Booker T Says He And William Regal Almost Got Into A Fight The First Time They Met
Booker T and William Regal didn’t initially see eye-to-eye.
Appearing as a guest on the Notsam Wrestling Podcast, Booker spoke about his earliest interactions with William Regal and how much of the contempt was as a result of Booker’s “braggadocios” attitude in the WCW locker room and Regal not appreciating it.
“I just wanted to be the best wrestler in the locker room,” Booker began by saying. “If you think that way, everything else comes along with it. All the titles, all the accolades, everything comes along with being the best damn wrestler in the locker room. I didn’t care what anyone said, I would say it every time, ‘Top that.’ I pushed the guys in the locker room to work as hard as they could when I was working. I was very braggadocios. William Regal used to want to kill me. I’m serious because I would be in the locker room, one of the youngest guys in there, and I would say, ‘I’m one of the top five workers in the world.’ That was my slogan. In the locker room, as loud as I could, I would tell everybody. Steve Austin would tease me about that, ‘Booker, remember when you use to tell everybody you were top-five?’ Heck yeah because I believed it. Then I would go out in the ring and I felt like I proved it. A lot of people look at my wrestling and say, ‘Booker was one of the great wrestlers.’ In my day, nobody went out and stole the show from me. I don’t care who was on the card, I went out and rocked it every night, no matter what. That’s why the fans still represent the five-time champ today. [William Regal] didn’t like it. We almost got into a fight a couple of times about it. Everybody in the locker room, the Steiners, they heard me say it because I was loud about it. I tell guys, you have to know how good you are. I studied the best. Nick Bockwinkle, JYD, Ric Flair, Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat. I studied the guys who went out and worked in the main event. I tried to take a little of every one of those guys and make it my own. From a psychology standpoint, Jake The Snake was so great.”
Booker continued on, recalling how he and Regal almost got into a fight the first time they met. Despite their less-than-cordial history, Booker and Regal would go on to become good friends, having a memorable run together in 2006 WWE when Sir William Regal joined King Booker’s Royal Court.
“The first time I met Regal, we almost got into a fight. I remember so vividly, it was Main Event Gym. Sting and Lex Luger had a gym in Marietta [Georgia], me and my brother walked into the gym with Sid Vicious and Regal is walking out the door. I look at Regal, he looked at me, and we looked like we wanted to kill each other. From that point on, we really didn’t have a great relationship. We wasn’t friends, pals, buddies or anything like that. Then, all of a sudden, as King Bookah, we’re working together and we had one of the greatest runs ever as far as King of the Ring. He’s a good friend of mine now. It was different then. We weren’t friends, we were in competition and vying to be the best wrestler on the card. Regal and I are two birds of a feather.,” Booker T said.
Booker T debuted for WCW in 1993 and remained with the company until they closed their doors in 2001. He goes down as the most decorated performer in the promotion’s history, having won 21 titles during his run. Booker went on to have an iconic run in WWE as well and is a two-time Hall of Famer (2013, by himself and in 2019 as part of Harlem Heat).
Regal also debuted for WCW in 1993 and won the World Television Championship four times during his years with the company. Following his in-ring career, Regal has remained an integral part of WWE, working both behind-the-scenes in talent development and on-screen in NXT and 205 Live as a General Manager.
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