you could actually be a pinfall attempt, or does it just look like one link in a chain of links all strung together called a wrestling match? That's what Steve Regal does. And that's what I think very few people in the industry have the instinct, the training that's just part of their DNA to really do a good job.

teaching that. Some people will listen, the ones that who succeed will. Some people will just let it go in one ear and out the other, but that separates superstars from talent. What happens next is pretty interesting because almost very, well, very quickly, I didn't say almost to me, very quickly after they're put together as a tag team. Paul's contract is coming due, and Regal would write, he'd come in for a pretty low offer in a one-year deal. Now it was up, and they didn't want to offer him much of a race. The World Wrestling Federation had been in contact with Paul, and I believe they were interested in bringing us in as a tag team.

But I had a guaranteed contract with WCW, something that WWF didn't offer at the time. It meant nice security for me. I would not have to worry about providing for my family. Schedule wasn't too demanding, and it meant I could go to Japan too. So we know that ultimately Paul's going to go to the WWF, and he's going to become Hunter Hurst-Helmsley. eventually that will evolve

into Triple H and the rest is history. But it's interesting to think that in 1995 there was at least an opportunity for Regal to go to the WWF and I can't help but wonder if they would have brought them in as a tag team

how would that have changed the trajectory of Regal's career or Triple H's it's one of those what if things, right? Yeah, it is. It's kind of like the Butterflay effect? Yes. Yeah, who knows?

No. Well, what we do know is that Lord Stephen Regal is going to recruit Bobby Eaton to become his tag team partner, and the result is some hilarious television work. They're going to form a tag team known as the Blue Bloods, but let's remember now, you've got Huntsville, Alabama's finest, Bobby Eaton, who respectfully most people would probably consider, like myself, an Alabama. redneck. You just don't associate someone with an accent like mine or Bobby

being a tag team partner and presenting himself as a blue blood for Regal, but it adds some well-needed comedy and gets you to see really for the first time the range that Regal has as a performer. Yes, he can be this snobby guy and a villain and a heel, but he can also, boy, he can make you laugh. And this is really

the first time we got to see that. And we would see this a lot later in the WWF as William Regal. But I think the first time we got to see some of those parts of his personality was here in WCW with Bobby Eaton. What did you think of this? I absolutely love that. I love it more now than I did then, which pisses me off. And I wasn't booking back then, so I'm not going to beat myself up too much. But I really love it now. I mean, you look at, first of all, if you were casting a wrestling sitcom. Yes. You probably would cast

Stephen Regal and Bobby Eaton because it's like a buddy cop movie. You need two contrasting characters. The odd couple. You need the odd couple, right? So right off the bat, you've got amazingly contrasting for us couples,

a couple team. Now let's add their ability into the mix. Between Steve Regal and Bobby Eaton, That combination is such a phenomenal team in terms of their ability to tell a story and just create believable matches that suck you in because you're drawn into the story. And in this case, maybe a little bit of the humor too.

Just awesome. It was just so awesome. I loved it. I don't know who brought them together. I don't know whose idea it was. But it was a phenomenally good idea. here's what Riegel would write about this tag run Bobby Bobby and I had a great run worked with lots of talented people Armstrong fantastic

the main WCW tag teams then were the nasty boys Harlem Heath Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater who worked with Robert Fuller as their manager Colonel Parker the only trouble was that apart from the nasty boys the rest of us were all heels and out of those four teams we were the only one who didn't end up with the tag titles at any point. I don't want to blame anybody, but I don't know why. We were the carrying force in that group of guys. We worked with everybody and worked well, too.

The titles weren't the be all and end all, but it would have been nice to have recognition for what we were doing. And I got to agree with Regal. I don't guess I ever really considered it, but they would have been excellent tag team champions. And he's right. I mean, when you think about, hey, let's throw this random guy we don't know out there and see if he can have a good match with you might finish that sentence with

regal or bobby eat two of the very best in-ring performers of all time so it is interesting that everybody else seemingly gets a run with those tag titles but not them like that really would have worked oh i i absolutely absolutely believe it we're sorry you had a little delay here it's windy and whenever it's windy my wife like it's a little hanky um or janky yeah it would have worked and and i don't know why i don't know what the reason for it is but uh of that group of guys i think they absolutely should have been the tag team champion they had the best character well let's talk about how uh life gets in the way and throws a real curveball at mr regal well i had time to rest when i got back to america after he was injured and

Japan. And there was a break before I had any WCW commitment. But the knee was hurting bad. I went to see a doctor who prescribed some painkillers, hydrocodone 10 milligrams a pill. That wasn't the start either. I'd already been taking volume for quite a while. Originally, it had been prescribed to help me fight sleepless nights, something I'd struggled with for years. But now I wasn't only taking them to sleep. I was taking them in the day when I had nothing to do. I found they took the edge off of life. It was a good thing. I was downing myself a lot of the time and drinking a lot more, too.

Started drinking a lot of wine at home. I was telling myself that red wine was good for your health. Cobblers, of course, complete nonsense. One glass a day might be good for your heart, but I was drinking a gallon a day, taking it with downers too. So this is when Regal is really open in his book, which is available on Amazon, highly recommended, but he's opening up about his battles with addiction. And this seems like a story we've heard about a thousand times in professional

wrestling. You know, in this era, and I know the WCW has guaranteed contract, but in other areas of the business. And if you don't work, you don't get paid. And even when you've got guaranteed contracts like in WCW, well, if you're not working, you might lose your spot. I mean, this is an industry that forever has had guys who were dinged up thinking twice about should I raise my hand and say anything or should I keep a secret and just keep this thing going and they turn to doctors for help and as Bruce has talked about before on his podcast they start to do the wrestler dose hey well if one works I bet two will work a lot better and before you know it it's a slippery slope this is not a problem that was or a story that's unique

to regal in wrestling. Is that right, Eric? No, it's not. And even in Steve's own story, you know, it started out prescription, Valium, help him sleep, okay, get that. Not a common. Valium is a pretty powerful drug to try to use it a nightly basis to sleep, but whatever, get it. But then it became recreational. Once you go from, okay, I've got this prescription, I actually need it and I'm using it way it's instructed to, I got nothing to do today and I'm a little bored and I don't like feeling bored or I have anxiety or whatever, the multitude of things that we all deal with

every day, you have access and your go-to is I think I'll just have a couple of alium and drink a bottle of wine. That's when you fall off the slope. I mean, it's so common. It's not like everybody that got hooked on drugs did so because, well, the doctor prescribed it for legitimate injury, so I kind of inadvertently got hooked on it. Some people that happened, no doubt. I'm not questioning whether, say, it did or didn't. But I've also seen the pattern hundreds of times where it starts out recreationally and you go downhill super fast.

