Tony Khan made the decision to allow William Regal to return to WWE so that Regal could help train his son, NXT wrestler Charlie Dempsey.
The AEW President revealed on a pre-ROH Final Battle media call on Monday that he first learned Regal was hoping to return to WWE during what was a difficult time for the Khan family. Tony Khan’s mother suffered two strokes and required an operation to remove a spot on her heart in the months following All Out. Khan was at home with his parents for his 40th birthday on October 10 when he received a call about Regal.
“I watched Monday Night Football at my parents’ house with my parents. My mom was hooked up to a lot of machines and I was just praying that my mom’s surgery would go okay. That same night I got a phone call and it was saying that William Regal has approached Megha and it was all very legitimate, valid stuff.”
Khan continued to say that Regal requested AEW not pick up the option year on his contract after the deal expired at the end of the year.
“Basically, he’s got a son who works at another wrestling promotion and he really wanted us at the end of the year when we had the option to renew the contract, he was asking that we would not. Nothing bad, we were having a great time working together but that this was an opportunity for him to go back and work in his golden years of his career with his son.”
“It’s a very complex situation for AEW because he’s a huge part of what we’re doing on-screen, and we really value him, and there’s multiple storylines that he’s involved in at this point. As we were going to Toronto that week, obviously I had a lot on my mind.”
Khan continued to talk about finding out that his mother would be having surgery to remove a spot on her heart during this time.
“This was the timing of the request from Regal and I really had to think about it. Both those shows in Toronto were very successful and then at the end of the week, my mom had this heart surgery and when I got back, my dad and my sister had already been there at the hospital since the previous day.”
Khan said his mother’s surgery was successful but she had a challenging recovery in front of her. He was spending his nights in the hospital with her at this time.
“My mom was asleep and I got a message from Regal and it was asking if we could talk. I made time to talk to him and I went outside the hospital. So, I’m sitting out on a park bench out in front of the Mayo clinic on Sunday night and we had this really long, good talk and it was very positive. He really had good intentions, I’d like to say, for why he wanted to go back. It made a lot of sense to me that he would want to work with his son and be with his son.”
“Frankly, the last thing I wanted to do at that moment was prevent any parent and any child, any son, from being together as I was sitting on a park bench, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, where my mom was sleeping inside recovering from a major operation.”
“Later that week, we had Rampage live in Daily’s Place in Jacksonville and I sat with Regal for over 90 minutes in my office afterward. This was probably the longest in-person talk I ever had with him. We talked and I told him I’ll make major sacrifices to this company to do the best thing for you and your family because this is a family-first company. The person I’m releasing later this month, who is still with us through the holidays, has been an essential part of multiple TV stories and is still an essential part of the TV as of tonight and we’ve done a lot of things to help him create the best situation he can for his family. For me, my mom is doing really well and we’re really grateful.”
“I probably won’t be able to facilitate every family reunion but I do try to make this a family-first company and especially in this situation, that’s what we’ve done.”
