Delirious (wrestler)

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William Johnston
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Delirious
Billed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Billed weight	186 lb (84 kg/13.3 st)
Born	1981
Resides	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Billed from	Dante's Inferno (GCW) The Edge of Sanity (ROH) The Swamps of Florida (FIP)
Trained by	Kid Kash Tracy Smothers Gateway Championship Wrestling
Debut	July 19, 2001

William Hunter Johnston^[1]^[2], better known by his ring name Delirious is an American professional wrestler currently wrestling on the independent circuit, most notably in Ring of Honor. He is known for his outrageous antics, such as running around aimlessly and screaming wildly when the opening ring bell sounds, and speaking in a rambling and mostly incoherent fashion.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

He got his start in Gateway Championship Wrestling, an independent wrestling promotion based out of St. Louis. He trained Daizee Haze as a wrestler while they were both in Southeast Missouri State University. He made several appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2003 to 2005, his last in a match with Samoa Joe on TNA Impact!.^[3]

[edit] IWA Mid-South (2003–2006)

Delirious started working for Ian Rotten and IWA Mid-South during the latter part of 2003. He quickly won over fans with his antics. In November, he wrestled Matt Sydal, a fellow St. Louis wrestler, in Sydal's first IWA match. The two quickly developed a rivalry, wrestling several times over the next few months. Eventually, Delirious was able to beat Sydal at the second night of the 2004 King of the Death Match Tournament and won the IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Championship.

After that, Delirious began a feud with Jimmy Jacobs. The two exchanged in several matches with the title trading hands. Jimmy won the belt in early August on a Coliseum Championship Wrestling event in Evansville, Indiana. Two weeks later in Highland, Indiana^{[disambiguation needed]}, they wrestled to a double pin for the title. The belt was declared vacant. On the first night of the 2004 Ted Petty Invitational weekend, Jacobs won a Ladder match to win the vacant title. After that, Delirious went to Japan for a tour. When he returned, he won the belt on December 12. Delirious then finished the feud with a win in a Steel Cage match in Valparaiso, Indiana on February 4, 2005.

Delirious held the Light Heavyweight title until June 11, when he lost it to Josh Abercrombie in Philadelphia. Delirious then wrestled several matches over the fall, against the likes of Roderick Strong, Ace Steel, and Brandon Thomaselli. He also formed a team with old rival Sydal. They challenged The Iron Saints for the IWA-MS Tag Team Championships on a couple of occasions, but couldn't win the belts.

Delirious started to appear less in 2006, but he defeated fellow masked wrestler El Generico in April.

[edit] Ring of Honor (2004–Current)

Delirious debuted in the Philadelphia based promotion Ring of Honor, at Reborn: Stage One on April 23, 2004 in a losing effort against rival Matt Sydal^[4]. Delirious continued to work for Ring of Honor sporadically throughout the next few years, gaining a cult following despite never winning a match. At Better Than Our Best on April 1, 2006, ROH's commissioner Jim Cornette said that he would face a wrestler of his choosing, and if he did not win he would be dropped from the roster. Delirious chose and defeated Ricky Reyes with the Cobra Stretch, retaining his spot on the roster ^[5].

The following show, Delirious defeated Jimmy Rave, Jimmy Yang and Jimmy Jacobs in Four Corner Survival.^[6] Later in the show, Bryan Danielson granted Delirious shot at the ROH World Championship after Danielson had retained it in five minutes against Colt Cabana. Danielson retained the belt when the referee stopped the match; Delirious' hand was also sliced on the ring post and his mask was torn by Danielson during the match.^[7]

Delirious would get a second shot at the ROH World Championship in a losing effort against Bryan Danielson on May 13. Delirious went on to earn a shot at the ROH Pure Championship against Nigel McGuinness, but subsequently lost. Throughout the rest of the year, Delirious continued to impress with matches against Matt Sydal and McGuinness. On October 6, Delirious defeated Jimmy Rave, qualifying for the Survival of the Fittest final later on in the evening. Austin Aries was the first eliminated in the finals leaving The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark), Delirious and Matt Sydal. Sydal and Delirious worked together to eliminate the Briscoes. They put on a tough performance, with Delirious eventually coming out on top.^[8]

His victory meant he'd receive his third shot at the ROH World Championship against Bryan Danielson. On November 3 the match took place, and once again Danielson retained despite Delirious' best efforts.^[9]

Delirious then teamed with Davey Richards, challenging eventual Tag Team Champions Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels in a Number One Contenders match.

