William Regal talks about signing with AEW and how he had been mentally “checked out” of wrestling

During an appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, William Regal talked about signing with AEW…

“I’ve done nothing but do this for a living since I was 16 full-time, apart from a couple of years off with different things that had gone on health-wise and a few injuries, I had done nothing but wrestling. That’s it, I had a great run and I’m going to take maybe a year off except for, I was thinking about this time, I would start looking for the odd things in the UK, just so I could go and see my family and go home for a bit. Then, I get a call from Bryan Danielson. It sounded very exciting, just to go back and be talent, basically. As soon as I walk in the door, everyone seems to be asking me to do other things. ‘You can do this.’ A lot of that, but for the last ten years, I’ve been doing a lot of everything. It’s been nice to just go out and be me. I’m going to do things anyway, I can’t help that. The reason I ended up with the job before is I know Bryan and all these people, is because I will always be at the ring showing people stuff and I got to know a lot of people over the years because people did that for me in Britain. Once they realized I wasn’t going anywhere, I couldn’t have any better wrestlers take me under their wing and teach me and show me and put me into places. I felt that was part of my…if I don’t do that, I’m not leaving this job in the right way.”

“I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’m 53, walking into a new company, and I’m trying to watch everything and see all this young talent and my brain is like, ‘You don’t have to do that anymore. That’s not your job,’ but I still can’t help it. When people wanted to talk o me, I’m like, ‘Okay, can you just give me a bit of time.’ I’m not feeling like I fit it, at first. That’s a weird thing because I’m naturally quiet. If I need to insert myself into a situation, I can, very quickly, but in real life, I keep quiet until I get to know people. I know a lot of people, but there’s a lot going on and everyone is doing their own thing. I’m sort of trying to fit in. Last week was the first week I started feeling comfortable. Everyone has been welcoming, but I was just a bit overwhelmed. In that two months I was off, when I say I checked out of wrestling, I checked out on wrestling. My wrestling brain hasn’t caught off. I felt comfortable last week, I don’t feel like my wrestling brain is in full working order yet. The first few weeks were just, go out and do my bit and then just watch. The first night was a blur and an incredible experience, but I just did my thing and got out. Whatever else is going on in my brain, I still haven’t gotten up, I’m slowly getting there. I’m walking around and it’s the energy.” (quotes courtesy of Fightful.com)