William Regal

[Guest Your Olympic Hero]

I forget already what was wrong with William Regal, but I remember his illness is more seriously than they had originally thought....... any word on his health or when he will be back?

[Guest Sakura]

Maybe never.

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Apparently half of his heart had stopped working, and he gained a lot of water weight due to his kidney not functioning or something like that. The last I heard, he may be forced to retire froma ctively wrestling ever again.

I would never wish this on anybody, adn I honestly hopes he makes a full recovery, but I hope that he NEVER wrestles again. He clashed with everybody, and his style was boring as hell. He IS a great speaker, though, so put him as a manager. That could work.

[Guest bob_barron]

Regal feeling great, but return date unknown

by Phil Speer

 

BOSTON – April 28, 2003 – William Regal may never be able to wrestle again. He’s hopeful that he can return in a few months, but he doesn’t know.

 

Regal is currently taking seven to nine pills a day, including blood-thinner medication. He does not know how long he will need to take the medicine, but there’s no way he can step back into the ring until doctors tell him he can stop. The blood thinners create bruising from just the slightest physical contact; taking a “bump” in the ring could cause severe internal bleeding.

 

But besides taking all the drugs and making frequent trips to the bathroom – he’s also taking water tablets – Regal says he’s feeling great. He stopped by RAW today after attending Backlash last night.

 

“I just wanted to come start being around the show and the feel of everything,” he said. “Plus, I think my wife wanted to get me out of the house.

 

“I’m hoping in the next few weeks I can start getting back on television here” in a non-wrestling role.

 

Regal has been battling health problems since the RAW crew’s tour of India in November. Many of the Superstars on that tour fell ill during or afterward, and Regal was no exception.

 

“I’ve never felt right since I got back from India,” he said.

 

He had stomach-flu like symptoms for 20 straight hours during the tour. A lifelong insomniac, his sleeping problems only intensified after the tour, once he returned to the U.S.

 

Then, two weeks before the February pay-per-view, he caught a viral infection. Around that time, he noticed that his heart was constantly beating fast.

 

“I just thought it was because I had been sick,” he said.

 

Then his body began to swell. The day of February’s No Way Out in Montreal, he was 15 pounds heavier than his normal weight. He wrestled that night and got a concussion, although he says that was unrelated to all his other problems. The No Way Out match would turn out to be his last.

 

The next day, at RAW in Toronto, he did not wrestle due to the concussion, instead accompanying Lance Storm to the ring. But he was scheduled to return to action at the following weekend’s non-televised events.

 

By that Thursday, however, he had gained 25 pounds. That’s when he was taken off the road entirely.

 

“I knew there was something desperately wrong with me, I just didn’t know what,” he said. “I didn’t want to risk it.”

 

He spent three weeks going from one hospital to the next, his problems undiagnosed. His weight ballooned to 40 pounds above normal.

 

Finally, he found St. Joseph’s hospital in Atlanta. They told him that the right side of his heart – the side the pumps blood throughout the body -- was not functioning, which is why his heart was beating so fast. It caused a buildup of fluid in his system, creating too much fluid for his liver to process. It was that buildup of fluid that resulted in his weight gain.

 

Doctors at St. Joseph’s actually stopped his heart with an electric shock. When his heart started beating again, the right side was working. Once his heart was functional, his liver could process the fluid, and his excess weight came off.

 

The reason the right side of his heart stopped working is still a mystery. Doctors told him he could have been born with heart problems. Regal also told them about his personal abuse history and the fact that he’s an insomniac.

 

“The doctor said, ‘I think it’s probably a little bit of everything,’” Regal said. “But he said he couldn’t give me an answer so he wasn’t going to try.

 

“The viral infection, I think, was the final straw that kicked it off.”

 

Because of the fluid buildup in his system, he was at serious risk of a blood clot developing, so he was immediately put on blood thinners. Originally he was taking 15 pills a day; by now his pill intake has been cut in half. But he has to take the pills indefinitely. Every week he has blood drawn to see if the thinners are working, and every month he sees the doctor, waiting for the word to stop taking the pills.

 

Will the doctor ever let him?

 

“I hope so,” Regal said. “And if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. What can I do? I should have died 100 times between 1995 and 1998. I abused myself to levels most people cannot comprehend.

 

“Every day’s a bonus from now on. Health’s the most important thing in the world. People don’t realize that until they lose it.”

 

He added, “I personally think I can get over (my problems) quicker than anybody thinks.”

 

But he doesn’t know. His doctor could clear him this week, next month, in six months, or never.

 

Regal was actually taken off the road while he was World Tag Team Champion along with Storm. The duo was scheduled to defend their titles at WrestleMania XIX, but obviously plans had to change. Storm ended up wrestling on the live HEAT prior to ‘Mania.

 

“I felt bad about him missing a payday,” Regal said, referring to Storm. “(WrestleMania) is one of the biggest paydays of the year. He has a family to support, same as I do.”

 

While he can’t wrestle, he has been able to get back in the gym. In addition to all the liquid weight, he’s also taken off an additional 10 pounds.

 

And there’s more good news. He recently visited a sleep clinic to find out why he’s had chronic insomnia. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea, a disorder in which you literally stop breathing during sleep. For as long as he could remember, he could sleep no more than 90 minutes straight before waking abruptly.

 

Now, when he goes to bed he hooks himself up to a machine that constantly pumps oxygen into his nose. He still has a little trouble falling asleep at night – after all, he’s spent the last 20 to 30 years wrestling, and going to bed around 3 a.m. But once he gets to sleep, he stays asleep.

 

“That’s a big deal for me,” he said.

[Guest Mattdotcom]

Bob, of course, typed that from MEMORY. Tee hee.

[Guest BifEverchad]

Yeah, hopefully Regal can return to television as an on-air character, since he can't return to the ring. I've always like Regal as a wrestler, but LOVED him as a character.

 

2000 Commissioner Regal was awesome.

[Guest The Tino Standard]

Regal would make a great color commentator. But that's getting ahead of myself. Hopefully he beats this thing and gets healthy first. Too many tragedies in wrestling this year and after all the personal demons this guy battled back from in the late 90s, I'd hate to see him be the next sad story this year.

[Guest ViciousFish]

Regal is a great talker. Him calling everyone Sunshine made quite a few interviews alot better.

[Guest Si82]

It would be a shame if he had to retire. I know some people aren't keen on his ringwork but I like the guy.

 

On the other hand, he is a great talker and would be great in a non-wrestling role.

 

His speech on "Hulkamania" last year was pure comedy gold. I think he called Hogan a 50p tart.

 

Quality stuff.

[Guest gansobomber]

He could replace Lawler as a fresher heel commentator... Then RAW would rule...

 

For like two weeks.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

JR and William Regal... that would be good. Hell, Coachman and Regal would be good, too, as Coachman works a thousand times better with a heel commentator (Like Raven).