Following on from last week’s frustration venting regarding William Regal, I’d like to go into more detail on why I’m a fan of the guy who was again brutally buried in last week’s Raw main event.

When talking about Regal, the easy thing to forget is that he has been around for ages, touring in both WCW and WWF through the 1990s and before that having a varied European career that dates right back to the old World Of Sport days. That being said, Regal has had one of the more interesting careers in recent wrestling history, also going through well documented substance abuse problems and losing and regaining his job with the then ‘big two’ on multiple occasions.

Apart from providing interesting reading, what this movement has meant is that Regal has had matches against virtually everyone in the business who was significantly employed during the 1990s and into the 2000s. This means when looking back at Regal’s career, if you can be bothered to look, there are numerous ‘hidden gem’ like matches that are well worth taking the trouble to find.

These matches show that Regal is far from the dull worker that UK magazines seem intent to label him as, showing that he can have exciting and most notably different matches with a wide variety of talent.

Here are some of them of the earlier matches of Regal’s career that are worth finding, going up to 1995.

Roy Regal vs. Marty Jones (World of Sport, 11/10/1986)

This is Regal’s televised debut match against his trainer Marty Jones. To me, Jones is best known for having a couple of tremendous matches on WOS against a very young Owen Hart and the Dynamite Kid – I would imagine they’re still floating around on TFN and they’re certainly worth a watch.

In this match Regal is announced as being just 18, and is even given a one fall in hand advantage, as the match is being contested in under the multiple rounds rules. There’s a lot of very basic wrestling here, Jones outwrestles the rookie, but some Regal spots are still recognisable as being in his arsenal today, most notably the nip up from a neck bridge. There’s some comedy thrown in as well, with Regal missing a shoulder tackle on a criss-cross spot, and Jones going down on the mat to see if he’d noticed, very Cabana-McGuinness 2005 – you can tell Scotty Goldman watches his tapes!

The first round is inconclusive, with Regal holding his own in chain wrestling. The second round however, is more a showcase for Jones, with Regal failing to rise to the 10 count following a dropkick from Jones following an Irish-whip reversal. Regal can’t continue following this hefty move, and the match is awarded to Jones. This match is a curiosity from a historical perspective, as it is essentially a Jones squash, although the potential is definitely there from Regal ,and he is well put over by the commentator.

Steve Regal vs. Tony St. Clair (RESLO, early 1990s)

One of the earlier Regal matches, and different (apart from the Welsh commentary) in that Regal plays the young up-and-comer against St. Clair’s more grizzled veteran act. Having seen Regal playing the arrogant snob for so long on US television, it as refreshing to see him be a totally different kind of character (that wasn’t too far removed from the truth at the time).

Just a smooth British-style match, crucially, not contested under round rules, with Regal showing himself to aspiring to be St. Clair’s equal in the ring, producing some of the mirror exchanges that have more recently become popular on the US Indy scene. St. Clair at one point busts out the spot that Mark Henry was using when he was face in 2002, muscling up Regal and dumping him on the turnbuckle, before just tapping him on the chest to show his power. This bout is almost all chain wrestling in a face-face contest, with a nice exchange of European uppercuts towards the end and St. Clair puts Regal away with a reversal of a Regal arm drag into a pin.

Also notable that Regal seems to be currently aspiring to grow his hair out to his early 1990s pre-WCW awesomeness.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat (WCW Saturday Night, Late 1993)

This is from the early stages of Regal’s ‘Lord’ character, and he is accompanied by Lord William (Bill Dundee). Regal is already getting a good heel reaction from the studio audience and it doesn’t hurt that he’s wrestling uber-babyface Ricky Steamboat.

These two had a good little series of PPV matches at the tail end of 1993 over the WCW Television Title, and this match is obviously from around this time. Regal is on hilarious over sell mode here, really showing some of the best facials in the business that would be the backbone of his WWF Commissioner run in 2000-01.

