Former WWE and WCW wrestler and current WWE Vice President of Global Talent Development William Regal made comments on Twitter this past December about his concerns with wrestlers getting dropped on their heads during their matches and brought up his own past history with neck issues in his wrestling career as a warning to other wrestlers for the well-being of their future.
While Regal did not specially call out anyone, his comments were quickly assumed by online wrestling fans to be in direct response to AEW’s Worlds End 2025 event over Kyle Fletcher accidentally being dropped on his head from a top rope half nelson suplex spot by Jon Moxley.
A recent episode of K-DAWN 101.5 FM’s The Mark Hoke Show Pro Wrestling Radio Show / Podcast featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about Regal’s recent comments and wrestlers performing high-risk spots in AEW and wrestling.
“Pro wrestlers are always taking hard-hitting and high-risk chances. That’s one of the things that makes pro wrestling so exciting. In AEW, we’ve been able to have all of these great events, and we’ve never had a career-ending injury like that from our wrestling.
I don’t think that AEW is any different than any other wrestling promotion in the world. The wrestlers want to do their very best, and sometimes a promotion will step in. AEW and I have at times stepped in and said, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ I don’t want to do that every day or every match, but there are times where it comes up, and that’s okay.
Everything you talk about, these are things you constantly balance in sports. Not just AEW, but all sports. Taking care of your athletes and doing things to protect the health and safety of the athletes to make the sport work.”
