Tony Khan confirms pending departure of William Regal, will return to WWE next year

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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2022/12/07/tony-khan-confirms-pending-departure-of-william-regal-will-return-to-wwe-next-year/

Tony Khan confirmed during Wednesday’s media call that William Regal will be leaving AEW at the end of the year and will return to WWE.

While promoting Final Battle, Khan opened up the call addressing personal issues over the past several months where his mother suffered two strokes and underwent heart surgery in October.

During this period, Regal first contacted AEW’s chief legal officer Megha Parekh and later spoke with Khan to request that AEW not pick up the option on his contract for next year. Regal’s request was to return to WWE to work with his son Bailey (a.k.a. Charlie Dempsey on NXT).

Khan said he spoke with Regal on the phone outside the hospital where his mother was staying and given his own personal issues going on, didn’t want to prevent Regal from working with his son.

In a follow-up question from reporter David Bixenspan, Khan said it’s a conditional release where Regal is returning to WWE in a backstage role and would not expect to see him on television next year.

Given that Regal is not finished yet with AEW, Khan was surprised to see Paul Levesque post a tweet that referenced Regal.

Tonight just wouldn't be the same without… pic.twitter.com/5wM71u0u7i

— Triple H (@TripleH) November 26, 2022

After turning on Jon Moxley at the Full Gear pay-per-view and assisting MJF in winning the AEW championship, MJF attacked Regal on last week’s episode with brass knuckles, and Regal was taken away on a stretcher.

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Sounds like Tony had a horrible couple of months this fall. Certainly sounds like on this call that he is heading into 2022 with a clearer focus on many things.

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This happens all the time. And AEW is perhaps a worst offender. Just off the top of my head I can recall Nick Khan, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon, Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston and more being name-dropped on Dynamite. Whereas it is very rare and still taboo to reference anybody in the competition on WWE tv.

And because a bunch of AEW talent are ex-WWE talent they show up in their video packages all the time. Over the past month there have been video packages for “10 year anniversary of the Shield” with Jon Moxley in them. It’s just gonna happen.

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I wonder how much of the bad creative of the last few months had to do with TK and his moms strokes? Glad to hear she is doing better and I’m sure he will do better from here on out with renewed focus

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I mean coupling the stroke / family stuff with the Punk / Elite dabacle, and to a lesser extent the Andrede/ Sammy fight, plus roster injuries (Hangman), probably all added up quickly.