Will Ralston

**"Come on..."**

- Will Ralston

William Casper Ralston, known by his ring name, **Will Ralston**, is a 3rd generation Scottish pro wrestler, as the youngest son of Edward Ralston a.k.a **The Scottish Lion**, grandson of the legendary **Roddy McCormick**, and cousin of current wrestler, **Tammy O'Brien**. He was a former IWGP Intercontinental and Junior Heavyweight champion, former CMLL World Middleweight champion, former UEWA European Heavyweight champion, former PROGRESS World champion. He was also a former SSW champion.

## Biography

**Early Life**

Will lived with his parents in the Glasgow Slums along with his older brother, Peter, and his grandfather, Roddy McCormick. Peter was homeschooled and well educated by their mother Elizabeth, or Betty for short, who worked as a nurse, while their father, Edward, worked in the wrestling business as a pro wrestler named the Scottish Lion. Both brothers moved to the city with their parents for better education, Peter got applied for a decent schools and Betty worked at a local hospital. Will witnessed his first wrestling event on his second birthday as he saw the Scottish Lion win a championship in a wrestling match, giving young Will his first pro wrestling experience. Things went normal until 2002, when the Scottish Lion wrestled newcomer Ivan Vanev, the Bulgarian Berserker, Vanev performed a Backbreaker for the win, but the move was too hard as it made Scottish Lion immobile, Edward had to spend 15 years in a wheelchair to recover and heal his injuries. Edward told his two sons about his wrestling career and agreed to learn about professional wrestling.

After Peter graduated in 2008 to start his wrestling career, Will stayed to attend school and earn his education while also taking martial arts classes on weekends. He would sometimes get into fights with bullies mostly to stop picking on the weak, despite the tough risk, he would earn respect from his peers. However things would fall apart shortly in 2013, on June 25th, his brother returned for a live wrestling event against Ivan Vanev, but something went wrong as Peter, known in the ring as **Scottish Lion Jr**, looked very pale, but he chose to keep on performing, the show must go on. Then suddenly, during those 13 minutes of action, "SLJ" did a Diving Crossbody, and Vanev reversed it into a Powerslam for the victory, then he and the referee would check on him and the ambulance would arrive, turns out that Peter was suffering from grade III brain tumor, and on June 25th, 2013, Peter Ralston, aka Scottish Lion Jr, died of brain tumor. Will mourned for his brother for a few days, and on early July he would leave his homeland and head over to Japan to continue his training.

**NJPW**

On August 3rd, 2013, joined New Japan Pro Wrestling in their Young Lion project, learning the Strong Style of wrestling, he had a solid technical style and martial arts background. Will madechis debut in late August, earning wins and losses against other young lions, but also a few loses against pros like Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. He would team up with two fellow dojo members against the Great Bash Heel at Wrestle Kingdom 8 on the pre-show in a losing effort. At the Road to New Beginning 2014, Will went on an excursion in North America to hone his skills.

**CMLL**

Will arrived in Mexico around mid January, to compete in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, while there, he had to learn the style in order to keep up with other luchadores. Will would go on to wrestle with a variety of luchadores in Mexico, and earn a shot for the CMLL World Middleweight championship, facing reigning champion, Dragón Rojo Jr on April 27th, 2014, Will would win his first title in his career that night. He would defend the title against some of the very best in the company, including a short feud with Dragón Rojo Jr, as the two would square off one more time at the CMLL 81st anniversary show, Will would lose the championship back to Dragón, after that match, both men shook hands as a sign of respect. Will went on to wrestle in a televised match before leaving the company to head to the US to wrestle in the indie scene.

**Independent Circuit, PROGRESS Wrestling, and first return to NJPW**

In the US, he would begin to evolve as he would fight in underground fighting circuits to display his martial arts background, and craft his Silent Street Fighter gimmick, a big step to showcase his character. He would fly back to Japan for the New Year as he would resign with New Japan, he would return at New Years Dash 2015, aligning with the Bullet Club to help fend off CHAOS, he would enter the Best of the Super Juniors 2015, finishing the A Block with 12 points and defeating Kushida in the finals on his first try. A few days after his victory, he would enter the European indie scene and PROGRESS Wrestling. Despite a pinfall loss against Pete Dunne in his debut match at PROGRESS, he still kept on wrestling onward, being careful not to put himself in bad positions.

While winning and defending new championships in the European circuit, he would win his first title in Japan, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship in Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, in a four way match against Bushi, Kushida, and reigning champion, Kenny Omega, pinning Kushida to win the belt for the first time. Will would defend the title on two separate occasions, he would then win the PROGRESS World championship in late September from Trent Seven, and lose the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title back to Omega at Destruction in Okayama 2015 in a three way match also involving Kushida. After losing the Junior title, New Japan granted his release as he decided to focus on the European wrestling scene.

