"But for a clever man like yourself, it was very foolish to take advantage of a disadvantaged boy… because now, you've made an enemy out of ME! And if you want to fight, look no bloody further! Because I will quite gladly now go and change into my ring attire, and I will join you back in that ring, and I will battle you with EVERY OUNCE OF VIOLENT VENOM THAT RUNS THROUGH MY VEINS!"

    — William Regal to Triple H, RAW 8/02/2004
 

And it was the vibe that Triple H was going for when he interrupted the opening montage of RAW this Monday. But from the moment he held the microphone close enough to his face for everyone to hear his heavy breathing and grunting, he lost me. I had to stifle a giggle, he was trying so hard. 
  

But whenever Trips attempts to convey that oh-so-important intensity in a promo, it takes me out of my enjoyment of the show. It isn't that he's not trying, but he is trying too hard. Every mannerism, every facial expression, the inflection of his voice… he sounds like a man told to go out and act intense. He doesn't sound like a man who is intense. Wrestling is generally over-the-top in its presentation, but this was too much even for me. He reminded me of a child who continues crying long after the real tears are over in an attempt to get more attention, and quite frankly, I wasn't buying it.

Perhaps that's why William Regal's promo stuck with me for so long after RAW, especially when juxtaposed against Triple H's labored huffing and grunting. It wasn't a performance; it was an embodiment. To see this eloquent British man wearing a lovely three-piece suit verbally bitch out The Game in the manner that he did made me mark out like a little girl. I was grinning from ear-to-ear, and nearly frothing at the mouth at the prospect of him beating the crap out of Triple H. Undoubtedly Regal's stretcher job later in the night will find its way into some video package for Summerslam, but that two-minute promo was one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen in my tenure as a wrestling fan, first in my childhood and now as an adult. I do not exaggerate when I say that I was completely blown away by it.

William Regal wasn't acting intense. He was the personification of intensity, and believed every single word that came out of his mouth. Whereas Triple H began his promo with a full-on, "I'm pissed off and intense. Just look at how intense I am!" vibe, Regal started off more slowly. He took on a condescending tone, almost seeming as amused as I was at Trips' hulking display, and even better, he spoke to the Cerebral Assassin as he would speak to Eugene: the ultimate insult. Only after referring to Trips as "Sunshine" did Regal finally let his true emotions be known: he didn't care when or how, but he'd beat the shit out of Triple H for ever screwing with That Dear Boy Eugene.

Over the course of the Eugene storyline, Regal has impressed me with his acting abilities; first as a comedic heel, then as a man conflicted between his career and his affection for Eugene, and then as the mentor who shed legitimate tears when his student suffered a beatdown at the hands of Evolution. Monday night was the culmination of all of that character work, when he let everyone know that he wasn't just Eugene's babysitter. He's one bad son of a bitch, and the crowd was with him every step of the way. The other wrestlers could learn from this. While Triple H's generic "intensity" garnered nothing more than standard heel heat, Regal's got a huge reaction.

Edge had the same problem upon his return from neck surgery. He tried to be intense, flat-out telling Randy Orton and Triple H that he was sick of Evolution's dominance, but the fans didn't bite because they didn't believe it -- because Edge didn't believe it. He wasn't speaking in character, only reciting lines from a script. The crowd at Vengeance is proof enough of this, cheering more for Orton than his supposed babyface opponent. Only this Monday did he seem to finally "get it." He had a reason, however heel-ish, to be pissed off at Jericho, and the looks he shot him during the Highlight Reel and the main event tag match finally seemed genuine. Without saying a word, we could see that it took everything in Edge's will to not flatten Jericho from the moment he stepped in that ring. He finally believed in what he did and said, and his performance improved because of it.

It's a shame that so many other wrestlers are unable to do that: truly believe in everything they say and do. It isn't even an issue of acting talent or promo ability, as Chris Benoit has shown us so many times in his career. A performer need not be a unique, Hollywood-ready talent like the Rock to lend an air of legitimacy to his performances. So many of wrestling's cringe-worthy moments could be avoided if the rest of the roster could find the same spark that William Regal showed on Monday. It was intense, it was believable, and it was, most importantly, real.