By WWE legend William Regal has never been shy about sharing his wisdom, and his latest piece of advice is aimed squarely at every wrestler in the business: treat every pin like your career is on the line — because, in story, it is.
Regal, who currently serves as WWE’s Vice President of Global Talent Development after returning to the company in 2023, took to social media to deliver a pointed message to wrestlers across all promotions. Drawing on 42 years in the wrestling business, he argued that lazy pins and half-hearted kickouts are doing the audience a disservice.
“Don’t Insult The Intelligence Of Our Audience”
Regal’s core point is simple: wrestlers are portraying trained professional fighters with instincts, and every television match’s pinfall gets a camera close-up. If the pin doesn’t look aggressive and the kickout doesn’t look desperate, the illusion breaks — and fans eventually stop watching.
“Every TV bout, if there’s a pin, the cameras focus in,” he wrote. “Please pin and kick out like your life and career depend on it. In story, it does.” He added that if a wrestler can’t be uncomfortable for a few seconds being stacked up in a pin, “maybe this isn’t for you.”
A Nod To AJ Styles And Amazing Red
To illustrate what he’s talking about, Regal pointed to an early-2000s match between AJ Styles and Amazing Red, noting how every pin in that bout was aggressively applied with shoulders covered and stacked — and every kickout was fought for like life itself. That, he says, is what younger talent should be copying from their favorites, rather than what he sees as a trend of something “lost in the last 20+ years.”
He compared wrestling to a fight scene in a movie: everyone knows the punches don’t really land, but if they visibly did, audiences would walk away. “Your audience and fans deserve better,” Regal concluded.
The advice isn’t new from Regal — back in September he urged wrestlers to study Roman Reigns after his bout with Penta on Monday Night Raw. The veteran has made a habit of publicly mentoring the next generation, and judging by the reaction, plenty of fans agree with this latest sermon.
William Regal (Credits: WWE)
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Source: Fightful — read the full story there.
