William Regal sets the record straight.
On the latest episode of his Gentleman Villain podcast, Regal took some time to address Chris Benoit recently being in the news cycle again. Regal said he doesn’t go on social media much besides to promote his show, so he’s not sure why there was so much attention focused on Chris Benoit this week. Co-host Matt Koon noted that the Crime in Sports podcast recently did an episode about Benoit, so that might have been the catalyst.
Regal continued, explaining that people have wrongly read into an interview he did on the June 25, 2007 episode of RAW, which originally aired as a tribute show to Benoit. Over the years, some have maintained that Regal and others might have known more than they were letting on, but Regal went on to explain in great detail why the idea was false, and he shared how his personal relationship with Benoit came to an end.
“There is a piece of film footage on the night after the incident where I did a — we were doing a show [the June 25, 2007 episode of RAW] and there is an interview with me and people read into this very wrongly, and the consensus that seems to be out there is that I knew more than what was happening. I want just take this time to put my story out there and let people know this is — because this story is out there, it’s just that it seems to be that nobody wants to pay any attention to it and they want to sensationalize this into something that isn’t.”
William Regal said that he wouldn’t address the topic after this (outside of needing to mention Benoit in matches for context) out of respect for Martina, Chris’ son David and daughter Megan, and Sandra Toffoloni, Nancy Benoit’s sister.
“I do not understand — this is just me personally — why people want to thrive off the misery of this, especially when there’s children involved and, and Sandra and Chris’s ex-wife they have their lives to lead,” Regal said. “Just leave them alone. That’s my piece on that.”
William Regal went on to explain that he and Benoit used to live in the same neighborhood and his wife was friendly with Chris’ first wife, Martina. After Chris left her for Nancy, Regal’s wife banned Chris from their home and Chris understood it. Regal said that their social life was non-existent besides work, and even then it was mostly a brief greeting backstage. Regal explained that his relationship with Benoit was so strained that they didn’t call each other, nor did Regal even know where Benoit’s home was despite living so close to each other.
Regal went on to address Benoit missing from WWE Night Of Champions and says he asked his wife to go to his home to check on him. Regal’s wife told him that she didn’t know where the house was either, and she also refused to go there because she didn’t like him. Regal then moved on to address the video and speculation that people knew more than they let on, and he reiterated that he didn’t know anything and in no way, shape or form thought what happened was possible.
Regal said that he was in a daze for most of the day and no one had talked to him about what had been going on throughout the day, noting that he wasn’t sure if this was an isolated incident or if it was a local issue or something else.
“I ended up going and sitting outside — because we were in Corpus Christi — overlooking the sea, just keeping out the way of everybody all day long. So eventually I, — and again, there was a lot of people like that, just walking around — I’d walked into the building a few times and nobody was saying anything not to me, anyway. Maybe it was just me that, maybe I’m naive here, but nobody said anything to me in any way, shape or form until I was asked to go in and do this video as a tribute. And as I’m about to walk in the red light is there’s a red light on outside the door, meaning somebody’s actually filming something. We were told if you want to go and give a tribute go in.
“As I am about [to walk in], the red light goes off and the door opens. And I, as I’m going in to give my tribute, JBL comes walking out with a very strange look on his face. And he said to me, as we, for, for about a minute that we, we’re crossing paths, he just said to me, ‘You don’t think he’s had anything to do with it, do you?’ And I went, ‘What?’ And that was the first thing of any notion of everything that went on, that was the first time that I’ve heard this and now I’m walking in [to record].
And so whatever you see me doing [on the tribute video] in that is me being — well, now my head’s spinning [and processing what was just said to him]. So, if you watch it from that perspective, it may seem, because I am in, in a complete shock, but also thinking, well, I don’t know, is it, is this what’s happened? I don’t know,” Regal said. “So I just deliver whatever you see, and I’ve never watched it again. Now. I know things get put out, nonsense about ‘I knew this’ or — [what I just explained] is the exact thing that happened.”
William Regal pointed out that Benoit was part of his history because their careers crossed paths quite a bit, but he wouldn’t glorify Chris at all and once again stated that he wouldn’t address the situation anymore after the exchange on the show.
William Regal said there was one other thing he wanted to clarify and dismissed the “nonsense” rumor that former WCW/WWE wrestler Dave Taylor was at Benoit’s home near the time of the incident. In the past, it was reported that a neighbor claimed she saw Taylor and his wife Lisa on site. Taylor maintained he was in Texas at the time, and Regal supported Taylor’s account and said he wouldn’t get into Dave’s side of the story, but noted that receipts from his flight and hotel expenses proved he was in Texas.
“That’s a lot of another complete piece of nonsense that needs put into bed. Dave Taylor had nothing to do with that. Dave was with us. Me and Dave were, we’d seen each other that day. We were both shaking our heads like in a daze, because he knew Chris as well for a long time. And it was that kind of a day. And I know there’s lots of people that will say that there’s this and there’s that — I’m telling you from my perspective, most people will walking around on that Monday like zombies, just staring. I remember seeing quite a few people just walking around, like not knowing and me being one of them. I just wanted to get that out of the way, because that seems to have come up this week and no, I had no clue about any of that. Again, because of the time period, I had no clue and that was why. It was just [he was] banned from being around.”
The new episode of William Regal’s Gentleman Villain is available now on AdFreeShows.com and it will be available to the public on July 14.
If you use this transcript, credit Gentleman Villain and h/t WrestleZone and link back to this post.