Regal gets virtually no offence for he first portion of the match but is then able to come back and get some real heat on Steamboat in the latter half, utilising smooth matwork and some cowardly heel tactics. Steamboat wins this one after throwing Dundee off the top rope onto Regal, but nothing is rally settled, as it’s a non-title match. There is an amusing bit with Steamboat wearing a bowler hat and umbrella at the end though.

This was more of a comedy match for the Disney Studio audience, but it shows again that Regal was able to quickly and efficiently get over as a heel to the American audience, while generally having matches that were ahead of the time considering the rest if WCW’s product at the time.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Ric Flair (WCW, non-title, Marquis of Queensbury Series, 1994)

This match was shown over the space of 5 weeks on WCW Worldwide and is a series of five minute rounds. Flair is face and champion here, so it must have been taped prior to his heel turn following his final match with Steamboat on Main Event just prior to Hogan coming in.

Flair gets a rare handshake off heel Regal to start the first round. It’s all mat wrestling with Flair really showing hat he’s capable of by keeping up with Regal throughout while crucially throwing NO chops. The first round doesn’t have an in-ring decision, but the judges at ring side give it to Regal. Round 2 has more awesome mat wrestling that I can’t really do written justice to here, just awesome holds and counter holds that I really didn’t think Flair had in him at this point in his career. What’s different in this round though, is that both men resort to strikes, chops and European uppercuts as the time limit expires, but this of no use as the round is declared a draw.

Round 3 is more Flair, with the Champion working towards the figure four for much of the round. Regal still shines by hanging in there, but the round is easily awarded to Flair. Round four is more awesome chained stuff, with the intensity going up a notch as both men fight out to the floor in the closing stages, although I thought that Regal got the lion’s share of offence in this match but it was considered a draw by the judges.

Round 5, supposedly, the deciding round, features interference by Dundee, which is pretty much ineffective at this point, Regal ends up dominating again, but the round is considered a draw – Flair actually wins in almost another five minutes of overtime with a backslide.

If this match had been presented all in one go on PPV, it would have been considered a WCW 1994 MOTY contender. Regal was made to look awesome and certainly gained everything from being in this match, the result was immaterial. This match really showed that Regal could hang with the main eventers if booked properly, and is Regal’s best of the year, and must rank right up there for Flair as well.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW, IWGP Heavyweight Championship, 16/04/1995)

This is the match that would have MADE Regal in Japan if those pesky personal demons hadn’t gotten in the way. You would have thought that Regal would be the obvious heel here against overwhelmingly hometown hero Hashimoto but the Japanese crowd allow for a more respectful atmosphere, the match even starts with a hand shake.

Regal initially out wrestles Hashi, breaking his nose along the way, presumably with some vicious cross faces before the Champion takes over and just destroys the Blueblood with the stiff strikes that he was (in)famous for. Regal then shows that he’s no slouch on that front either, firing back with some lovely European uppercuts and the obligatory tough guy headbutts.

At the time, no one had seen this type of work from Regal before, as he had previously primarily been portrayed as a more traditional British technical heel, but the ay in which he makes his offence look realistic and really zeroes in on Hashi’s already brutalised face makes him look like a seasoned pro in the striking game. In his book, Regal said that he really had to step up his game for his first Japan tour, and it really shows here.

For curiosity’s sake, this was also Regal’s last match before he took the nasty knee injury against Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) that would lead him down the slippery slope to painkiller dependency a couple of years later. Regal also shows fighting spirit, here, egging Hashis’ retaliatory strikes on, seemingly getting his respect, and also eliciting a nice reaction from the notoriously reserved Japanese crowd.

Also notorious for the debut of the Regal stretch (which plays nicely into Shinya’s broken nose being a focal point of the match), this bout ended when Regal gave up to the armbar. This match was a hard-hitting war that totally holds up to today’s standards, especially compared to some of the dross that the WWF and WCW were putting out in their main events at the time. The fact that the IWGP Champion sold so much and presented Regal as his equal really got him over.

Coming next week, I’ll continue with the rare Regal stuff – featuring Regal against Mexicans, Benoit, Finlay, Triple Haitch, and more…

James Mustoe
james@ifight365.com