Regal details the situation that occurred in Jacksonville, Florida.
On the newest episode of William Regal’s ‘Gentleman Villain’ podcast, a conversation was held about Regal’s time working as a heel in 1994.
He expressed that his job was to always make people dislike him in any way that he can and that went as far as Regal not speaking to his neighbors. He recounted working with Larry Zybzsko in Jacksonville, Florida and scoring a win in the match. Regal recalled the crowd showering him with boos and he wanted to take it to the next level.
He went and found a USA flag that was hanging on a wall near the stage area. When he went to pull the flag down so he could take it in front of the crowd, a police officer who was stationed in the area pulled his gun out and pointed it directly at Regal’s forehead. Regal immediately backed off and shared that he found a quiet place in the arena and sat in shock after what had occurred.
My job, if need be, is to make you hate me and I was very good at making people not like me. A lot of people know the comedy stuff but if I wanted to make a room of people, an arena full of people not like me and really not like me, I know how to do that and I was very good at that. Coming to the WWE was a — things had started to change and it was more of a character thing. When I was at WCW, people didn’t like me, and you go back now and watch it as comedy. I have no reason to lie to you about these stories. I came out the back of Macon, Georgia one night with six fellas kicking my car in and I had to run ‘em all off. I wrestled Larry Zbyskzo in the old coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida one night when I was doing the thing with him in ‘94 and me being only 26, just turned 26 and all about getting heat, it used to be, you had to go up onto a stage, like on some steps onto a stage and then off the side of the stage into the dressing rooms. On the wall at the back of the stage, there’s a huge American flag. Me, I’ve just beat Larry Zbyzsko and people are booing and booing and booing and it’s all that in the days when it was easy to — it was, ‘USA, USA, USA.’ Me not thinking and not knowing any better really because I’m 26 and… you know, I’ve been traveling the world for four years and not really noticed anything what was going on in the world. Never knowing American history. I wasn’t taught American history in school. I was taught English history [Regal chuckled]. I grabbed and was about to pull this — I don’t know how big it was but it was huge — a big American flag off the thing and I’m looking at the crowd to my right. As I looked to the left, I just felt a tap on my forehead. From the side of the stage, there was a Jacksonville police officer stood and as I turned my head, there was a gun in my forehead and he said, ‘I suggest you don’t do that sir’ and I went, ‘I think you’re right officer’ and I just walked off the other side and completely went out of character. I was just like, boom, with a gun pointed to my forehead. This isn’t the first time I’ve told this so I’m not making this up, right? And I doubt anybody could remember that back then. Maybe somebody but, and I walked off the other side. Luckily, there was like two lots of steps. I went, oof, and had that in me head. The gun was pointed in my head and he said, ‘I suggest you don’t do that sir’ and I walked off the stage and went down the steps and again, people think I’m a tough guy, and people have seen me do things at certain times and we can tell stories about that. I went down the stairs, found a quiet spot and I was shaking because I’ve seen a lot of things in my time but I’d never — Revolver stuck right in me head and a cocked Revolver… It was all about getting as much hatred as possible.
Regal was present on the 9/14 Dynamite for the main event between Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho. With Danielson’s victory, he’ll be taking on fellow Blackpool Combat Club member Jon Moxley at Dynamite Grand Slam for the vacant AEW World Championship.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit the Gentleman Villain podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
