[This interview was conducted at the final Pillman Memorial Show, in August of 2001.]

While attempting to divert my attention throughout several different aspects of the Pillman 2001 event--from the press room, the fan photo session and the Indy Showcase--myself along with a few other journalists received approximately five minutes with William Regal.

I personally found it ironic considering that a few days previous, one of the focal points of my "Pillman 2000 Retrospective" article was Regal, his match with Benoit and subsequently meeting Regal after the show.

Regal was, as always a gentleman. Later that night, Les Thatcher would present Regal with a plaque honoring his Pillman 2000 match with Benoit. Regal was truly emotional during the presentation and, on a night where there are rarely heels or faces, Regal received one of the biggest pops of the night.

Pinfalls: Tonight we’re here to celebrate Brian Pillman.

Regal: Yes.

Pinfalls: What’s your favorite Brian Pillman memory?

Regal: My favorite Brian Pillman memory was being in [Johnny Depp’s] The Viper Room in Los Angeles with Brian Pillman. And we both stood there and we saw this little old guy dancing in the corner with a white suit on and a wig and I was looking and I said, ‘That’s Tony Curtis!’ and he goes, ‘No it’s not!’ And I said, ‘Yeah it is.’ And he walked up and slapped him on the back of the head as hard as he could. (laughs) He just smacked him as hard as you could possibly hit someone on the back of the head and he goes, ‘Hey Tony, this is Brian!’ And I was like (looking shocked). And then he saw a girl ... and he adjusted his wig like that went, ‘Hi Brian, how are you doing?’ And we walked out of the place. And that’s my favorite Brian Pillman story. There’s also the juggling midgets story but that’ll take too long to tell you..."

Regal also discussed the following...

Talking about the origins of The Goodwill Ambassador... "I began working there (MCW) six months and that’s exactly how long I was there ... I went back (to the WWF) ... I was off TV and working house shows but I still had no idea what I was going to do. The writer’s were telling me one thing--they all had different ideas. I had an idea. It was actually Phoenix (Arizona) the first day and the writer’s were still telling me one thing and then Vince McMahon said, ‘This is what you’re doing ... go out and do it.’ I loved it straight away. And straight away he said, ‘You’re never going to insult anybody ... you’re get more heat (that way).’ I love it."

On his style...

"I like to work every weekend on the house shows and that’s what I like doing. On TV, my style is no good in seven minutes, it just doesn’t work. And speeding up is not me. It’s ok with certain guys ... when I work with The Rock or Austin ... it’s ok with them. They all can’t do it because my style is very different to do seven minutes matches. I love doing what I get to do on house shows--I get to work and do my thing. It takes time to tell stories so I love it. I couldn’t be any happier."

On Tajiri...

"He’s great. Tremendous. The first day, I wasn’t really sure ... they said I was going to be with him and the way it was explained to me by one of the writer’s was ... I wasn’t happy because I thought it was going to be like an Inspector Clouseau kind-of-thing. I said I’m funny enough without making me funny. You don’t have to make me funny--I can do what you want and make it funny. Then I spoke with Vince and he said it wasn’t like that at all ... from day one, I feed off him, I just let him do what he wants and I just feed off him. He understands (English) very well. (I don’t understand) the slightest bit (of Japanese). It clicks--we work good together."

On the Alliance WWF angle...

"(We can play it out) as long as it is successful. It was drastic to say it wasn’t working well--now it’s working well. Where are you going to go from here? There’s always a place to go. There’s always a new angle ... there’s always something. You never know ... you never know what’s going to happen with this business. We just change with the world and see where it goes."

On today vs. yesterday...

"The majority of people who watch wrestling nowadays weren’t watching it a few years ago. They don’t understand the kind of wrestling that the people who are here today and yourselves understand. It’s a different style. They get bored with that kind of stuff. They’re just not used to it. It has to be the right guys and the right angles to do it with or it’s not going to work."

On Bobby Eaton and Chris Benoit...

"It’s nice to see him (Eaton) ... I said I wouldn’t wrestle when Chris got hurt. It’s not being a big shot ... it’s just I respect Chris Benoit and I didn’t feel it was right. We were billed together. I wouldn’t like to put anyone in his place. It wouldn’t be fair to whoever else .. [as if I were] trying to fill his shoes. But I would have liked to have tagged with Bobby one more time ... that would had been fun."