During the latest edition of his “Gentleman Villain” podcast, AEW star William Regal commented on being paired up with Tajiri in WWE, talking with Vince McMahon about their creative direction, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his pairing with Tajiri in WWE: “We talked about making things work, and I say that a lot. Make anything work. That was one of the few times that I only heard about that on the afternoon that we started it. We were in Anaheim. I knew Tajiri was coming, and I’d seen him a lot but didn’t know him. I was already doing my commissioner thing and they said ‘you’re gonna be doing this thing [with Tajiri]’and it was Paul Heyman’s idea I believe because he was a big fan of Tajiri. So, straight away – again, I try to tell everybody you can learn from me, and I’m pretty open-minded to make everything work. But there was something in my mind because I was a comedy fan of years ago, and all I could think of is it’s gonna be Peter Sellers and Cato, The Pink Panther. I thought, I don’t want to do that because it’s gonna be too obvious to me.”
On his conversation with Vince McMahon about their creative: “So, I went to Mr. McMahon and I always had a great rapport with him. We talked very little over the years, and if it was, it was just ‘I need a bit of direction please because all I’m seeing is The Pink Panther.’ He went, ‘Just have a go at it.’ With most of the characters I was put with, I was put with a lot of people. It was usually because I could talk a lot or I could react and comfortable in making a fool of myself to get that character over. You can name quite a few there – Tajiri, Eugene, Burchill, the thing with the Un-Americans which ended up with me and Lance Storm. With Tajiri, I was not so sure, but within two seconds of me walking out of Mr. McMahon’s office, ‘Let’s just make it work.’”
On his on-screen chemistry with Tajiri: “It was a pre-tape done in the afternoon, and usually, I lead the way on things. I do have some idea of what works and what doesn’t, especially comedy-wise. I’d see him do some of his stuff and how entertaining he could be, and I thought, ‘Let’s just film it anyway and go with it.’ Most of the time, I was a one-take person. I was known for that and they trusted me greatly with a huge amount of stuff. I thought, ‘I’ll follow him. I’ll let him do his thing and I’ll react off of him.’ I’m just doing my little bits of stuff, and I forgot what the actual explanation was, but I said ‘just get me some tea.’ He grabbed the teapot and picked it up, and he [makes sounds] and I lost the plot. This silly little thing that he did made me lose it. I was laughing and thought, ‘This is gonna work.’”
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(h/t – 411 Wrestling)