William Regal wanted to make Excalibur smile with his "Man in the Mask" lines on commentary.
Regal made his AEW debut at AEW Revolution 2022, where he aligned with Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson. The trio formed the Blackpool Combat Club and later added Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli into the mix. Over the next several months, he frequently joined the AEW commentary team for his stablemates' matches. On many occasions, Regal referred to Excalibur as the "Man in the Mask" and delivered an eye-opening line, such as "I'd love to gobble you up" or "I'd love to smother you in custard."
Speaking at an ITR Live show in October, Regal discussed his time with AEW, and he highlighted his fan-favorite dynamic with Excalibur on commentary. Regal noted that it started with him just being himself and borrowing from the Brassic television show he was watching at the time, as the characters on the show called each other "sweetheart." Plus, he pointed out that he uses affectionate terms in his life anyway.
“What happened, the first week or whatever, me just being me, not a thought, mentioned something to Excalibur, and it went from there. At the time, I was watching 'Brassic', and everybody’s calling everybody sweetheart in the house on that show, and I thought, ‘Oh, l like that.’ I’ve always called people Sunshine and flower and petal, and northern sayings. So I thought, ‘Ah.’ So I did it once, and I’ve never once put any thought for the slightest bit in what I’m gonna say. If you actually watched, I had no idea what I was gonna say, and a second [later], and then I went, 'Blah blah blah,' which I’ve done every single week, and it’s become a thing now. I’ve left it alone for a few weeks because I felt the matches were too serious to do it. But don’t keep expecting it because I don’t put any thought into it," Regal said.
Regal went on to describe how he was having the time of his life in AEW, as he enjoyed training with Danielson, Yuta, and Castagnoli. He then stated that he would say "stupid stuff" on commentary, like his memorable "Man in the Mask" lines, in an effort to make Exaclibur and his broadcast partners smile. Regal noted that commentary can be a brutal job, and he wanted to help lighten the load by adding some humor to the situation.
"Am I having the time of my life? Yes, I am. I’m having the time of my life because I get on with all the people that are in that group, and it’s a real thing. We are there training with Wheeler at 10 o’clock. I’m not messing about with that because me and Bryan are there, and Claudio started coming out. Jon turns up when Jon wants, but that’s why I like him. He has his role in our group, but when he comes backstage, and he’ll put things into a perspective to me and Wheeler after he’s come out of the ring because he’s firing on all cylinders. I go, ‘That’s stuff I wouldn’t know because he’s lived a different life to me.’ Now all of a sudden there’s a group of other people that are listening because we’re trying to just make this whatever it is. Basically, it’s no different than how NXT started. Let’s just try to make everybody as good as they can be, and that’s what it is. [I] just happened to be able to do all this stuff that I do and just say stupid stuff. Those announcers have a brutal job of just calling stuff. If I can go out and make Excalibur smile for 20 seconds, he’s got all these things that he’s got to get out there and word perfect. I want to just go out, just lighten the load. If I see him smile through that or the other two laugh or whatever, good. If I’ve took five seconds of them and make them not go [frustrated sound], that’s no different than me helping you or teaching a wrestler how to do something a certain way. I’m doing my bit to lighten the load a little bit. That’s why I do it," Regal said.
A compilation of Regal's "Man in the Mask" lines can be found here.
During the ROH Final Battle media conference call on December 7, Tony Khan announced that Regal asked the company not to pick up the option on his contract at the end of the year because he wanted to return to WWE and work with his son, Charlie Dempsey. More information is available here.
Claudio Castagnoli discussed Regal's looming departure. Click here to see what he had to say.
Shawn Michaels commented on Regal's potential return to WWE. Check out his comments here.
Click here to check out the card for next week's episode of AEW Dynamite.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
