Though William Regal is technically still an employee of AEW, and will be at least until “the end of the month,” when Tony Khan officially terminates his contract and opens the door for a return to WWE, according to a report from PWInsider, the deal has already been struck, with the “Gentleman Villian” set to fill a “Vice President” role of one form or another, presumably in the talent relations department.
According to Wrestling INC., the conditions of Regal's release are strict, with Khan reportedly allowing Regal to fill a back-stage role in WWE in 2023 but not on television again until 2024 – destroying the possibility of the former NXT GM shouting WarGames at Survivor Series 2023 – but after helping to bring along young performers like Wheeler Yuta in AEW, even a backstage role is an asset nonetheless.
But why did Regal want to go? Was he sick of AEW performers not appreciating him, as some have suggested? Or did Regal immediately regret signing with AEW, as EC3 suggested in a conversation with Sportskeeda?
Well, according to the man himself, it's probably for the best to avoid reading unsourced material about Regal's release, as he told his fans on Twitter.
Will Regal ever talk about why he left AEW or how the entire process shook out? Well, he does have a podcast, and podcasters tend to enjoy talking, but who knows, maybe the conditions of Regal's release include a no-talk clause a la The Elite's inability to discuss the “Brawl Out,” or a non-disparaging clause where he can't talk about it in a way that would make AEW look bad. Either way, until Regal comments on it himself, it's best to hang on Khan's words, as they are from a first-hand source.
Lord Regal appreciated Vince McMahon for allowing him to leave WWE for AEW.
While the WWE Regal will return to next month will look markedly different than the one he left, as his son, Charlie Dempsey, will be based in Orlando as part of NXT, not NXT UK, and his long-time friend, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the head of all creative, his Lordship did share a surprisingly charming anecdote about his final month with The Fed before making his way to AEW with Bryan Danielson. Would Mr. McMahon ever help his biggest competitor this century, AEW, secure the services of their best manager, maybe ever, when he still had a month left on his talent contract? In Regal's case, the answer was simple.
“Mr. McMahon was very good to me, to the point of, I will say this because whatever he’s going through, he was excellent to me,” Regal said h/t Wrestling Headlines. “I had a talent contract, as well as an employee contract and it didn’t run out until the end of April because I played William Regal. I started for AEW on the seventh of March. I didn’t call anybody else, I sent a message straight to the boss, ‘Hey Boss, I’ve got this thing with Bryan,’ and he loves Bryan as well. ‘Absolutely, you go’ and still paid me until the end of my talent contract. I was the only person who ever got paid by both companies at the same time.”
Wow, that's frankly very sweet; after keeping Paige-now-Saraya and Danielson around until the very end of their contracts despite not being used in order to keep them away from AEW, it's actually pretty sweet that Mr. McMahon allowed his long-time employee to leave a month early despite one of his two contracts still having time left on it in order to pursue an opportunity he was passionate about. In a way, it's almost poetic, considering Khan has now let Regal out of his contract, too, in order to pursue an opportunity to “go back and work in his golden years of his career with his son,” to paraphrase TK's wording from his pre-Final Battle media call.
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