It's the worst. People talk about, oh, steroids kill all these wrestlers. Not the steroids. Saroids isn't really the issue in wrestling. Never really was. The problem, don't get me wrong, but the thing that killed people is this combination of aerodes

and the stress that it puts on the heart. Pain killers, you all know, what they do to you, and then the pills that you take to come out of the stupor, You start mixing these cocktails up to get through your wrestling day. You're on the road. You're away from home. You don't have any structure in your life.

You don't have somebody responsible, not surrounded with family. Or sometimes you are and you do it anyway. It's the painkillers, somas, and the alcohol are the things that killed more wrestlers than anything else. And the fact that Steve was able to pull the nose up, I know we're probably going to talk a lot about it. hopefully not too much because you know Steve talks about it in his book but the fact however much we cover it doesn't matter to me the fact that Steve was able to first recognize he had the problem particularly as severe as it was because once you fall off the cliff you don't necessarily want to climb back up it's too comfortable staying where you're at that's the problem right you know how

hard it is going to be to get back up top of that cliff that you just fell off of so you just keep doing. But it's until you're dead. And Steve was one of the lucky ones, one of the strong ones. That's just luck, strength, character, discipline. To pull the nose up and come out of it and look where he is today. Amazing.

It is a really powerful story of perseverance and character and will. Power of positivity, and I'm sure a whole lot of other things, including persistent. But I'm just so happy that this story has a happy ending and I hope it provides a little bit of hope for some listeners who might be struggling with some similar tales and challenges. Maybe they've got that monkey on their back. The Blue Bloods are soon going to drop out of this title picture and continue to compete as, I guess, a midcard tag team.

They're going to add Squire Dave Taylor to the team. Jeeves will be the lackey by the end of the year and Eaton and Regal are, are actually going to get a title shot at the World Tag Team titles against Sting and Lex Lugar at Clash 32. The business is evolving here. We're getting closer to the NWO, so maybe some of this presentation is aging out. But I've always been curious, like, it felt like in the WWF, you know, they always positioned Hulk Hogan as like our American hero.

And here we have an international. foreign star, who's a heel. Why do you think there was never a Hogan Regal? I mean, it would have worked at a clash or a Nitro? Or how do you think that never happened? I just don't think Steve Regal, the character, was perceived to be at the Hulk Hogan, Riftlair level. On a consistent basis, could you have a match?

Sure. But if you've got Hulk Hogan on a page, pay-per-view in WCW in 1994, that's one of four pay-per-views you're going to get. Are you going to go with somebody that has not quite reached that level of fan support, equity, or are you going to go with someone pay? And while I agree with you, I think this is the frustrating, part of looking back at this because knowing, and again, I wasn't booking back then necessarily for part of this I was. But had I known, had I had the perspective experience, good and bad,

the wealth of knowledge that I carry around with me now as a result of all the stupid shit I did and all the good shit I did, had I had access to that vault and been in a position to have made a hell of a story between Regal and Hulk. Because the talent was there. Riggle's ability to work with the Hulk cover. Unquestionably, he had the ability. Like Rick Flair had the ability to have a match with anybody. Riegel could have had a match with Hogan

and made Hogan look like Antonio Inoki. Yes. Right? But we didn't see it. Nobody saw it. McFlair didn't see it. he was booking at the time Dusty didn't see it I didn't see it

you just didn't see it but again if I had access to the wealth of shit that I have now I want to go wait a minute feel American red guy yeah yeah come on now that smells like

clash that smells like maybe one of the four paper views that are not in that time of year you know maybe in a spring stampede environment where there's not that much at risk because the households using television are beginning to deteriorate and we've got NBA and NHL playoffs in our face. So rather than throwing the best we have with Hogan on that particular matter,

maybe we save the best we have for Hogan to the next paper and use a really good interesting match to help create a new opportunity. That's the approach I would take today, but I didn't have that. treasure chest of horrible shit I did and good shit I did to work on. As a reminder, Brutus the Barber Beefcake is going to be working. I knew you're going to do it. I was halfway through that motherfucker and I said,

oh, he's going to throw Barber in here. Not just that. Hogan would team with Dave Sullivan to take on Rick Flair and Bunkhouse Buck. You telling me we couldn't have slid bunk out and. Well, talk to your father-in-law, brother, because he was booking that shit, not me. We should also mention that he also wrestled. Kamala and Big Bubba Rogers. I mean, there was some interesting.

I mean, he wrestled Hugh Morris on Nitra. You know, we could have done Regal, but hey, it didn't happen. We didn't happen. But, you know, that's why we do these podcasts. Gives us something to talk about. Regal's going to blow his knee out again, unfortunately. This time against Chris Binwaw at a clash of the champion. And he would write this.

I got through my tag match, but that night, Eric Bischoff ruled enough was enough. He wouldn't let me work in. anymore until I got it fixed. I went back to Atlanta where a doctor told me I had a torn ACL and PCL. I needed a lot done to it and would be out for nine months. Deep down, I knew it wasn't quite as bad as he made out. I went to another doctor to get a second opinion. He did all the same tests, an MRI scan and everything. He said, you don't need all that surgery. You just need it scoped and you'll be back in three weeks. So let's start from the beginning.

It's written here that you were sort of mandating he go to the doctor and get this fixed. Did you see him hobbling around backstage when that happened? Or how did you come to draw the line in the sand? Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious. You see him hobbling around backstage. You see the trainers working on him. You know, after his match, it's hard to keep a knee a secret. It's bad.

And his was bad. It's obvious. And I, you know, I did the same thing to Aaron Anderson. Arne Anderson didn't want to get surgery and end up possibly retiring and end up retiring from the room. But at a certain point, you know, talent can become their own worst enemy. And they, you know, I'm sure Arne resented me. I'm sure Strygo probably too. But, you know, you got to think a little long term and sometimes talent doesn't.

Petitive. They want to perform. Want that drug that should get inside the ring. And as you put it out earlier in the show, they're conditioned to believe that if they're off TV, out of sight, out of mind. Nobody wants to be out of mind. Well, somebody who's never out of mind with us is Henson. I look at my Henson every single morning because I've got one at my regular home or even at my Florida house here.

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in WCW history. And I think when you think about the technical prowess of Regal, you might not assume that, but boy, he can switch gears on you. And the match from uncensored, which is a match that people still talk about to this day, Tony Chivani still to this day, says it's one of, if not his favorite WCW match ever

because you can't poke holes in this shit It looked real because it was. Here's what Regal wrote. The plan was to wrestle a 30-minute draw, but things got out of hand. We went out and got stuck into each other so much that Finley hit me in the face with one punch that gave me 12 stitches over my eye, a broken nose, and a fractured cheekbone. There was blood everywhere, and WCW still had a strong anti-blood policy. There was panic backstage.

