William Regal Explains Why Being A 'Mug Punter' Is Bad

William Regal is not a fan of mug punters. But what does that even mean? Is he not fascinated by the prospect of others kicking ceramic cups filled with coffee or tea? 

Long before he ever formed the Blackpool Combat Club, Regal started his wrestling career doing carnival shows at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which was actually an amusement park. On a new episode of the "Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw" podcast, Regal remembered times then when wrestlers would grab "random fans" and challenge them to a match; the term "mug punter" came up. For context, these "random fans" weren't actually fans at all but rather trained professionals planted in the crowd. That didn't matter to the audience — or what you would call "marks" in wrestling speak — as they bought into what was being presented to them. But the term "mark" was something Regal avoided using because of its negative connotation.

"I've never used that term. The term in Britain is a 'punter.' But a 'punter' isn't a bad word. A 'punter' is just somebody who's a fan of something or takes a bet on something ... If you call somebody a 'mug punter,' that's about as close to being the word 'mark' -– that means they're an idiot," Regal said. "To me if you think like that or call your audience that, that's all you'll ever give them. Would you like to spend money and go to see anybody you liked in a theater or a band thinking that they thought you were an idiot? And that's what wrestlers do, and I don't get that."

John "Bradshaw" Layfield revealed on the show that former WWE chairman Vince McMahon had the same philosophy. "You would never use that term ["mark"] around Vince 'cause he would correct you if you did 'cause it was a derogatory term," he said.

Regal is finished with his time in AEW and making his way back to WWE. However, on the way out, he did have at least one more segment on last night's "AEW Dynamite" and tweeted out one final message to the Blackpool Combat Club.