William Regal has a long history with Bryan Danielson with many chapters in it. One such chapter was when Regal wrestled the former world champion in what he thought was his last match. This match, which was one of the wrestling veteran’s final outings in the ring, took place during a Superstars episode in November 2011. It was also the final time the two superstars shared a ring for a bout. The former NXT GM had suffered a leg injury the night before but Bryan carried him masterfully without letting anyone know about his injury.
Regal told his story during his appearance on Talk Is Jericho. He mentioned how he decided to put Bryan over because of their history together. Recalling the incident made Regal emotional:
“I tore me meniscus in my right leg. The next night I’m on with Bryan. They were going ‘no you can’t wrestle, you can’t wrestle.’ I said ‘no I want to put him over because he is the person who has stuck around me and listened to all my nonsense for the last [so many years] and comment and called me and sent me stuff. And I’ve sent him to places and put good words in for him and whatever else. If there is one person I wanna to have my last match with its him.’ So if you watch that match, you will see me walk down to the ring and then they actually played a rib on me. [They] played my old Man’s man music halfway down the ramp. I’m glad because they had to help me in the building that day. I couldn’t walk. I don’t like giving away this you know, that old fashioned things.
But If you watch that match it’s 17 minutes of him carrying me because I can’t walk,” said William Regal. He got emotional telling the story and took a moment to compose himself. “Sorry,” he continued. “He did a masterful job. He actually even wrestled and did stuff on my leg without bending it.”
‘This Lad’s Something Special’
After all the effort Bryan Danielson put in the match to make it memorable for Regal, the wrestling veteran was praying that people in the office would take notice of the former ROH star. This is exactly what happened. Bryan was playing a heel in the match. His performance impressed the boss himself, leading to a heel push:
“If you know that. You go into that [match] with this [knowledge] and watch what a masterful job he did of carrying me. He even made it look like he bent my leg around the corner post and never bent. We came out there and I thought [I’ll] put in [a word for him]. I was happy. [I thought] hopefully somebody is gonna pay attention to this because this lad’s something special, which they already were. But it was just my little thing. [I believed] that’s it. I’m done now, I’m probably [done wrestling] That’s it. because I was already doing bits of commentary. [I thought] That’s it, I’m gone.
I came back and Mr. McMahon was there. I never thought he watched Superstars. He was right there to [see] me. He shook hands and Bryan walked off. He went. ‘Thank you very much.’ He said ‘That was a good old proper wrestling match.’ He said ‘that lads gonna make a good villain, ain’t he?'”
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