They pulled the cameras back off of us as much as they could. Dave Taylor and Bobby Eaton were there in their. suits ready to do something after our match ended, but suddenly they were needed to get out of there right away. Get out there now and stop them, they were told. Dave and Bobby were sent down to beat Finley up, but the adrenaline was flowing through the Belfast Bruiser, and he just attacked them. If you ever see the match on tape, you can see Dave running for his life as fit as attacking it. This is something that you almost never see in wrestling, and man, was it fun to watch? I'm sure it was wild in person. What do you remember about this, I don't know, worked shoot, I guess we'll call it,

at uncensored with Finley and Regal? I, you know, I remember the match. I remember the intensity of it. I remember the chaos backstage and blood was an issue. There was a little bit of pressure on me from above. One of the very few times that I got a lot of pressure from corporate. So blood was an issue. But was. So my rule was, you know, I got a lot of But it happened in the ring, and it happened incidentally, then the director in the truck and a cameraman on the ground knew just to shoot around it as best you can. You don't have to stop the match. You don't know. Just shoot around it.

No close ups, no tight shots. Don't glorify it. Just keep moving it, cover it like sport. But this one was pretty intense, and I think it created because it was harder to shoot around it. It was messy. I do remember it. But there was no fallout, just that momentary chaos. One of the last programs Sting had before the formation of the NWL

was with Lord Stephen Regal. And at the Great American Bash, they hook it up. And Regal had this to say, well, in a couple days of our big match, they told me, we don't really know what to do with you. We're thinking of giving you the TV title back. Do you think he felt stuck? Like, you know, we talked to you.

about when he won the TV title that Arne said it was the kiss death. He's working against Sting at the Great American Bash, but then to be told essentially, hey, creative has nothing for you. I don't know who told him that, but what a fucking horrible thing to tell somebody. Yeah,

no doubt. How about you got any ideas? Right. What do you think? You or me, Steve, what's the best way to use your character? What do you think you could contribute the most? You'd get to the same point, maybe a better one, obviously.

You would have gotten to a better conversation had you approached Steve that way, as opposed to, I don't know if we have anything for you, bro. What a fucking way to approach somebody. After the formation of the NWO at the end of August, he's going to defeat Lex Lugar to regain the TV title and really put on some of the best matches on TV, besides, you know, maybe the cruiser waits during the launch of this NWO era.

I mean, Enrigal is somebody who can work with anybody except maybe Prince Ikeia. I mean, what the hell were you guys doing here? Like, why would you put my man through this? Like, Prince Iacaya. You are so rough on him. Have you met him in person yet?

Have you two cross paths? No, I mean, listen, he ain't getting booked at a Starcast. Let me tell you that. No, no, not really. Hey, listen, we're just having fun. I just, as a fan at home at the time, I was like, I know you're trying to make a guy.

I get it. But I just felt like, all right, he just wrestled Sting on pay per view. He just beat Lugar for the TV title. Dropping it to this guy? You know what? I think it is. I don't know.

Again, I wasn't booking, especially, you know, as part of the show. I love, I macro managed. I let the people who had more experience. and better at what they were doing than I was, do their work, with the exception of few things. Kevin Sullivan, he loved that South Pacific's history with, you know, in Hawaii with King Curtis, and I think that Islander thing just he'd appeal to Kevin

Sullivan. So I think your issue, Prince I can't, lies not with me, Mr. Thompson. our cohort in crime, Mr. Kevin Sullivan, who I will be praying for as soon as this podcast is over. I wasn't not aware that he was. I'll catch you up to speed off air. They're going to trade the title back, Prince Ikea and Regal.

So I guess whoever told him, boy, we don't know what to do with you. At least they were honest because Prince Ikea was up next. But around the same time, around the same time, we've got the spring stampede. And I believe, believe it or not, he's in the car with Nancy Sullivan and Chris Benoit

and they're in a car wreck but rather than going to the hospital like a normal fucking human these guys just go to the show and Regal has been honest and said he got a concussion in the car rack and barely

remembers this match he had with Prince Ikea at Spring Stampede like I know that sometimes we as fans say, boy I liked the way wrestling used to But then I hear about this, and I just don't think there's any chance that somebody would get in a car wreck and then be allowed to wrestle. It feels like somebody somewhere would have said, hey, just in case, we got to get you checked out here. But in this era, in 97, we're just rubbing some dirt on it and keeping going, right?

I don't even know. I don't even know if they told anybody they were in a car wreck. Okay. This is the first I heard of it. Now, maybe I was told, and it's just not something that I've carried around with me for the last 25 years, but. Um, this is kind of like new, new thing that I'm hearing. Um, and it wouldn't surprise me given who was involved. Mr. Regal, Chris Benoit and Nancy Sullivan, they are exactly the type of people that wouldn't have shared that information.

Right. Or at least the extent of it. Well, we know that, um, this is also the era where he realizes, hey, I might have a bit of an issue. I need to start winding down some of my substances and he starts to have pretty bad withdrawal issue. Diamond Dallas Page is also seeing that he's going through some physical changes and he's trying to help him physically with his strength and conditioning and things like that. But Regal is playing his addiction issue like a lot of people would, I'm sure.

It's private, maybe it's shameful. He's not sharing that with anybody. But Steve wrote this. For the first time since turning 18, I'd stop training. Initially, I stopped because of my neck trouble, but I could have trained through it, but I didn't. I started putting on a lot of weight really quickly. I took more and more drugs, and I stopped doing the things I'd always done to look after myself. I stopped drinking a gallon of water a day.

I mean, I had all this poison in my system, and I wasn't sweating it out and were pushing it out with water. The problem was that I'd give it up on everything. I was very unhappy, though I had no reason. I had a great job. I had a great family, but I didn't see it that way at the time. After the car wreck, I started putting on weight even faster. I was a big heavy lad, one who trained and was always in good, in-ring condition. Before January, I'd been 255 or 260 pounds, but in May I was 265 or 270, and all I did was

So we saw, even in that graphic that Silva posted from Spring Stampede, he is thicker than he had been. Does that throw off any alarm bells for you? Or did you just know, hey, he just had knee surgery, probably just not able to do cardio the way he might have normally? Or was all of this a real shock to him? Well, obviously, it became a shock to be what it all came out. But I didn't know what was going on at the time. As far as his weight gained, sure, I noticed he gained weight. but he did he was coming off the knee injury i just assumed right could have been lazy

you know i should not have assumed could have probably possibly being a little closer attention but again just gave him the benefit of the doubt and certainly know all of the other issues were taking place i feel bad even talking about what we're going to talk about next because we both hold mr regal in such high regard but he had kept these issues these substance issues pretty close to the vest and he does that even as he's swapping the TV title back and forth with Ultimo Dragon

and he's maybe floating around the mid card here in 97 until he's on a flight headed to Detroit for a Nitro I guess he had maybe been overindulging some of the booze on the plane and

some other substances were probably already in a system. He's just not of sound mind like he normally would be, and he regrettably, and I hate or even talking about it, urinated on a flight attendant's foot. And this was a very public thing

for a company that was now the number one wrestling company in the world, and a number one wrestling company in the world with probably 100 wrestlers under contract who were on these flights zigzagging around the globe every

single day of the week. When you hear this, in this Turner corporate environment, this has to be something that you have to deal with and you're not exactly looking forward to. Tell us about it. You know, not a lot of details to remember. I heard about the incidents.

There were no options for me. Oh, there were a few. They were not good options as far as Steve was concerned. But I knew I had to make a hard decision. I made it. you know, two ways about. I was obviously disappointed and probably also concerned. Because even though I wasn't, I wasn't friends with Steve at the time,

I had a fair amount of responsibility and pressure on me. And the only time I saw Steve was at television. He didn't have any personal relationship outside of that. And Steve was very good. It has a lot of addicts are as part being an addict, good at being an addict, being able to conceal from, family, people that share your home with in some cases, certainly friends and obviously often employers. You're able to become functional or at least as functional as you need to get away

from any attention to your addiction. Steve got away with it for a long time because he was good at it. At this point, there was no getting away from it. You know, and it, look, I understand it. seen it for in others um i've seen people who would pop an ambient or two and maybe have a couple beers or a couple glasses of wine and completely walk around like in a essentially they're sleepwalking but having conversations pass out wake up an hour later and not remember a thing they don't remember what and they don't know what we're and they don't know know why they're walking around what room they're in walk into a room start taking a leak because in your mind think you're in the restroom right you're not standing in a corner at a dinner

party you know it happens with addicts it's not unusual so when i heard what happened it was pretty clear to me why it happened and uh you know the options were very limited that Regal winds up getting suspended without pay from WCW for this, and legally, he winds up being fined $2,500 for this incident. I was kind of surprised to hear that that's

all that happened, but I'm glad that he got another crack at this, and he gets to come back. But boy, does he come back to some controversy? This is probably the segment of the show that most people are looking forward to hearing about today.

Regal's first match back on television, is a nitro match against a new competitor known as Bill Goldberg Steve wrote on my first night back at work after seven weeks out I got to the arena to be told I was wrestling Bill Goldberg

it was early in his massive win streak but it was obvious he was on his way to becoming a major superstar up until then he'd beaten everyone on the WCW roster in a minute or less his longest match must have been no more than a minute and a half everyone has their own

own version of what happened next, but this is mine. I remember it all clearly because for once, I went to work without taking any drugs beforehand. I weighed about 280 pounds by now. I looked like a badly made bed. Before we keep going, I'm going to use that a lot in my future reference. Looked like a badly made bed. What a great line.

I mean, it's such a classy way of saying you look like shit, dude. Yes, I love it so much. here's what he wrote. Anyway, these are my orders for the match to go out and have a competitive six-minute match with him. He was to win in the end. We laid out this match in front of people in charge.

He got in the ring, did one or two moves on him, and he did nothing back. I did one or two more with the same comeback from Goldberg. Nothing. That's how it went on. I had to keep attacking him to keep the match going. I was opening myself up for him to retaliate, and he just wasn't taking the opening.

I was even telling him to do this or that, and he just wasn't doing it. I don't know what his excuses were for the match. All I know is that he's blamed me publicly. When we eventually got through the match and got to the back, straight away, Bill apologized to me. Something else he seemed to forget about it later when he retold the story. I'm sorry, he said. I just didn't know what to do out there.

We had a chap, shook hands, and everything was fine. Then Eric came in and started chewing Bill out, which was my cue to leave. Then I was called into the office in front of Eric and the people who laid out the match. Eric was screaming, going absolutely berserk. I told him, Eric, I can't hit myself. It's not my fault. How can you expect someone who has never wrestled for more than a minute and a half to go out and do six minutes? He won't know what to do. That was the truth of it. It wasn't Bill's fault. Let's talk about this. I have to be honest, I've heard this story a million different times from a different variety of different people in the

industry. And I kind of forgot this detail that's in his book that you were going off afterwards. What do you remember of this moment, Tom? This is going to be fun. But it's also going to be a challenge because we're going to leave a name out. Why? Why? Why? Why are we doing that? Out of respect. Okay. Go back to it later if you feel the need. I was hot. Bill Goldberg, every time he walked through the curtain, compounded his own interest. Right. Amongst the fans. He was on a role. we wanted that role to continue, wanted him to look good.

Granted, we wanted him to be able to have more and more of a match because we knew at some point in time, this minute and 32nd stuff isn't going to work. We're going to run out of people for him to eat. Bill is going to have to learn how to have a more competitive match. And just go out and eat people. There'll be no one left to eat at a certain. So there was an intention on all of our parts,

mine in particular at this point, to nurture Bill along, maximize what he was able to do, but start to grow his repertoire and his ability to have matches longer than a minute and a half. So that was the setting going into this match. Now, there was an agent involved whose job it was to make sure both talents understood the match or what we needed out of the match, help lay it out with them

before the match so that the talent had a couple hours to talk through what they were going to do before the match, particularly if you were dealing with somebody who is incredibly new to the industry and needed sufficient help and support from a good agent, as well as the person he was about to wrestle against Steve Riegel, to make sure that everybody was on the same page when they got out there. Clearly, that never happened. His fault is that. absolutely the agents, to a degree, Mr. Regals, as he would have known.

So there's a little bit of responsibility to go around, and mine, by the way, I have to take so. Because it was important to me. Bill had, oh, I was just about to say it so much the wrong way. Bill was, Bill got a lot of attention from a lot of people with me, was really interested in seeing him evolve as quickly as he could, but not too quickly because we didn't want to overexposed. We didn't want to expose what he was not capable of the way. Right.

I didn't go to the agent and say, hey, just want to check in. Both these guys know what they're doing. Let's walk through the match. Kind of like one of the things I used to see when I first got the WWE as a talent was the amount of time that Vince McMahon would spend watching the talent go through their mat, walking through it, not a full-blown match, walking through the match and talking

through the beats in the match that were really critical in order to tell the story. Vince McMahon would go out to the ring starting at about 1 o'clock and Kevin Dunn would be on the truck and everybody could hear the dialogue between the two. Vince would have his headset on speaking like. and have been done in the truck, knew what the match was going to be, talent were all on the same page, and Vince's expectations were communicated to the talent.

Really impressive. That never happened in WCW. WCW would happen at this time is we'd create the format, we'd create, we get together, we'd lay everything out, we'd lay out the interviews, okay, give it to the producers, the agents, they would take, okay, I'll take these three matches, you take those three matches, whatever. They would go off and he would have these independent conversations amongst themselves.

And that was it until we saw the match. We didn't have that step that still existed WWE today, where every single one of the matches, the talent goes out and walks through that match. So everybody in the truck knows what's going to happen during the match, the big beats. At that time, Vince knew what was going on. Now it's Paul, I'm sure. But we didn't do that in WCWCWC. So that's my part of the responsibility that goes around here in retrospect.

But all I know is the match was the shits. We did exactly what we didn't want to do, which is exposed Bill Goldberg for what he's not capable. And the part that gets left out of this, and Steve touched on it a little bit. And this is I'm going to go right back. This is called a callback in a television business or maybe feature film business. Or in stand-up comedy routines, the formula, call-back formulas, very popular in stand-up comedy as well.

There's formulas everywhere for us. There's formats. There's formulas. It's just the way of the world. But going back to what Conrad you said earlier, and we talked about earlier, is Steve came from that era. It was taught, whether it's here's this character, Lord Stephen Regal, you're going to be a heel. His reaction to that was, not? Yeah, but I don't really want to do that.

Oh, it doesn't work for me. What's in it for me? Oh, I don't feel like a heel. It was, yes, sir, I'll go figure out how to do it as well as I possibly. In this particular situation, that same work ethic manifested in fact that the agent will remain unnamed. This is a very prominent person to this day. I told Regal, we need whatever it was, six minutes, ten minutes, whatever it was, probably six. Wouldn't you give them ten.

Trust me. We need six minutes. You're the heel. You're the experienced one. You're managing the match. Fall into shots. You're the director of traffic is matched, Steve. Nobody communicated that to Bill.

Bill just went out there. And when the shit hit the fan, that agent looked down on a piece of paper and never looked up. Never took responsibility. Never jumped in and say, wait a minute. I think part of the problem was we didn't do a good job communicating. Right. I'll take responsibility for that as the agent. Here's how we fix it next time.

That didn't happen. All the blame went to Regal. He'd been clean for seven months. It wasn't a drug issue. It wasn't an attitude issue. It wasn't any of the above other than Steve was going out there to try to get not a five minute and 30 second match and not a six minute and 32nd match. A six minute match out of Bill Goldberg, who had very little experience.

The agent didn't really participate in the process. nor accept responsibility his role in the collapse of that match. But, of course, Steve Riegel takes the hit, right? That's how it goes. Very unfair. It's interesting to me that Briegel didn't name him in the book. Briggle didn't say his name on the podcast. Nobody has really revealed this.

And I don't know why because in my mind's eye, nobody's infallible. I mean, like, I poke you with a stick. every week here. And you're able to say, I wish I had that to do over again. Oh, that was. Yeah, but I'm so used to it. A lot of these guys aren't used to it.

Well, it just feels like to me like, hey, man, we all learn. We all get better. But, you know, Mr. Regal has always wanted to keep that close to the vest and not throw anybody under the bus. He's a classy. So we're not going to do that either. But because it doesn't feel like,

hey, this one bad moment defines his legacy or his, I mean, even if or when that story comes out, it's not going to change the way people feel about that performer. Like, his legacy was cemented so long ago. It just, I don't know, it seems a little silly to not just talk about it, own it, and move on, but it is. Yeah, but again, this is where, and I'm not very good at, but I'm about to suggest people sometimes should do.

In fact, I really suck at it. I work on it every single day, every day, throughout the day. That's how bad I suck at it. It's so easy to make assumptions and judgments. when you don't know everything about a person. Like you and I will be, it's no big deal. It's one bad night.

So what? Move on. I've done all these other great things. Yes. I was Steve Regal. But when you're Steve Regal and one of the things that you're most proud of is your work ethic, your professionalism.

And then that comes into question. And you're accused of being unprofessional, taking liberties. Right. I think for Steve Riegel, one of the things that probably would hurt him the most is anything that would suggest that he's unprofessional. Wouldn't hurt his feelings if he said, but I just, your style of wrestling sucks. I don't like it. That wouldn't offend him.

He'd probably just bowed his head and move on. But when you question his professionalism or his integrity, it may be unusual for a lot of people to feel like they would be impacted by that. But I understand how Steve would feel because I know how important this to him. So it's just different. We're all different. And it shouldn't matter. And I think everybody that really knows Steve Regal personally would understand how this all went down. And I understand.

Look, get it. You know, Bill was probably frustrated. I'm sure at the time. And, you know, Steve, Steve Regal does not lie. That I'm 100% confident. In the moment, Bill probably did feel responsibility. He didn't have the experience. He was put in a position to fail by all of us, me included, because we didn't make sure he was ready for those next.

He wasn't ready for a six-minute match, even if the agent would have communicated it properly, which he didn't. Or laid out the match properly, Bill wasn't quite ready. for that yet. But the fact that wasn't even given the opportunity because the agent and the talent and the guy in charge didn't take time

to make sure that the match was going to be a good match and make sure that this new talent was given every opportunity to succeed. Instead, it was like, it was lazy. That's what it was. It was laziness. Part of the agent. My part,

to a degree. I have some culpable. And to a degree, Regals. But I'm sure Regal was walking a little bit on eggshells. Just back, just coming off. Uncomfortable suspension. I just want to go out there and do his job. Are you a diehard Packers fan?

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He would write, I've always liked Bill because he was always nice to me. Ever since that match, every time I've seen him, he's gone out of his way to shake my hand and even hug me, always. But I haven't seen him since he wrote about the match in his book and slag me off. I thought he was more of a man than that. If he had a problem with that match, he could have come and fronted me about it at any time. He must have met a hundred, we must have met a hundred times that happened, and he said nothing to me about it until he printed it in his book.

The incident earned me a right bollicking off Eric Bischoff. I've always got on well with Eric, but now I know that he got. got sick of me by then. He was right, too. He knew what I could do, and he saw me wasting my talent and not doing it. Eric was always straight with him. If he didn't like something, he'd tell me, and I was always the same with him. When Monday Nitro started, he was a very busy fellow, but he was never too busy to come and shake my hand if he saw me at a show, even if I was at the other end of the arena. Eric knew I wasn't living up to my potential. I didn't look good enough to be in a position to perform.

Eric did the right thing. I have no gripes with him for doing it. Man, this is, I don't know how you could read his words and not just have so much respect and appreciation. I mean, you talk about a guy who's self-aware and honest. I mean, he's just, that's a man's man right there, pardon the pun. There's no better way to say it. Yeah.

And, you know, and I use the term professional's professional. along with it. He is a man's man and he's a professional's professional. I encourage, before we wrap this up, I really, really encourage young talent, established talent, really want to up their game and fine tune their skill sets to spend as much time draining this man's broad. as you possibly just listen it may be different guidance than you would get from a typical wrestling instructor because very few people in a world today that you have access to as a young talent have the depth and breadth of experience and tools call on to make your game a better

game, Steve. So, I mean, if I was in NXT, I would get, I'd find out where he lived and get an apartment next to him. Follow him home at night. Make him dinner just for a further

opportunity to pick his breath. Here's some other real life stuff that even non-wresters can learn from. Steve wrote this in his book. Just before Christmas 97, we were in Buffalo, New York to do some Saturday night TV tape. Flew up with Dave Taylor and Fit Finley,

who I shared a room with, and I split one with Steve Armstrong. The next morning, I woke up, coughed, and blood came out of my mouth. I felt like I was going to die. I could hardly breathe. I was in a shocking state. So shocking that for the first time of my life, I could not go to the show. I couldn't even get out of bed and crawl to the door. Every time I coughed, blood poured out of me and onto the pillows until they were soaked.

