William Regal’s explanation for turning on Jon Moxley didn’t make any sense

Yesterday’s (Dec. 8) episode of AEW Dynamite included a time traveling promo from William Regal where he explained why he turned on Jon Moxley and helped MJF win the AEW world championship last month at Full Gear 2022.

Here’s why he turned on Mox:

“The reason I did what I did...was to teach you the final thing that I could ever teach you. Always stay one step ahead, and make sure you always keep eyes in the back of your head.”

This ranks up there with some of the most pointless advice I’ve ever heard. The overwhelming majority of people who sit at the top of their profession don’t need to be told to always stay one step ahead of the competition. There’s a pretty good chance that mindset or motivation was built into their rise to the top.

It sounds insulting to Moxley that Regal thinks he needs to learn this lesson. Moxley was already the world champion, he didn’t need to be screwed out of the title for the sake of receiving a beginner level lesson. The idea that Regal thinks it was worth costing his guy the world championship over something so insignificant is completely ridiculous.

As far as having eyes in the back of his head is concerned, one of the reasons why Moxley joined up with Blackpool Combat Club was to presumably have some extra eyes watching his back, such as the eyes of William Regal. Regal is implying that Moxley should choose more trustworthy allies. Yet later on Regal calls himself Blackpool Combat Club for life. It just doesn’t make any sense. If you are Blackpool Combat Club until the day you die, then you should be able to reliably watch the back of others in your faction, especially when the world title is on the line.

Earlier in the promo, Regal explained why he helped MJF win:

“MJF, I took great exception to what he did to [Tony Schiavone]. And he seems to be mad about emails, and he’s complaining. So I gave him what he wanted. He’s world champion.

You know that old saying...be careful what you wish for? Because now, everybody in this company is gonna be chasing him.”

So let me get this straight. Regal helped MJF win the title as a form of punishment? Because now everyone in AEW is going to chase after MJF and it’s going to make his life difficult?

Huh? That’s the life of any world champion, including Jon Moxley when he just held the title. Does Regal actually believe that it’s better off to not be world champion? Because that’s really the only form of logic that can make sense of why he screwed his ally Moxley out of the title and helped his enemy MJF win it. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Based on Tony Khan’s account of the situation behind the scenes, it was a couple months ago when William Regal first approached him about leaving AEW. It sounds like there was plenty of time to book Regal’s AEW exit in a very logical and straightforward manner: Regal remains a babyface all the way through, MJF eventually does the unthinkable and hospitalizes him, and Bryan Danielson is now pursuing MJF for revenge. In that scenario, AEW would need to find a different way for Moxley to drop the title at Full Gear. But can it be that hard to think of another way for the so-called devil MJF to cheat to win?

This strange extra step of Regal turning heel on Moxley, only to somewhat turn back babyface in this final promo from the past, just added to what was already a convoluted mess. Maybe the decision on Regal’s release was trickier than Khan let on, and indecision on his future played a factor in turning him heel, only to reverse course so quickly. I don’t really know what happened there. But what I do know is that Regal’s explanation for his actions didn’t make sense.