William Regal (Picture: WWE)

WWE’s developmental brand NXT tours the UK next week, so we sat down with trainer and scout William Regal for part two of our interview to find out just who fans attending the shows should be looking out for.

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Regal has been involved in the wrestling business for over 30 years, and during that time has established a close relationship with Triple H, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative and the head of NXT.

What is your friendship like with Triple H?

We have a very odd friendship in the fact that I probably speak to him less than anyone in the company. He trusts me with what he needs to trust me with. He can literally look at me from across the room, and we know that have the same kind of mindset.




How did you become friends?

He came to WCW and we were put together as a team.

When I was younger wrestling in England, I used to go to a lot of countries on my own a lot of time. There was a four year period where I was constantly traveling the world.

I always remembered the guys who would look after me and the ones that didn’t when you get there. So I’ve always made it a point to try and help anybody that’s new, to try and make them feel settled in because people did that for me.

Without that, I would never have gotten to where I got to.

William Regal and Triple H

I’ve been lucky that a lot of good people always looked after me because I was polite or whatever, and they showed me around and let me figure out how the specifics of the company worked.

I do that with anybody, and I did that with him. He came to WCW and he hadn’t been wrestling long.

He was only a year younger than me, but I’d been around for ten years at that time, with the last six of those pretty intensive.

Straight away I asked him if he needed any help, and I’d bring him over to my apartment, my wife would cook for him and we’d help him out.

What happened when you became a tag-team?

We got put together as a team, so we trained together all the time at the old Power Plant in WCW.

I didn’t know how long the British wrestling style would last at that time because it was dying off then, so I started teaching him some of that stuff that I knew.

It just went from there, the team worked well for a short period but his contract was coming up and he got an offer from WWF. I said to him he had to go, he wanted to go anyway, but he asked me and I said he had to because they were working nearly 300 dates a year at that point.



I’d done all my work working every day, and I told him he could only get better doing that. Some people are good from the get go. I wasn’t, and he wasn’t. We had to learn everything that we ever got.

The only place to get better is to work in front of a crowd every night, that’s when you’ll find what really works and what doesn’t.

What happened next?

After he went to WWE we kept in touch a little bit. Then I came back to WWE in 2000 after a few ups and downs, and he was always there for me. We’ve been together ever since, but like I say, we don’t have a lot to do with each other outside of wrestling.

We do all the stuff at NXT because he knows he can trust me to do anything and we’ve always got each others back.

Speaking of NXT, you’re heading over to the UK next week for a tour. How do you feel about that?

It’s exciting because we’ve essentially got a new roster. There is some incredible talent coming over.

Everybody on the card now is getting to the point where they’re really good at what they do.

Who in particular should we be looking out for?

I know people have been seeing Drew McIntyre for the last few years in the UK, and now you get to see him in NXT with the new way he’s going to get presented.


The experience that he has got over the last three years and the confidence he has gained means he’s like a whole new person with how good he is.

Bobby Roode is a star, he’s great for the brand, while Aleister Black is somebody who if you’ve never seen him, you’ve got to see him.

It’s hard to explain, he just has a presence. Some people are great wrestlers and some people just have a presence about them, and he’s got both.

To get to see Roderick Strong and Kassius Ohno as well, they’re exceptionally good pros and they’re going to have excellent matches.

The best of the best keep being brought here, and NXT has its own rawness and special quality to it.

What about the rookies?

With NXT there are always going to be a few people who are still developing because that’s what NXT is, but that’s really exciting because you get to see them thrown into the deep end.

Some of these people who are used to doing the smaller shows in Florida are getting a chance on this tour.

I’m not lying in any way, British fans are the best in the world. They’re going to chant, they’re going to scream, and the talent are going to find out if they’re ready or not for this.

And that’s great because if they’re not, don’t take it as a bad thing, let’s go back to the drawing board if it didn’t work.


But it will work, because we’ll make it work.

Finally, what does the future look like for NXT?

The last few TV recordings we were at, like I say I don’t say much to Triple H, but we looked over at each other, and we just said that ‘everything is starting again now.’

We’re on a new path. With this roster, and we also know what’s going to happen and who is eventually going to be doing this and that, this is a really magic time to be watching NXT.

Read the first part of our interview with William Regal here.

Tickets for NXT in the UK are available now