And Sorrow's Native Son Regal Will Not Smile For Anyone

Roy Regal v. Marty Jones WOS 10/11/86-GREAT

This is Regal's television debut and he is rocking a spectacular blond mullet like the keyboardist for the Cutting Crew. This is a handicap match, with Regal being spotted a fall, like you would spot your little brother ten points in a game of one on one. Really cool to see Regal this early as he was damn agile and worked WOS style reversals really well. This was worked with the veteran Jones teaching the youngster a lesson, and they worked in some nice moments of offense for Regal, even a couple of near falls, although Jones remained firmly in control of the match. Finish was pretty great with Jones landing a Meiko Satomura in GAEA Girls level dropkick right to Regal's mouth which kept him down for the 10 count. It is hard to work a credible KO spot on a dropkick, but they sure as heck did.

Lord Steven Regal v. Tony Pena WCW 11/25/96-GREAT

Tony Pena is an unmasked Villano IV (pre Villanos in WCW, rocking the IV tights) given that name I assume as a Konan based shot at Antonio Pena. Very WCW match, two guys delivering a hellacious match, cut short, while Zbyszko and Schiavone talk about the NWO. This was only about five minutes, but it was an asskicking five minutes. We get some very pretty, very intesne matwork, with Regal really wrenching in the holds and Pena hanging right with him, we also get some nasty brawling. Pena clocks Regal with a clothesline and a Sano spinkick to the face, and Regal responds by pushing VIV into the corner and unloading with an awesome violent five punch combo. Heck of a sprint with both guys looking world class, really makes me want to seek out all Regal v. Villanos, that really should have been a hair v. mask match in Arena Mexico.

William Regal v. Steve Austin WWF 11/29/01-EPIC

PAS: This is a strap match from Smackdown and just a hellacious brawl. Regal has the strap to start and he taunts Austin Bugs Bunny style by pulling it away from him when Austin tries to grab it, after the third time, Austin flips out and just attacks, and it goes at that pace. They brawl into the crowd with Austin viciously strapping Regal up and down the stairs. Regal takes control after backdropping Austin off the announce table, which is a nutty bump for a guy with a broken neck to be taking on TV. Vicious brawling Regal is one of my favorite of his approaches, and he just lays into Austin with forearms and strap shots when he get an opening. Austin was amazing in this too, I hadn't watched a Stone Cold match in so long, you forget what a charismatic motherfucker he really was. He stops mid brawl to toast Earl Hebner with a beer, and then smashes it on Regals head. I even liked all of the four corner spots, which is usually the problem with strap matches. Austin was awesome at the end countering all of Regal's attempts to stop the turnbuckle slapping, before the third buckle he nuts Regal, and pulls him into a stunner before the fourth. I didn't remember this match at all, and it was totally awesome.

ER: Austin was my favorite wrestler in the world in 2001, and I had never ever seen this match before. This must have been right after he turned face after the year long heel turn (which I loved but you know how much it fucked everything up). The Regal C&A is going to be real fun because up until Finlay joined WWE, Regal was a guy who I don't remember having a lot of great WWE non-Benoit matches. I remember the RVD Wrestlemania match being way better than I expected, and there was a 90 second Lance Storm match where Storm botched a dropkick and Regal kicked the shit out of him...a Dick Togo match....There has to be other stuff. He's a guy who's been in WWE at total of 12 years, but I just can't think of much. You start thinking there must be all of these hidden gems, and then you "discover" a "hidden" gem of a match between him and fucking Steve Austin, the most popular wrestler in the world. It's not exactly crate digging, but it's like finding a live Television album that you didn't know existed, but had been out for apparently 10 years. This was a GREAT match, worked at a nice brisk pace, and both guys looked killer. Austin was taking some of the most insane weekly bumps on TV during this time period. While Christian and Rey Buccanero were having weekly contests to see who could bump over the top to the floor the most times during one match, Austin had a busted neck and was taking Germans and doing superplexes and taking high backdrops on all surfaces. Fucking insane. Their crowd brawling is spectacular as it never sinks to Shane Douglas "loosely grabbing a guys head and walking around" levels. Austin punches Regal through the crowd, then whips his fucking face with a belt through the crowd! Everything about this rules. Regal's chest welts up, Regal's forearms look nasty, Regal gets dumped on his head when Austin tugs the strap between his legs, neither guy does a slo-mo crawl to touch all four corners, Regal whips back HARD and makes the Stunner look amazing, crowd loudly hates Regal, all the leverage spots look legit, just awesome. It's odd to find a hidden gem featuring the most popular wrestler in the world, from free TV, from the most popular promotion in the world...but this was it and it was so damn awesome.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL