William Regal, Kyle O’Reilly preview TakeOver: Stand and Deliver, talk WWE NXT’s growth

The NXT TakeOver specials never disappoint, and night one of Stand & Deliver this past Wednesday night on USA Network and Peacock proved that to be true.

The event saw Raquel Gonzalez unseat Io Shirai as NXT Women’s champion, WALTER retain his NXT United Kingdom Championship against Tommaso Ciampa in a brutal bout, and MSK claim the vacant NXT Tag Team Championships in a thrilling tag team three-way.

Night two has an equal amount of potential on paper, and among the five matches on tap is the Unsanctioned match between Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole. It promises to be one of the most physical wars in recent NXT history where neither man will leave unscathed.

O’Reilly and NXT official William Regal took part in a rare, exclusive interview to discuss everything this TakeOver has to offer, the dissolution of Undisputed Era, the evolution of the black-and-gold brand, and much more.

William Regal and Kyle O’Reilly discuss the magic of WrestleMania weekend TakeOver specials

Every installment of TakeOver has arguably ranged from good to great to amazing since its inception in 2014. There hasn’t been a bad one in the bunch, but there’s something special about the WrestleMania weekend editions in particular.

William Regal, NXT’s on-screen general manager and a global talent scout behind-the-scenes, shares that same sentiment. He believes it started with the San Jose, Calif. house show NXT ran WrestleMania weekend in 2015 and that the main roster talent has been trying to top them with WrestleMania ever since.

“The magic that night is hard to put into words, really. It was just incredible and we knew something special was going on,” Regal said about the San Jose show and what it kickstarted. “It’s hard to think of any part of our industry that has ever done so many shows in a row that would be considered great to excellent. The unfortunate thing for me is when they end, because they’re so good and so special, and you know the talent are going to go out and give it all they got. WrestleMania weekend is obviously WWE’s biggest weekend, so going into that, the NXT talent have something to prove.”

O’Reilly agrees with Regal that no TakeOver lacks that unique energy but feels that the WrestleMania weekends aren’t much different from the rest aside from how many more people are paying attention to the product than usual. That’s a testament to TakeOver’s consistency and ability to always deliver.

“I think TakeOver is always a really special event,” O’Reilly said. “Of course, I think there’s just a buzz in the air, it’s WrestleMania and the entire world has their eyes on the company and NXT is performing that weekend as well, I think that’s what creates the buzz. I feel like any time a TakeOver is around the corner, there’s this energy that’s just building.”

Other than the obvious answer of O’Reilly vs. Cole, Regal hesitated to say which matches he was looking forward to the most. As a longtime legend of the squared circle himself, he can relate to feeling pressure and having to live up to lofty expectations.

“There’s nobody on any of these cards that I don’t expect to have incredible matches,” Regal said. “They wouldn’t be on the cards otherwise, especially on this week, more so than ever.”

William Regal and Kyle O’Reilly break down the Unsanctioned match and Undisputed Era’s lasting legacy

WWE’s Prime Target video that aired on the March 31 edition of NXT (with a full-length version now available on Peacock) perfectly encapsulated what O’Reilly and Cole’s epic rivalry is all about and what their Unsanctioned war on night two of TakeOver: Stand & Deliver will entail.

O’Reilly mentioned he was “blown away by it” and that NXT Senior Director of Content and Development Jeremy Borash and his talented team deserve all the credit in the world for making it a “true piece of art.” Watching it only further reinforced how this will be the biggest bout of his career to date.

“Adam and I have such a storied and long history together,” said O’Reilly. “We’ve known each other for 12 years and we fought all over the world as friends and as enemies. It’s cool to see that wrapped up in the WWE setting and just to see their take on telling that story, it’s so cool.”

The history that O’Reilly refers to is quite extensive. Well before Undisputed Era, they were tag team partners earlier in their careers, known as Future Shock, and ran roughshod over the entire independent scene. They also traded Ring of Honor’s world title back and forth for a brief period from late 2016 to early 2017.

Cole has defeated O’Reilly in most of their matches against each other, but O’Reilly’s biggest win over his former friend at ROH Final Battle 2016 actually came in a No Disqualification match. Although he has the advantage in that respect, O’Reilly isn’t forgetting about Cole’s other accomplishments that have made him one of NXT’s most decorated performers ever.

“Adam Cole, he’s the longest-reigning NXT Champion of all-time,” O’Reilly said. “He’s been in some absolute wars, Street Fights, No DQ matches before. He’s been in more in NXT than I have, so he’s got more experience when it comes to that style of match. I’m going to do what I do every time and that’s fight with my soul and passion and conviction that I have and hopefully, I can put him down for good and finish this thing off and be able to move on finally.”

Regal isn’t picking favorites in the fight, but he does have a vested interest in it, having known both men for a very long time and having played a pivotal role in bringing them both into the company.

“I remember first meeting them and I remember talking to them and they were asking me if I had any advice,” Regal recalled. “I remember saying, ‘How long you been doing this?’ ‘A couple of years.’ ‘Well, you’re far better at it than I was at two or three years.’ And just starting a conversation like that. To watch how this has gone and to watch how they came into NXT at just the right time and make such an impact and have such an incredible run… To get four years as a standout unit? I can’t think of anybody who’s done that… It’s a major feat without any major changes going on. For them to get to this point and do this match, it’s sad that it’s turned out the way it has between the two of them, but it’s also sad to see the end of the Undisputed Era.”

The Undisputed Era breakup was bittersweet for Regal, who has seen them grow as a unit over the last four years. He struggled to think of another stable, whether it be the Four Horsemen, D-Generation X, or anyone else, that remained intact for that long, other than The New Day.

With Cole specifically, Regal remembers wanting to sign him well before the brand actually did in 2017. The former NXT Champion had taken part in tryouts years prior, but Triple H wanted to wait until he felt he was ready for primetime.

“When Adam Cole first came in, and I was all for bringing him in, and Triple H said, ‘No, a couple of years.’ He will not stop,” Regal said about Cole. “Everybody’s completely different, but with Adam Cole, there’s a drive in him. He will stay doing this and go and be a better for it after a couple of years. When the time was right, he said, ‘Let’s get Adam Cole.’ That’s why he can walk straight in the door, no waiting around and straight into a main event caliber spot. That’s how Triple H and myself work.”

Cole, O’Reilly and Bobby Fish coming in all at the same time in the summer of 2017 was pure fate. Fish was the first to debut, followed by O’Reilly, but their first major appearance on NXT TV was alongside Cole at TakeOver: Brooklyn III when they ambushed then-NXT Champion Drew McIntyre.

It was off to the races from there for the three of them.

“It’s so wild how that worked out and us ending up together,” O’Reilly said. “There was a portion in Ring of Honor where Adam, Bobby, and myself were acting as a group, and of course, Adam turned on me, didn’t see that one coming [laughs]. That was something we were really excited about.

“It didn’t end up working out,” O’Reilly continued, “but for that idea to present itself coming into NXT, we were like, ‘Oh, hell yeah! We’re on board.’ I think that’s why we were successful: it was organic and we were all legitimately really close friends. On the independents, we came up together, we fought each other, we fought with each other, against each other. I think that’s a true brotherhood and a true bond that’s 100 percent genuine and I think that’s why it was so successful and why it’s had the longevity that it’s had. It was real.”

The Unsanctioned stipulation for O’Reilly and Cole’s upcoming outing means that, in the storyline, NXT will not be held liable for anything they do to each other. It’s going to be that brutal, and looking at it from a fan’s perspective, Regal is excited for it.

“We know the talent that both of them have, right? I’ve always known how good Kyle is,” Regal said, showing O’Reilly praise. “I think everybody’s always known how good Kyle is. There’s no question when you talk about who’s the best and whatever that Kyle can stand up there with anyone ever in this entire industry because he’s so good. I’m really, really looking forward to it.”

William Regal and Kyle O’Reilly look back at NXT’s growth and the roles Daniel Bryan and Finn Balor played in its success

NXT is set to make the move to Tuesday nights on USA Network starting next week, April 13, after calling Wednesdays home for the last six years. Interestingly enough, the black-and-gold brand started out on Tuesdays way back when in 2010 when it initially replaced WWE ECW.

