William Regal: I'm celebrating my 30th year in wrestling on the UK 2013 Raw Tour

William Regal: I'm celebrating my 30th year in wrestling on the UK 2013 Raw Tour

BY Phil Allely

WWE superstar William Regal has revealed he is set to celebrate his 30th year of wrestling by participating in the upcoming UK/Ireland tour.

Regal (Darren Mathews) is currently a commentator of WWE show NXT and has had a memorable in-ring career to date. The 44 year old has overcome battles with drugs, illness and heart issues to become a very valuable part of the WWE family. 

Many fans would love to see Regal take his mic work to either Smackdown or Raw and inject some of his humour and knowledge into those programes too. Fans have also been vocal about the fact that the veteran has been taken off the active roster (unless he is needed to fill-in for an injured star).

Those UK-based fans will be relishing this new announcement by Wiliam on twitter 'I've been told I will be on the UK Raw tour this April. Spoil yourselves and come see my almost 45 year old carcass in trunks. I'm thinking of having a 30th year anniversary (it will be 30 years since my first match this coming August) T Shirt made for this tour.'

Veteran Regal worked his way up from low-paying UK shows in the golden age of ITV wrestling, to taking up an offer by WCW, there he made a name for himself with countless hard-hitting matches against many of the companies top names. His feud with Ireland's Fit Finlay and Chris Benoit are stuff of legend.

Regal progressed to the WWE where various substance abuse problems unfortunately halted his progress. Regal did however get the opportunity to return to WCW and rebuild his career. This time when WWE came calling again he was fit and ready to join their roster. Although he has never won a world title Matthews has held gold in in the WWE, WCW and for UK promotions. Many of his matches have gone down in the history books and he is still a very valuable member of the roster. 

You can catch up with William Regal on WWE NXT shows and as part of April's WrestleMania Revenge UK/Ireland Tour.