WWE's Pushed to Punished Edition Two: William Regal

Last Wednesday I introduced my new column, Pushed to Punished, where I evaluated Kenny Dykstra. To check it out, the link is here.

This week, GSM returns for my historic 75th article to discuss my newest topic who suffered the same fate three years ago: William Regal.

I first thought about writing a peice on former World Tag Team Champion Rene Dupree, but due to my lack of knowledge on the product, I opted to go with my favorite, the one and only, William Regal.

At this time three years ago, William Regal reigned as the General Manager of Monday Night RAW, serving a lackluster reign with nothing memorable...yet.

Fast forward a month and Regal finds himself in a a main event match with WWE Champion Randy Orton in his hometown of London, England.

Despite the GM's loss, WWE officials must have liked what they saw from Regal, and were quick to react.

Exactly a week later, Regal surprisingly entered the 2008 King of the Ring tournament, defeated then-Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk in the finals, and shockingly became the king of all the WWE.

After two hard fought victories over MVP and Chris Jericho, one would assume Punk would have taken home the convented crown.

Did William Regal deserve to win the King of the Ring at this day in age? You be the judge.

In my opinion, it was the icing on the cake of an illustrious career for William Regal.

If you remember Booker T when he won it, who soon became King Booker thereafter, Booker was treated with one last career rejuvenation in 2006, where he won the World Heavyweight Championship from Rey Mysterio only two months after winning KOTR.

Anyways, Regal cut an amazing promo the next week on RAW (which I still have under my 'Favorites' on YouTube to this day) explaining how he had become "the most entity in the WWE." Regal would continue to turn off the lights during matches, deny championship shot, and even cut RAW short off the air one night.

However, a returning Mr. Kennedy would soon interrupt the King's Coronation, erupting a rivalry between the two. Unfortunately, Regal's "15 Minutes of Fame" came to an abrupt end on May 19, 2008, where Mr. Kennedy defeated Regal in a "Loser Gets Fired" match to end his career in storyline.

Reason being was Regal failed his drug test earlier in the week for the second time in accordance with the WWE Wellness Policy, thus having to serve the 60-day suspension similar to Jeff Hardy.

Had it not been for the suspension, some, including myself, speculate that William Regal could have very well gone on to win the WWE Championship that year.

With his tremendous heat, technical wrestling skills and prefect gimmick, what could go wrong?

Just starting out as a wrestling fan at the time, I wasn't aware of all the details of Regal's suspension, and would constantly tune into RAW each week that summer waiting for him to return.

When he finally did in July, it wasn't the same.

It was sad to see him leave as a top heel on RAW, only to return in a forgettable feud with Jamie Noble. Regal went on to win the Intercontinental Championship and be managed by Layla that fall, but even that was mistreated.

In 2009 onto 2010, Regal would compete in countless matches, only to lose eighty percent of them. Seeing him drafted to ECW in '09 boosted my hopes a bit, but even there he was unsuccessful in winning the gold.

Since the first time I witnessed Regal in a commercial for RAW on the USA Network, I instantly fell in love with the WWE and thus Regal becoming my favorite wrestler in the company.

Seeing him slowly deteriorate on Superstars pains me, but as a veteran, it's in his full commitment to be willing to put other younger stars over.

Reflecting back on his punishment in 2008 reminds me why I became a fan of the WWE, as corny as it sounds.

With Regal's retirement immeinent, I truly hope he goes out in fashion.

But hey, at least I can look forward to him commenting on the new season of WWE NXT.

I leave you with this question, IWC: If not punished, do you think William Regal would have made a successful WWE or World Heavyweight Champion?

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave your thoughts on William Regal and whether I did a successful job on my second edition of Pushed to Punished.

Visit my website at Next Era Wrestling for more of GSM's writings, along with WWE/TNA news, recaps, and more.