The show, which carried a competition-style format at the time, apparently wasn’t what SyFy was expecting or wanted, causing it to be bumped to WWE.com for the next two years. After much growth and evolution, NXT finds itself back on the same exact night over a decade later.

Regal was there for almost the entire process. He was named one of the “pros” for Season 1 and was paired off with Skip Sheffield, who went on to become Ryback. The rest for Regal from there is history.

“I wasn’t supposed to be a part of the first one,” he revealed. “I got a call on Friday night and the way it started on Tuesday a few days later, somebody who was supposed to be a mentor couldn’t do it. They asked me if I could. I said yes and I was involved in it.”

The two-time Intercontinental Champion and future WWE Hall of Famer was later appointed the official matchmaker of the brand in 2012 while also doing occasional commentary. He took the general manager reins from JBL in August 2014, a title he’s held ever since.

Despite the campiness of the original NXT, Regal was quick to point out the stars that it fostered, specifically everyone who took part in The Nexus. As a five-time WWE World Champion, Daniel Bryan was chief among them.

“It evolved from a show that gave a lot of people a lot of breaks,” Regal said. “Let’s not ever take that away. You can go back and say that was a show whatever it was, however, you want to remember it, but it gave a lot of people a lot of breaks, Daniel Bryan being one of them at a time when Daniel Bryan wasn’t getting the greatest opportunities in WWE.”

O’Reilly drew plenty of inspiration from Bryan, for he was one of the first people, along with CM Punk, to pave the way for independent wrestlers in WWE. Without them, there’s no telling when or even if those barriers would have ever been broken.

“Not a lot of us smaller independent guys were getting chances in WWE,” O’Reilly said. “Bryan really kicked those doors open for a lot of us and I couldn’t be happier for him, he’s been a huge inspiration throughout my entire career. When I first got into wrestling, I started training in 2005, Bryan Danielson was the king of the indies. He was on all the tapes I wanted to watch, so I have nothing but respect for his career and admiration for everything he’s been able to accomplish.”

Following the failed format it had at first, NXT was completely rebranded in 2012 as a developmental territory, a feeder system of sorts, for WWE’s main roster. Regal was brought aboard by Triple H, who told him his plan for what he wanted and how it would work. The “Real Man’s Man” already had a few ideas for who he wanted to be a part of it.

“I remember this conversation at the very beginning of [NXT]. I think I was one of the first people to know,” Regal recalled. “[Triple H] goes, ‘This is what we’re going to do. What’s your vision of this?’ He gave me his vision and how he wanted it to be an opportunity, developmental place but also we want to start putting on this show and we’ll see where it goes. I remember thinking, I know this is going to be a developmental system, but if we could get some of these great wrestlers that I knew were around because of my connection with Daniel Bryan and Brian Kendrick… I have a lot of these connections with people that end up coming in to be extras and whatever else.

“I’ve always known the landscape of independent wrestling,” he added. “If we could get one or two of these people, and Finn Balor was on the list of that, and it took a few extra years because of his contract whenever he was actually ready to come here, but we can mix it in with the talent that are learning. We can have a really good show. It’s gone by so quick that the next thing you know, we’re at WrestleMania.”

NXT’s gradual growth is not lost on Regal. He’s constantly asking himself how they got to that point, and how those highs could possibly get any higher. Even more impressive is that most of NXT’s rise occurred while it aired exclusively on the WWE Network streaming service.

“After every single show that we’ve done in an arena, I’m awestruck,” he said. “I stand there saying the same thing: ‘How have we managed to get to this with a show that, up until a year-and-a-half ago, was on the Network?’ I don’t think anyone realizes how incredible of a thing that is. We built selling out buildings off the Network and going on tours to Australia and Japan and Britain and stuff like that.

“Next Tuesday is a whole new chapter,” Regal concluded. “It’s basically like starting NXT again. As soon as we can get out and do more, then things are going to start really cooking.”