It still wasn't enough to be the wake-up call I needed. I'll be okay. In March, I got a phone call from Dave Taylor to say he'd been let go by WCW. I couldn't believe it, and I didn't know what to say to him. A few minutes later, my phone rang again. It was my turn. It was J.J. Dillon from WCW. on the line. His news shouldn't have been surprising.

Quote, I'm very, very sorry to tell you this, Steve, but we've got to let you go. I demanded an explanation. I honestly couldn't see why this was happening. It was the only time in my career that my ego got the better of me. For years, I'd been this wrestler who had accepted all the accolades for his work, but I never bragged about it. The only time I went on about how good I was was when I became a piece of shit. I was convinced that it was everyone else who was, man, what a self-aware.

I mean, this is a journey that a lot of people have been on, and I know that you've talked about ego a lot. I know that our pal DDP has talked about ego a lot. Regal's not somebody I even ever associate with that word. He's even admitting it was his ego that wouldn't allow him to be honest with himself here.

This is a story that doesn't just apply to wrestling, especially when it comes to addiction and things like that, right, Eric? Yes. And then some. And it's again, and I know I've probably beat this horse to death

about how much respect I have for Stephen. And obviously a lot of it has to do with just this fascinating life in the industry. But the thing that puts them over the top for me is conquering addiction. As I have a lot of people that I, some of them I don't even know that I know through social media or a part of the Ad Free Shows family, which I've, you know, a lot of these people I've gotten a lot closer to. Some of are, you know, family friends now that I've gotten as as my wife. And they're battling it. And man, when I meet someone who is willing to admit they have a problem and then willing to commit to really addressing it, trying to come out of it, and finally succeed in coming out of it. But then that's just the beginning.

Now you've got to manage the rest of your life, which has been dominated by whatever addiction you have. You've got to learn how to relive your life. And that is really, really hard to do. Not had to do it, but I've had people that are so close to me go through it that once someone goes through that process, someone like Steve Regal was such a fascinating history or a guy that drives a plumbing supply truck, you go through that process and you come out of it and you stay out of it because you work at staying out of it every single day, instant respect for me sisters, because that's

one of the hardest things to do. Really, truly is. I just love this story and love that it has a happy ending. And there's some bumps and bruises along the way. We know that he's going to go to the WWF and doesn't like his body. He's maybe ready for TV.

And they send him to a training camp. It's hard to even imagine that you would send Regal to a training camp. Rousseau comes up with an idea. sort of based on the brawny man and it becomes a real man's man. They're going to do silly manly vignettes of him chopping wood

and shaving with a straight razor and squeezing in his own orange juice. It doesn't last very long. He checks into a rehab in January of 99 and he gets released from his WWF contract in April of 99. Now granted, WCW is no longer the number one company but still he hopes that the door might be opened for him.

He reaches out to DDP and it doesn't seem like anything's happening. And then, according to his book, I got a call from Dave Pinser, a WCW ring announcer. He'd been driving in a car with Eric Bischoff who'd asked him about me. Dave lived nearby. Dave told me what I'd been through. Or Dave told him, rather, what I'd been through. Eric told him, I've always liked Steve, tell him to give me a call.

So I did and was told to go to his office. All kind of things had been going. on in WCW since I'd been away. Now business was on a big downslide. Quote, you've done what you needed to do, said Eric. Yes, you can have a job. Whatever anyone else says, I can only say good things about Eric. He always looked after me when I did the right thing.

When I was a waste of time, he did the right thing by getting rid of me. Now he'd given me a job and I started going down to the power plan again to train. What are your memories of this? Because I don't think this gets talked about enough that you gave Regal another shot. I honestly barely remember it. You know, there was so much going on. I mean, this is 99. This March 99.

Within a couple of months, I'd be out of there. The pressure that I had been up to under previous six months or a year, starting really in July of 98. And it just increased from 98 to this point in 99. I barely remember anything at this point in time. And I do remember bringing them back because I was excited to bring him back. And he and I had a,

I don't remember the details of the conversation, but we had a very good conversation, positive. And I felt good about my decision. Even though I probably, from a financial perspective, shouldn't have made that decision. That was not my concern.

With regard to Steve, it wasn't my concern. Regal comes back. He's in the god-awful bash at the beach hardcore invitational in the junkyard. He's paired with Finley and Taylor again. As you mentioned, you're sort of winding down your WCW run. And when you're gone, of course, we know that Rousseau is going to be coming in. And here's what Regal wrote about that.

Quote, Arne Anderson called several wrestlers, including myself to a meeting where they were told that lads, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but this is exactly what I was told to say by Vince Rousseau, you're all in and on the bubble battle royal. It means you're all on the bubble to get fired. Whoever

wins it will keep their job and the rest of you will lose your jobs and we want Chavo Jr. to go up. What a fucking shitty deal that is. Have you heard this story before? No, it's pissing me off. I mean, it's just so bad. Ugh.

In February, the inevitable call came. Jay Dillon once again. Steve, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to let you go. Why is that, JJ, I asked. Knowing the answer. You're not working enough days for the money we're paying you. That's not my fault, JJ. I'm ready to work, but Vince Rousseau won't have me on the shows. He won't even talk to me. So how can you say that? That's just the way it is, Steve. Very sorry. And in February of 2000, Regal is going to lose a career match against Jim Duggan on WCW Saturday night, which is the third

show, no longer the A show, the show, and that's done to, of course, explain Regals release from the company. Now, thankfully, his story doesn't end there. We know he goes to the WWF, has a long run as a commissioner, and becomes a phenomenal

on-screen character for WW. One that I think is probably just as memorable and as successful as his in-ring stuff. What do you think of his a second act or maybe third act in the WWA. Love it.

Love it. We're seeing, you know, at that point in time, we're seeing much, much better side, healthier side. And what Cerego has to offer.

Of course, we know he would be on camera with you quite a bit, especially during the whole Eugene program. We'll talk more about that when we talk about Eugene sometime, but I just don't think

we had, I loved what Mick Foley did as the commissioner, But in my opinion, Regal was the best television commissioner we had. I mean, his facials told the story. Just the stuff he did with Tjiri, it was just out of this. Oh, it's classic. Yeah.

It's classic material. Tjiri especially, I love Tjuri. He's awesome. I had sushi with him a couple months or two ago somewhere. Super guy with him and Riegel together. That's another one of those like Bobby Eaton and Riegel combinations. It's just magic. We got a lot of comments from our community page over at 83 weeks.com.

