On the latest edition of his Gentleman Villain podcast, AEW star William Regal spoke about NJPW’s Juice Robinson, and how proud he is of the former IWGP U.S. champion for paving his own path after his departure from WWE. Highlights from the show are below.
Recalls Vince McMahon attending an NXT live event and loving it:
I remember being stood backstage [at NXT San Jose] and looking out and I remember Mr. McMahon being there as well and he was stood about five feet away from me and he was looking through the curtains and we’re both just looking at the crowd and it’s like, I don’t know what he was thinking but I know he was happy and I was just gobsmacked, going, ‘Wow’ and then feeling all kinds of happy for all the talent and all the crew… There’s a lot of points in my life where I look back and I go, if it all ends now, I can’t ask for a better time and I remember thinking that then. If it all ends now… it’s all good.
Says he is proud of Juice Robinson for paving his own path after WWE:
So first of all, he [Juice Robinson] never got let go [from WWE]… Everybody liked him. It was just, okay, he is where he is at the moment and he went, ‘I’d like to take myself out of this please and I wanna go and do something else and prove myself somewhere else’ which is exactly what he did and he went to England, I believe was the first thing he did and went wrestling on what we call holiday camps in England. He was doing that and then he ended up with New Japan and training with them and then he got a spot with New Japan and now, he’s well known… And people know his name and he’s made a name for himself and now, he’s very valuable to anybody that wants him because he went out there and just took himself out of the game. It’s a hard thing to do. I’m already in. At the time, that was the one game in town or if you’re an American wrestler, as far as big, you know, WWE was the big thing. So I’m already in the system but I’m not getting anywhere. That takes a lot of courage to go, I’m just gonna go ask to be released… I can’t imagine making a lot of money in England at the time.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)