He went on to defend the PROGRESS World title on two occasions before losing it to Will Ospreay on October 10th, 2015, but continued to wrestle, proving that he's not always perfect. On October 28th, he would win the UEWA European Heavyweight championship against fellow Scotsman, Drew Galloway defending the belt in a total of five times before losing it to Chaos in Denmark on December 30th, 2015. He would leave Europe in January 3rd, 2016, to wrestle in the National Wrestling Alliance full time.

**NWA**

In October 25th, 2015, he would make his debut appearance in NWA for the French Revolution storyline, after the Revolution defeated Team Majestic, King Gabriel lost the World Heavyweight title to Ralston in 34 seconds. Three days later, Ralston would successfully defend the title against the French Revolution in a gauntlet match. On November 29th, Ralston defended the title against Revolution member, Hugo Marceau in an entitled event "Massacre of Helsinki", a hard fought battle in 36 minutes, by ending the Finnish tour. After seven successful title defenses, he vacated the championship in late March 2016, therefore he left the company afterwards.

**WWE, Lucha Underground, GFW**

Ralston made his WWE appearance in WrestleMania 32 by participating the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which would be won by Baron Corbin. After appearing at WrestleMania, he debuted at Lucha Underground and won the Lucha Underground championship from Johnny Mundo, he would even win the GFW Global championship from Nick Aldis in mid June, he lost the Lucha Underground title to Prince Puma afterwards.

He would often make more appearances by facing and defeating Baron Corbin at SummerSlam 2016, he continued to defend the GFW Global title before losing it to Alberto El Patron in April 2017, he even participated in the 2016 Survivor Series main event match as part of Team Smack Down Live. He made his appearance at WrestleMania 33 by defeating Braun Strowman in a Sleeper Hold. Before his appearance in Survivor Series 2016, he earned the WFA contract in early November. He returned to the Indie circuit and won three separate championships before he went on hiatus in early October 2017. This was to pursue his passion-project in his clothing brand, Ralstunning. The project, despite having heart behind it, lacked the profit from the sales to turn the project into a business. If this was Jason Sabre, the clothing line would've been really successful. I guess Will Ralston is no Jason Sabre & never will be. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a reader. Now, let's check out Will's private/personal life, shall we?

## Personal Life

Will is currently married to Karin Jokela, lead singer of Finnish rock band, the Sirens of the Vikings, in December 25th, 2017. Its also revealed that he used to date Scottish pop singer and actress, Sharon Hunter a.k.a Cherry Hunter in middle school to high school. In the midnight of March 19, 2018, Will and Karin welcomed twins siblings Luke Viljami Ralston and Tarja Venus Ralston to the world.

## In wrestling

Finishers

* Lion's Strike (Lift Inverted DDT, 2014-2017/Soda Twist armlock to a Lift Inverted DDT, 2017-2019)
* Stunner (2013-present, used as a signature)
* Diving Corkscrew Moonsault (2014-present, used as a signature)
* Anaconda Vise (2014-present, used as a signature)
* Sleeper Hold (2013-present)
* Lion's Bite (Arm-trap crossface, 2014-present)
* Glasgow Pride (Ripcord Arm-trap Neckbreaker, 2019-present)

Signature Moves

* Shooting Star Splash
* Springboard Spanish Fly
* G.T.S (Go To Sleep)
* Suicide Dive
* Pelé Kick (sometimes during a Moonsault attempt)
* Enzuigiri
* Super Kick
* Diving Crossbody
* Black and Gold Powerbomb (Gutwrench Powerbomb)
* Shining Wizard
* Tope con Hilo
* Kinshasa (adopted from Shinsuke Nakamura)

Themes

* Say It To My Face by Downstait (NJPW 2013-early 2014, CMLL 2014)
* Shot 'Em by [Q]Brick (Indies 2015, WFA 2017, NJPW 2015-2017, used as part of Bullet Club)
* Rise by Skillet (TNA and PROGRESS 2015)
* What I've Done by Linkin Park (WWE, 2016-2017, LU 2016)
* The Resistance by Skillet (WFA 2016-2017, Indies 2017)
* Lions by Skillet (WFA and Indies 2017, used as part of the Kingdom Club)
* We Own The Night by Hollywood Undead (WFA 2017-present, used as part of The Origin)
* Set It Off by Skillet (2017-2018, used as part of the Kingdom Club)
* A Cut Above (Remix) by Avery Watts (2017-2018)
* **Never Again by Breaking Benjamin (2018-present)**