Major Must-Read Update On William Regal - What Happened?
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
It is well known that William Regal has had problems with recreational drugs in the past; ultimately losing his job two times over it (early 1998 from WCW and April 1999 from WWE), as well as a stint in rehab (early 1999). However, he has long since claimed to be clean. No one has said anything on Regal struggling to maintain his sobriety, so that the theory of him failing a drug test due to recreational drugs appears to be out.
Regal has been telling people that believes he took an illegal supplement by mistake, which led to his drug failure. However, a number of people are skeptical of that, mostly because so many athletes have used that excuse in the past and its rarely believed. While it may not necessarily be true, the belief backstage among a few people in WWE is that Regal started taking steroids again somewhat recently due to his renewed push after winning the King of the Ring tournament. Considering that he was being pushed as an active wrestler and not just a suited-up authority figure, the feeling is that he needed to get back on the gas to look his absolute best.
Obviously, Regal doesn't have the chiseled bodybuilder look that many people associate with steroid use, but he didn't have that look when he was nabbed for buying steroids online last August either. According to Sports Illustrated, Regal purchased a variety of performance enhancing drugs including stanozolol, somatropin, genotropin and anastrozole between November 2004 and November 2006 through Signature Pharmacy, an alleged illegal internet drug distribution network.
In other Regal news, even though he's been living in the country since 1992, WWE Raw star William Regal is still not a legal U.S. citizen. A third strike on the Wellness Policy could be potentially devastating as he would be forced to be terminated from the company and in danger of not being able to stay in the country if he is unable to find a new full-time job.
Every other time Regal was let go, he would quickly get back on his feet and land a new job with another wrestling company within mere months if not weeks. After being let go from WCW in early 1998, he quickly landed a job with WWE. After being let go from WWE in April 1999, Regal landed a job with WCW two months later. After being let go from WCW in February 2000 because they had nothing for him, Regal was quickly hired by WWE and sent to Memphis Championship Wrestling for a short time before re-debuting in September of that year.
Nowadays, Regal's only other options are TNA and possibly Ring of Honor as they're pretty much the only U.S. companies signing wrestling talent for full-time work. It's possible that TNA could hire Regal, but that's far from a guarantee. If Regal were to be fired from WWE, it's either find a job with one of those two companies if he wants to continue wrestling, or possibly start looking for a new line of work.
After being let go from WWE in late 2006, Psicosis — who is not a legal U.S. citizen — was unable to land a job stateside and so he headed back to Mexico. Back in March, Psicosis got caught crossing the border to work an indy wrestling show using tourist papers. The authorities took away his tourist papers and he was deported back to Mexico as a result.