In December 2007, Colin Delaney made his debut for World Wrestling Entertainment in a losing effort against Shelton Benjamin. For roughly the next eight months, Delaney competed on the ECW brand and would regularly lose to guys like Great Khali, Miz, John Morrison and others. By the summer of 2008, Delaney would turn heel and cost Tommy Dreamer the ECW Championship, but wouldn’t be pushed heavily and was released by the WWE in August of 2008.
I’m sure many people forgot all about that and never think about it, which is understandable. There may be people reading this today that have no idea who the hell Colin Delaney is. If that’s the case, well, it is time you know just what Colin Delaney is all about and what you’ve missed.
Following his release from the WWE, Colin went right back to the independents and went back to working for the popular New York independent wrestling company Squared Circle Wrestling and the Ohio based company Absolute Intense Wrestling. In both companies, Delaney has had memorable moments against people that may surprise fans. I’ll be focusing on his work in Squared Circle Wrestling.
In 2CW, Colin would be involved in matches with Spike Dudley in a new vs. old ECW match, which Spike one. Colin also worked a match with Jim Duggan and began a feud with rookie sensation Jay Freddie, who was impressing the 2CW crowds each time out.
Colin continued to work with notable names and competed against another ECW icon Raven in April 2010 at 2CW Living On The Edge. Colin was a solid hand in the ring, but wasn’t having memorable matches, at least not at this point.
There may be some people who don’t agree with this, but the turning point for Colin’s career had to be when he and Jimmy Olsen won the 2CW Tag Team Championships in August 2010 by defeating the American Wolves. At the time, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards were two of the best and most entertaining wrestlers going on the independent scene. I’ll be honest, I was shocked when Colin and Jimmy won the tag titles and actually held their own against two of the best. It was at this time that I started to look at Colin Delaney in a completely different light.
During the title reign, Colin and Jimmy would have impressive matches with the likes of Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli), Team Incoherence, Super Smash Brothers, 3.0, and Paul London & Brian Kendrick. Even though it wasn’t a title match, Colin and Jimmy competed well against the Briscoe Brothers in 2012.
At this point, Jimmy would retire due to nagging injuries and Colin would be off on his own once again. Colin would compete in singles matches against the likes of Slyck Wagner Brown and Isys Ephex but would rise up the ranks slowly but surely. In March 2013, Colin lost to Matt Hardy marking the first time he and been in the main event in a singles match in roughly five years.
Delaney earned perhaps the biggest win of his career by pinning Kevin Steen at 2CW Big Event in July 2013. From that moment forward, Colin was being presented as a main player for 2CW as he was associated with Roddy Piper at the next show winning in the main event. In September 2013, Delaney earned another huge victory by defeating Eddie Edwards.
Delaney had several chances to win the 2CW Heavyweight Championship but would lose matches against then champions Isys Ephex and Nick Ando over the course of the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014. Despite his inability to win the title, Delaney was becoming a must-see talent as he would go on to have an enjoyable match with Chris Hero in May 2014.
It should be noted that Colin was also doing a fantastic job with local talents and helped guys like Sean Carr, Jay Freddie and Dalton Castle develop over a period of time. Delaney had a match with Austin Aries in August 2014 that was cut short due to a cut suffered by Aries, but for me, Delaney was becoming a draw. If he is on the card, I likely won’t miss out on the show if I can make it out.
As of late, Colin has been competing against AR Fox in 2CW and has had three matches against arguably the most gifted independent wrestler in Fox. Their most recent match in May 2015 is probably the best match I’ve ever seen in person.
This is an instance of a guy benefiting from being released by the WWE. It’s an example that a guy can get over and develop without the backing of the biggest wrestling company. Colin Delaney needs to be getting more press and hopefully his performances get more recognition moving forward.
Go check out Colin Delaney and enjoy the work of perhaps the most underrated wrestler in professional wrestling today. Here is the match he had with Chris Hero as mentioned in this article earlier.
Thanks for reading.