In the ROH Final Battle conference call with reporters, Tony Khan addressed the release of William Regal and explained why he had to let him go.

Khan said that on October 10, he received a call saying that William Regal talked to AEW’s legal chief Megha Parekh to express his wish to depart at the end of the year and for AEW not to pick up his option year in the contract. Khan said Regal’s reasoning were all “legitimate and valid” stuff and basically he wanted to be with his son, NXT’s Charlie Dempsey, and able to coach him.

Khan noted that during that time, his mother suffered two strokes and had to undergo a major operation and he was at home with his parents when all of this was going down.

Regal and Khan then had a long conversation when his mother was in the hospital.

“He really had good intentions, I’d like to say, for why he wanted to go back. It made a lot of sense to me that he would want to work with his son and be with his son,” Khan said, adding that watching his mom in hospital weighed in on his decision to allow Regal to move on because he the last thing he wants was to prevent parents being away from their children if they have the opportunity to be together.

A week later, the two met in person at Dynamite and Khan told Regal he’ll make a major sacrifice for AEW to do the best thing for him and his family because AEW is a family-first company. Regal was a major part of AEW storylines during that time and had to find a way to phase him out.

“I probably won’t be able to facilitate every family reunion but I do try to make this a family-first company and especially in this situation that’s what we’ve done,” Khan said.

The AEW President then said that Regal is with AEW through the end of the year and will then move on to WWE where he’ll work in a backstage role and won’t be appearing on television there for a year as part of the terms of his release.