Hi everyone, I’m making my sort-of return to a more full time column and writing schedule following a paternity leave following the birth of my son, Barnaby David Mustoe, on 25/09/08. He’s been such an amazing change for my life, and obviously wrestling hasn’t been a priority in the last few weeks!

That being said, my next column concerns, one of my favourite of all-time characters and performers in wresting, WWE’s William Regal. Regal has had a rough time of it recently, with Powerslam magazine referring to him as a ‘demoted drug failure disgrace’ in their most recent issue.

True, Regal did fail his second wellness test on May 19, but I don’t see Powerslam taking pot shots at the similarly ‘troubled’ Jeff Hardy, of whom they generally seem to have a more positive attitude on, despite his similarly chequered past.

A consistent performer: William Regal

Regal has been a consistently solid to excellent ring performer since his stateside debut in late 1992, and has also been one of the more entertaining characters since the inception of the Lord Steven Regal character in late 1993.

True he has had those well-publicised ‘personal demons’, but aside from his non-descript WWF run in 1998, he has always delivered in the ring and as a wrestling personality despite whatever problems he was going through.

I mean, read his autobiography, ‘Walking a Golden Mile’, an open and honest account of recreational drug use and all the horrific problems Regal caused for himself and especially his family while he was caught up in that negative spiral of abuse, and you’ll see exactly what the man put himself through.

Apart from the honesty concerning his recreational drug troubles, Regal also explained in the early part of his book, that he had abused steroids, I haven’t got a copy of it here, but the gist of it was that Regal had been prepared to use steroids when faced with the (then rare) prospect of a televised match or promotional opportunity earlier in his career.

Regal never clarified that he wasn’t still not adverse to applying these tactics when the circumstances were right, and this is apparently what happened; Regal was in line for the biggest push of his career and took the steps necessary to make his body comparable to those on the RAW main event scene (Batista, Cena, Orton, Hunter) at the time. This may look indefensible from an outsider’s perspective, but to look at why Regal did this you have to look at the overall WWE locker room culture as a whole, in particular the case of Eddie Guerrero.

Guerrero was another well-publicised ‘former’ addict who WWE publicly touted as a reformed case, in both his autobiography and the ‘Cheating Death, Stealing Life’ DVD release. That Eddie’s inspirationally titled book was released with a foreword from Vince McMahon commenting on Guerrero’s untimely death says all you need to know about ‘Latino Heat’s’ true state of health.

Still, Eddie had been legitimately considered ‘clean’ by many of his peers in the locker room - steroid use was just not considered an issue.

Looking at Guerrero in the weeks before he died, at Summerslam 2005 in particular, it was clear that something was wrong. I can even recall saying to a friend that Eddie had become so pumped up and bloated that he bore a closer resemblance to muscle-freak Scott Steiner than the Cruiserweight who had initially grabbed my attention in ECW in 1995. Regardless of what Eddie was or wasn’t on at the time of his death, it seems clear that his physique was enhanced by something, and that this was not considered an issue by his fellow-workers, merely another way of doing your job and keeping your image good.

Hopefully this isn’t going to be a similar trend with William Regal but it still shows the mentality that led to Regal thinking that physique enhancing drugs were (are) an accepted risk to take when gunning for a big push.

To go back to my earlier Jeff Hardy comparison, Hardy has failed more tests (even being fired in 2003), than the former Blueblood, but has still returned and in been receipt of a major baby face push each time. Hardy apologists justify this by pointing out that he was (and still is) over to a huge degree as a face at a time when WWE needed a fresh top level star in this position.

However if you look back at Regal’s run pre-suspension and just after his King of the Ring win, you will see that he was receiving nuclear heel heat, more intense than anything I’ve recently seen, and was just as over as a bad guy as Hardy was over at the other end of the spectrum. Therefore WWE could of at least given equal punishments and given Regal the opportunity to return at his previous position - instead he came back in a non-featured role, in a midcard position with vastly reduced TV time.

With this punishment in mind, since his return from suspension in July, Regal has made the best of the limited televised time given to him to further develop his character both in the ring and outside. While stuck in a feud with the equally under-utilised Jamie Noble, Regal has kept his character’s edge, while using a realistic ground and striking style, combined with occasional heavy duty suplexes to create a method that stands out from the WWE norm. The arrogant upper-class character on a knife-edge with his sanity has also been maintained, and the throne for the 2008 King of the Ring winner has also made a welcome return.

With his involvement in last week’s RAW’s main event, hopefully we will soon see Regal move back up the card, as booked right, he could be a realistic and fresh opponent for any of the top Monday night babyfaces.

My next column will continue the Regal love, providing a career retrospective to date. I hope you’ve enjoyed this piece, and it’s good to be back!

James Mustoe
james@ifight365.com