Following his loss, Sydal and Daniels went on to feud with "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce. Pearce defeated Delirious earlier on in the year with help from Shane Hagadorn. His first match in this new feud saw Delirious team with "Crazy" Ace Steel to take on Hagadorn and Pearce, Delirious and Steel came out on top, but this feud was far from over. The following night, Delirious put his problems with Pearce aside to challenge Danielson. The two captains put a team of four together for an eight-man elimination tag match. Delirious chose Nigel McGuinness, Colt Cabana and BJ Whitmer as his partners to face the team of Danielson, Jimmy Rave, Jimmy Jacobs and Shingo. Delirious was the sole survivor for his team, winning the match when he made Danielson tap to the Cobra Stretch.

Delirious lost to Adam Pearce on December 22,^[10] as well as losing the following night in a Dragon Gate rules match against CIMA, Shingo and Matt Sydal.^[11] Delirious continued his feud with Pearce into 2007, defeating him in the first of six Fifth Year Festival events. He won via pinfall after placing brass knuckles in his mask and headbutting Pearce. ^[12] The following night, the newly turned heel Roderick Strong destroyed Delirious after shoving him off the ropes. Delirious' head smacked against the mat and he appeared to be unconscious. Strong took advantage of Delirious' condition, hitting him with a Gibson Driver both in the ring and on a barricade at ringside. Strong looked to do more damage but Roderick's former tag team partner Austin Aries ran him off.^[13]

On August 3, 2007 Delirious was announced as the new head trainer of the ROH wrestling school.^[14]

Delirious has recently become more peculiar since he began feuding with Adam Pearce's stable, The Hangmen 3. After they stapled his mask to his face back in 2007, he has since started using heelish tactics to defeat them such as using weapons and spitting red mist into their faces, which has since become known as "red poison". He has even gone as far as to update his usual green and black attire to a red and black version, which he did on December 29, 2007, to reflect his newly evil tactics.

[edit] International Wrestling Cartel (2005–Current)

Delirious and Matt Sydal debuted at No Excuses 2005 against each other with Delirious picking up the victory with the Chemical Imbalance II. He won IWC's biggest event of the year, the Super Indy 5 tournament, when he defeated Glen Spectre in the first round, Matt Sydal in the second and "Balls Hott" Troy Lords in the finals. He then went on to successfully defend his Super Indy title against Lords by making him tap out to a leglock submission at Summer Sizzler 3. He then started to be accompanied by women's wrestler Daizee Haze at ring side. He successfully defended his title against "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels at Uncaged Fury. At No Excuses 2, Delirious began a feud with "The Fabulous" John McChesney. Haze distracted McChesney enough for Delirious to roll him up and grab his tights for the win to retain his title. At Reveangence 3 Delirious defeated McChesney again with some help from Daizee Haze. At November Pain 2, Delirious faced McChesney once again, but this time Haze was barred from ringside. Daizee disguised herself as a wrestling fan but McChesney caught on before she could intervene, resulting in McChesney powerbombing Daizee onto Delirious to get the win. At New Beginning 2, Delirious faced Sterling James Keenan to try and stop Keenan's road to the title. He was not successful, as Keenan hit the MK Ultra for the victory. He then took a break from IWC and did not return until several months later. He returned at November Pain 3 as he was scheduled to be partners with Super Hentai to face "The Shooter" Brent Albright and Sebastian Dark but it ended up being a 6-man tag team match after Shirly Doe and Delirious' rival John McChesney was added to the match. Shirly Doe picked up the victory by pinning Sebastian Dark after an Air Raid Siren to pick up the win for himself, Delirious, and Super Hentai. Delirious appeared at the IWC 100th show Call to Arms 4 on December 8, 2007 and defeated Eric Young.

Incoherence entrance at PWG ¡Dia de los Dangerous!

[edit] CHIKARA (2005–Current)

In CHIKARA, Delirious teamed with Hallowicked throughout 2006 under the team moniker Incoherence (also nicknamed Halirious by the fans). The team came about at CHIKARA's Tag World Grand Prix 2006, when Hallowicked's original partner, Ultramantis Black, was unable to compete due to injury. A random draw to determine Hallowicked's partner took place, and Delirious was the first chosen wrestler to be present, after The Rockin' Rebel and Roderick Strong. After defeating the team of Rorschach and Crossbones, the team of Up In Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy), and Team DDT (KUDO and MIKAMI), the team went onto the semifinals in the tournament, where they lost to the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli)^[15]. The team has been moderately successful, and, as of October 26th Bruised show, are CHIKARA's Campeones De Parejas. Delirious and Hallowicked have also taken to teaming with Cheech and Cloudy (aliases: Deliriouscito and Hallowickedcito) in 3 and 4-man tag team matches.