William Regal On How A Promo Changed Jon Moxley’s Career, Triple H’s Reaction, Learning About Moxley Before FCW

On a recent edition of the Gentleman Villain podcast, William Regal explained how Jon Moxley came across his radar, Moxley crushing his showcase promo, HHH’s reaction, and much more. Check out the highlights below:

On he and HHH visiting FCW for a talent showcase: “So [HHH and I] get [down to FCW] and they put on a showcase. Jon Moxley’s just arrived. Most people who worked there didn’t even know his name. He certainly didn’t look like Jon Moxley looks today or like when he started on WWE TV. He was in jeans and a denim jacket, and he was sat in the far corner of this small room at FCW where the ring was. Everybody who was slated to do a match, did a match. Everybody who was slated to do a promo, did a promo. And the people who were running it at the time said ‘is there anybody else that anybody wants to see?'”

On asking to see Jon Moxley, who didn’t get a showcase: “Don’t forget, this is BEFORE I actually had the job [of director of talent development]. I said, ‘can we see Jon Moxley please.’ I could see certain people that worked there looking at each other like… “who? Who?” And I went, that fella over there [Moxley].”

On how Moxley’s promos had caught his attention: “Now because I’d gotten an interest in what was going on in the independent world, I knew about Jon Moxley. Because I consider myself a decent promo person, when I find somebody who makes me sit up and take notice, I take notice of them. I’d never spoke to [Jon]. Never met him. I’d just seen his promos on YouTube and I was absolutely blown away with them. There was one about him winning a championship and having it melted down and injected into his veins! This really caught my attention.”

On the negative response from the people in charge: “So there was these eye-rolling… “okay”. Jon walks over. I’ll be quite honest with you — I’m sorry Jon if this upsets you — it looked like he’d been living rough for a while. It looked like he’d been living on the streets. Denim jacket, jeans, didn’t know how to quite carry himself. I was wondering ‘how has he got here?’ I’m taking a chance. I’ve a gut feeling. As he’s walking over, I’m going “well, I hope he’s as good as I’ve seen him be, otherwise I’m going to look a right knobhead here.”

On Mox showing everybody how good he is in ten seconds: “Everybody had a one-minute hard promo. The people in charge went “Sigh. One minute.” As if “let’s get it over with.” Well, [Mox] starts. And in ten seconds, this is how my thought process went: “Thank God he’s as good as I think he is.” He is that good. My gut instinct was right.”

On HHH’s reaction to Moxley’s promo: “In twenty seconds, I quickly glanced over at HHH. He looked at me, and he rubbed his forearm. Now, me knowing [HHH] as well as I know him, I know that means he’s got goosebumps. Mox made this promo about how incredible he was, how tough he was. And the final line which is something most people wouldn’t get away with, he said once people realize, he’s gonna make” everybody else here in FCW piss their pants.” He finishes, and he hits his minute spot-on, which is another very hard thing to do.”

On how that promo accelerated Jon’s career: “That’s it. We leave. As I’ve already said, once you got to FCW, there was a process. I could be wrong here, but I think it was about six months until even the best of people got onto TV. It was only a one-hour show. So whether it was a week or two weeks, the next time I went down there for TV — after this promo Jon had cut — we’re doing three hours of TV in this little building in Tampa. On the first episode, Jon Moxley as Dean Ambrose, cuts a promo. On the second hour that we taped, Jon is on beating somebody in less than three minutes. On the third hour, Jon is on, doing another promo.”

On the importance of being able to talk: “So from that ONE promo, if there’s a lesson to be learned from this, if you need to work on your promos, that can change your life. Instead of six months that it could have possibly took if not more, Jon was on TV in a week or two weeks.”

If you are using any of the above quotes, credit the Gentleman Villain h/t 411mania.com