William Regal

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William Regal bigraphy, stories - Professional wrestler

William Regal : biography

10 May 1968 –

Darren Kenneth Matthews (born May 10, 1968)"Walking a Golden Mile", p.1 is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal. Having started his career wrestling on a rare surviving carnival booth in England, Matthews moved on to wrestle for national-level promotions on the British wrestling circuit, including on UK television. He then progressed to touring around the world, in countries such as Germany and South Africa, before being called up to World Championship Wrestling in 1993. In 2000, after leaving WCW, Matthews joined the World Wrestling Federation (later World Wrestling Entertainment and now just WWE), where he became commissioner. More recently he has been General Manager of Raw, the 2008 King of the Ring and was briefly the official match coordinator for NXT Redemption in 2011. He is currently a color commentator on NXT. He’s also known for being the first wrestler to beat CM Punk by submission.

Matthews has achieved considerable championship success in professional wrestling, although he has never been a world champion. Throughout his career, he has won more than 60 titles worldwide, including four in WCW and 15 in WWE. He has overcome multiple drug problems as well as a major heart defect during his career, and he has written an autobiography.

Personal life

Matthews is left-handed or south-pawed. He has been married to Christina Beddoes since November 1986. They have two sons: Daniel,"Walking a Golden Mile", p.67 and Bailey."Walking a Golden Mile", p.163 His actual accent (broad Lancashire) is very different from the one he uses on television; one closer to Received pronunciation. He has a tattoo on his left leg which says "Made In England" and a rose with his wife’s name on his left arm. Matthews participated in an episode of The Weakest Link, winning two of the first three rounds and eventually finishing third. In the final three he was up against husband and wife Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. His pets include two snakes, eight lizards, a tortoise, three cats, and two dogs. He humorously claims the reason he owns so many pets is because "Humans disgust me. Vile creatures".

In 2003, Matthews was misdiagnosed with what was in fact a heart defect which meant the right side of his heart was beating out of sequence with the left. This allowed large volumes of fluid to build in his body. After undergoing specialist treatment which involved stopping his heart and months of anti-blood clot treatments, he returned to wrestling in April 2004. During his illness and recovery he put on, and then lost, 40 pounds in weight.

While in WCW, he was arrested during a flight from Japan back to the United States when he got drunk and urinated on a stewardess. By Matthews’ account in his book, he claims that he was so drunk that he could not remember the incident and woke up in a cell in Anchorage, Alaska."Walking a Golden Mile", p.173-174. On 30 August 2007, Sports Illustrated named Matthews, along with nine other superstars, found to be given illegal steroids not in compliance with the WWE Talent Wellness program. Matthews received stanozolol, somatropin, genotropin, and anastrozole between November 2004 and November 2006.

World Wrestling Federation (1998–1999)

Regal’s initial appearance in the World Wrestling Federation was on the 29 June 1998 episode of Raw Is War, in which he defeated Droz via submission with the Regal Stretch. After featuring in one more match against Tiger Ali Singh at Penn State in Pennsylvania, Regal was sent to a training camp run by Dory Funk, Jr. in order to get into shape. On his last day, in a match against Rhyno, Regal twisted his ankle, upon returning home he aggravated this injury falling in his bathroom, breaking his ankle and leg. During this time Regal was suffering from an addiction to Renutrient, pain medication and valium and was not seen on WWF television until he returned that fall with a "Real Man’s Man" builder/lumberjack style looking gimmick created by Vince Russo that was based on the image of The Brawny Man. Vignettes for the character showed him doing "manly" things like chopping wood, shaving with a straight razor, and squeezing his own orange juice. After he made his full-time debut in October 1998, he faced X-Pac in the opening round of the tournament for the vacant WWF Championship at the Survivor Series, ending in a double countout and thus eliminating both men from the tournament. Regal then began a feud with The Godfather, but was taken off television soon after before subsequently checking into rehab in January 1999 and was released from the WWF in April.