Adam Con 82 said best facial expressions in the business. That's hard to argue for me. I think he's got to be right up there for best facials in the wrestling, but don't you think? Absolutely. No question about it. I know it hasn't happened yet, but it feels inevitable. He's a big of a Hall of Famer, don't you think?

Oh, my gosh. I certainly hope so. And again, I guess Hall of Fame means different things to different people. everybody's got an opinion. I always look at it from my perspective. It's just contribution. What have you contributed to the industry to make it better today than it was when you got in it? And when you look at Steve Regal and you see some of the absolute,

I'm going to say perfection, nothing's perfect. But when you look at the level of presentation that we're seeing, even in some of the top matches today in WWE, at the very top, knowing Steve is Steve Riggle to this day is bringing that basic fundamental philosophy that Terry Rudge, Dave Taylor, and Pete Roberts all instilled in him and he's sharing that improving the quality of the product to this day, both with young people coming in, developing and experienced veterans in the ring out, making millions and millions and millions of dollars a year.

One thing they all have in common is Steve Reed. And I think as far as contribution, that's a real contribution, definitely all of it. Forget about what he did in the ring in his history, just the contribution he makes to the product today. We want to make a contribution to your household right now with a little note from our friends at Blue Chew. Guys, this is the real deal.

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today's podcast. Eric, we've got a ton of questions here. Let's zip through some of these and then we'll put a bow on this week's episode. But don't forget coming up. Tomorrow, we're going to be recapping everything that happened at King and Queen of the Ring right here at 83

weeks.com. And this Sunday, late night, right after double or nothing from Las Vegas, Eric and I will be live at 83 weeks.com. It's totally free. It costs you nothing. You get to interact with us. Go right now, hit the subscribe button,

turn on the notifications bell. That's 83 weeks.com. Adam Kay says briefly in 96, the Blue Bloods were given an assistant name Jeeves. Who was he? Where did that come from? And what did you think about Jeeves? Talk to us about Jeeves.

Again, I don't remember his real name. It'll probably come to me an hour from now. But Jeeves went on to become for it. You have a guess? Anybody out there guessing? Wildcat Willie. Wildcat Willie. Yeah.

Jeeves went on to become Wildcat Willie. Let's do another question. This one comes to us from Francis Reyes. Did you ever think about him being a trainer at the power plant? Talking about Steve Rick. No, you know, we never really had... Power plant was kind of set up, and it was in status quo. We, we, you know, we brought more, you know, more people to come in and do special seminars and things like that.

But, uh, Jody Hamilton was running the power plant. Buddy Lee Parkie, Parker was there, obviously very instrumental. And there was some other talent there. And we never, uh, never considered it on an ongoing basis, perhaps occasionally, not an ongoing basis. Todd Kaepernick 8-225 over on YouTube at 83. Weeks.com wants to know. Would you consider Regal the greatest television champion of all time?

He always seemed to have that title and made the most of it, similar to how the honky talk man did the intercontinental title. I could see somebody making the argument that he's the greatest television champion of all time. What say you? Yeah, Arne Anderson, Steve Regal, you know, kind of a, it's a hard

conversation. It was an interesting debate to have, let's put it that way. Here's one from 82 Atlantic. Why do you think Steve Regal never wore the world championship or even got a significant main event push in either WCW or WWE? He had the promo skills and the look. Was that just timing? Because I do feel like a generation before or maybe a generation after that might have been possible. But in that era, maybe it just wasn't what they thought the mainstream was looking for.

I don't even know if it was given that much thought, to be honest, Conrad. But I think a lot of it has to do with, it's kind of like a wrestling version of typecasting. You know, Steve Regal came in under Watts, there to fill a certain role, versatile enough that he could be moved around. Television Champion, have great matches, a lot of great people. I've entered, you know, hooking him up with Bobby Eaton, all that. But he was still, Steve was still typecast in this supporting character role. and nobody really saw him in that star, starring role.

And it's just typecasting. And part of typecasting is timing. But I think it's just he got too good at doing what he was doing and nobody wanted to take him out of it. And that's, I'm not saying this applies to Steve Regal, but there's a lot of great talent. Look at Brad Armstrong. Greatest Brad Armstrong was.

He was too good because he could make, you'd see these other stars, other talents, I won't call them stars. Other talents that would come in, whether it was Dusty or Kevin or me or anybody else that had influence, it's like, oh, wow, this guy could be a star. So let's use Brad Armstrong to help get him over because we know Brad's so good at what Brad does. Brad can make this guy. So, you know, you'd see something in somebody and then you want to use somebody

that can make them look better than they really were. And that's a role that a guy, and there's more of them. But Steve Wrigal, Matt Armstrong, and I got typecast into those roles. Very, very, very important. But they never really broke through that middle of the roster kind of category. A user over on YouTube wants to know, do you think being English held him back at all from marketing? To a slim, to a degree. Now, we had always heard, I had always heard, even in research, because I was involved in research

in WCW before the research that I was involved with, Nitro. There were, we call them audits. Corporate Turner would, they would bring in a company, a well-known company. They would do an internal audit on every aspect, every operational aspect of every division in Turner Broadcasting, including WCW. And part of that audit was research, amongst the audience. and I remember hearing basically I'll summarize it the American TV audience is really only interested

in other American characters why you didn't see a lot of British comedy in the United States before the probably the 80s saw some Benny Hill some but very little you see a lot more now have changed now but yeah I think to a degree

might have been an issue but it would have been kind of subtle and almost subliminal in the minds of people making, you know, marketing or promotional. Certainly that didn't occur to me because to me, you know, I grew up in AWA as a fan watching Billy Robinson. Billy Robinson was one of my favorite character. So I didn't bring a bias, you know, with me to WCW. In fact, if anything, I was more interested in international talent than perhaps, you know,

some of the people that worked with me at WCW. Stephen over on YouTube wants to know, do you think Regal might be the most underrated wrestler ever? For all the reasons we just talked about, yeah, no doubt. It's hard to argue, and I saw a great comparison that I never would have imagined. This one comes from Chris over on YouTube. Regal has been great in every role he's been given. On screen, behind the scenes, he's just amazing.

He's like the British dusty roads. You hear him talk now, how humble and down-to-earth the guy is. It's amazing considering all he's been through. I never would have thought to compare the two, but, man, if we're talking about Learning Tree and you were just talking earlier about, hey, if you're a young talent, go out of your way to spend time with this guy, go to his house, and cook him dinner. I mean... Do his laundry.

I don't care what you need to do. Make that man be willing to let you have an hour of his time. Well, you're going to regret giving me any time next week, Eric, because we're going to watch a Nitro from May 31st, 1999. It was live from the Astrodome. we're going to talk about the changes that the WCW product was going through. We'll compare the last time he ran the Astrodome to hear. We'll see Sting taking on the television champion Rick Steiner in a cage match

with Tank Abbott as a guest referee. The Jersey triad are going to win the tag team. Title Gold. I can't believe this is real. But we got David Flair wrestling Eric Watts on television and a match that I'm sure exactly no one would see. Eddie Guerrero will make his return to the company after five months. gone and we're going to launch

the West Texas rednecks but maybe most interestingly Randy Savage gets sprayed with shit. That is all coming up next week and I'm going to give Eric more than his fair share right here at 83 weeks.com. You get to be a part of our live

studio audience by the way if you join us over at adfree shows.com we want to give a special shout out to a whole bunch of folks who hung out with us today. I know Tim Angstman was here, Jim and Buffalo was here, Doug Ritter, Josh Hennie, Coach Rosie. Speaking to Coach Rosie,

we're talking about ad-free shows and all the bonus content here all the time, how we've created a community and how it's like a little family within a family. Hell, you just recently flew across the country to Baltimore to officiate Lindsay's wedding. Well, we've got another reminder of the impact that our little community can have on each other

when our top guys got together for a live Q&A with you earlier this week. Our old pal, Coach Rosie, shared this. Let's take a list. Lori, that helps the young man that joined Dad pre-shows, not knowing anything like this was going to happen. And coaches him up for a couple years. And not only coaches him up,

but coaches two of his sons up. And one of those sons, but both of my kids, but is Andrew. And he graduated high school today. Wow. You want to know the why behind ad-free shows. I mean, you know the whole back history of, man. I got emotional at the graduation.

It's been a tough ride. But you know what? It would not have been possible if you do that six degrees of whatever. If it wasn't for ad-free shows, I would have never talked to you. I would have never gotten connected with Lori. I would have never put my sons in her teen life coaching course. I would have never had my older son have the confidence to tell me he wants to change his major in college. And I don't think I would have ever seen my son graduate high school, let alone still be walking this earth the way that he was going.

So you want to know the vibe behind that three shows? The story ended today when Andrew graduated high school. So that's why I had for his shows is so vital and important to me. Coach, that was beautiful, brother. I was so, I can't wait to tell Lori about this experience. Thank you so much. And that's, again, that's why I love this place. I just, where are you going to get these kind of connections?

I don't know about you all, but I haven't had these kinds of connections in my entire life outside of this country. In terms of people that you work with, you know, I mean, I've got friends. Don't get me wrong, but they're friends I see once or so twice a year. You know, but these kinds of conversations, sharing these kinds of experiences. That's, well, I love this place. Coaching. Thank you very much, Coach. Appreciate it. A little reminder that I had free shows is a whole lot more than just some bonus shows.

And yes, we got those with Lex Lugar, with Kevin Sullivan with David Crockett, Mike Keota, with Nick Patrick. There's live Q&A's with myself and Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, and Tony Chivani and Jim Ross, and so much more. We've got special one-offs like false finish, so many other really fun little pieces of business and content. But really, it was about creating a community. And we launched this, we didn't know it, just days before the pandemic was going to

change the world as we know it. And the result was we built a little family, a little community of like, like-minded people who like the same things. And maybe some of us went to school and were made fun of or ridiculed for liking and loving this thing called professional wrestling. This is a judgment-free zone where we're all

free to sort of enjoy wrestling and talk about it and free of hate and I don't know. All the divisiveness that happens sometimes in the internet wrestling community. You still see that sort of thing with the real family members at ad-freeshows.com. There's more to life than just wrestling

but it is nice to be able to share it all with your wrestling friends. And that's what ad-free shows is about to me is wrestling friends. So check it out. I would love for you to take a look. I was moved by Coach Rosie's words and just wanted to share that. Because they're always plugging just the content. But it's a whole lot more than just commercial-free podcast and bonus content. It's a community.

And I know, Eric, you were so moved by what coach shared that you actually got some phone numbers directly from Patreon and started calling up some members and just read, out to people and letting them know, hey, we're here and we appreciate your support. I'm sure you've had an interesting few days here catching up with folks from all over the world. Yes, I don't know what to say. I can't explain it, but it is a real community. It is a real thing.

And it's not only the relationships I'm developing, you know, with people like Coach Rosie and Genovius, Mack, Z, obviously, and so many others. Barat is actually coming. He's going to Barat Sonderasia is going to be covering the world cricket championships in Barbados this summer at the end of June. And then it's going to be jumping into a car,

driving eight hours from Denver up to Cody to spend Fourth of July with me and my wife and family. And again, I'll start with ad free shows. I mean, it's just awesome. I can't explain it. But yeah, check it out.

I think you'll probably find yourself feeling a real comfortable. I hope you check it out. And by the way, in my real life, I just want to mention I am still helping people save money. And I'd love to help your family save money as well at savewithconrad.com. We're getting five-star reviews all the time. Not too long ago, Jason E said he was able to save $1,500 a month. And he says, if anyone is considering a mortgage or looking to eliminate debt, this is the place to go. You will not be disappointed.

We approach our home ownership and debt elimination business at savewithconrad.com the same way we do ad-free shows.com. You're not just going to be a loan number. We want to be your mortgage advisor for life. You've got a friend in the mortgage business. That's me. And it's my team, the same team that's been with me for years and years. Even my own dad.

My dad could help you save money, buy a house or pay off your credit card debt, whatever. We can make it happen for you right now at savewithconrad.com. you've got questions about buying a house, credit cards, or credit scores, or any of that stuff, we want to be your resource. There's no credit report fee. There's no application fee. We're not going to jump for you to death. We want to try to find a way to save you some money.

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You're done until August. Come get you some of that at save withconrad.com. And be sure to tune in tomorrow afternoon. We're going to be watching King of the Ring live in Saudi Arabia doing a post show. Eric and I are going to get together totally free at 83 weeks.com. And of course, on Sunday, we'll be back late night. Eric's going to have to be drinking coffee in the evening. It will be well past his bedtime.

But we're watching at EW double or nothing. We're going to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly at 83 weeks.com. Eric, I love today's episode. I hope we did Mr. Regal Justice. But this is one of my favorite episodes we've done, I think. Three hours, man, and it flew. And we could probably do another hour if we had the time. So I thank you, Conrad, and Dave Silva and Derek, putting this together.

Did some great research. And thank you all very much for checking it out with us. Well, don't go far. We'll see you guys tomorrow, right here. at 83weeks.com. Hey, this is the National Treasure, Nick Aldous, and I am recommending that you go to savewithconrad.com for all your home buying needs. If you listen to any of Conrad shows, which I do on a regular basis,

it's pretty hard to miss the fact that he's in the mortgage business. When the time came that we were looking to buy a place, it was really my first choice. I just got the feeling right from the start that Jimmy and Conrad and the whole team, and really wanted us to succeed. It felt like it should. It felt like we were all on the same team. It felt like we were in business together,

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