Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler.
Trained by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Jones, Matthews started his career at the age of 15 in 1983. His first matches took place at one of the rare final wrestling carnival booths at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_Pleasure_Beach. He went on to wrestle for national promotions on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_in_the_United_Kingdom and wrestled on television for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_(TV_network). He then progressed to touring around the world until 1993 when he was signed to WCW, where he took the ring name Steven Regal and became a four-time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Television_Championship.
In 1998, Matthews joined the WWF (later WWE), where he became a two-time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Intercontinental_Championship, a five-time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Hardcore_Championship, a four-time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_European_Championship, a four-time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tag_Team_Championship_(WWE), and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Ring_(2008) winner of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Ring_tournament. He also had stints as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_authority_figures such as commissioner, General Manager of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_(WWE_brand), and match co-ordinator for the 2011 season of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_NXT_(seasons_1%E2%80%935). As NXT became WWE's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXT_(WWE_brand) in 2012, he appeared as the on-screen General Manager; behind the scenes, he began serving as WWE's Director of Talent Development and Head of Global Recruiting from 2018 until he was released in 2022. He then signed with AEW and debuted as the founder and manager of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_Combat_Club, leaving the company nine months later to return to WWE as the Vice President of Global Talent Development.
Matthews made his debut wrestling for promoter Bobby Barron at his wrestling challenge booth at the Horseshoe Showbar at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_Pleasure_Beach at the age of 15. In time, he graduated to be a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_wrestling at the booth, using brutal submission holds to defend prize money against challenges from members of the public. By this time, he wrestled professionally all over Britain for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Star_Wrestling where he regularly teamed with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Brookside as The Golden Boys tag team. Both Regal and Brookside appeared in several televised matches during the final years (1987–1988) of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_Network's coverage of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_in_the_United_Kingdom.
World Championship Wrestling (1992–1998)
In the fall of 1992, Matthews reached out to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Watts on a position in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Watts responded favourably to Regal's letter and offered him a contract. Appearing still as Steve Regal, beginning as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(professional_wrestling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Gimmick. Regal made his televised debut on 30 January 1993 episode of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_Saturday_Night and defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(professional_wrestling) Bob Cook in his in-ring debut on the following week's Saturday Night. Shortly after his debut, Regal entered a tournament for the vacant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Television_Championship in which he defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barbarian_(wrestler) in the first round before losing to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Mero in the quarterfinals. He became the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling) "Lord Steven Regal" on 12 June episode of Saturday Night, claiming descent from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dundee began serving as his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manager_(professional_wrestling).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Regal#cite_note-wcw93-16 At times arrogantly charming in this persona, one of his memorable statements to a post-match interviewer was: "Do you know what my New Year's resolution is going to be? To wake up a half an hour earlier so I can hate you more". Regal was scheduled to face Bagwell's partner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Cold_Scorpio on 18 August https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_the_Champions_XXIV, but he was replaced by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Eaton. Regal himself substituted for the injured https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Pillman to team with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin in a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Tag_Team_Championship defence against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arn_Anderson and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Roma; Regal and Austin lost that match. Regal won the World Television Championship by defeating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Steamboat at the inaugural https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_Brawl_(1993) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NWA/WCW_closed-circuit_events_and_pay-per-view_events on 18 September with the help of Sir William. Regal unknowingly broke his neck during this match. Regal enjoyed a lengthy title reign as he retained the title against a flurry of challengers, beginning with his first televised title defence against Arn Anderson on 9 October episode of Saturday Night which ended in a fifteen-minute time limit draw. He then defended the title against fellow Brit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Boy_Smith, whom he faced to a fifteen-minute time limit draw at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Havoc_(1993). Beginning with 26 November episode of Saturday Night, Regal began scouting fellow aristocrat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_H during his matches, Shortly after, Levesque left WCW and he was replaced by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama-born https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Eatonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Regal#cite_note-RingsideMag-7 when Regal and Eaton faced each other in a match on 18 March episode of Saturday Night. Regal stopped the match and proposed that he and Eaton form a team, which Eaton accepted. Regal formed the team https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Bloods with Eaton and was involved in humorous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Vignette where he tried to teach Eaton the finer points of dining and the proper usage of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation. On the 9 February 1998 episode of Nitro, Regal was pinned by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Goldberg in a match which was Regal's final match with WCW, in that run. The bout garnered controversy as it was said that Regal worked more aggressively and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Stiff than expected. Regal was confronted by Eric Bischoff after the match and stated to Bischoff "I can't hit myself" Regal maintains he worked the bout as booked, but he was fired after the bout.
World Wrestling Federation (1998−1999)
Regal's first appearance in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE (WWF) was on the 29 June 1998 episode of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Raw in which he defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droz_(wrestler) via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submission_(professional_wrestling) with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_holds#Cross-legged_STF. After featuring in one more match against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Ali_Singh in Pennsylvania, Regal was sent to a training camp run by dory funk jr.