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LionDen
09-29-2014, 11:56 AM
Interview: WWE Superstar & U.S. Champion Sheamus


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As a wrestling fan, if good physical combat is your cup of tea, then Sheamus is a must-watch Superstar in the WWE for you week in and week out. Not exactly known as a finesse performer, Sheamus has used his strength and brutality to currently hold the WWE United States Championship, his second reign with the belt after winning a 20-man battle royale to put it around his waist.

Sheamus has been no stranger to the gold since coming up to the main roster as a hot rookie back in 2009. He was WWE Champion just 166 days after his debut, and would go on to hold the company’s top title a second time in the months following after dropping it inside the Elimination Chamber. He’s also been the World Heavyweight Champion on one occasion, a run that brought us a memorable feud with Daniel Bryan, and he has the distinct honor of being able to call himself a Royal Rumble winner as well as crowned King of the Ring.

Most recently, he’s been locked into a rivalry with Cesaro for his U.S. belt, having successfully defended the title against the Swiss Superman at Night of Champions in perhaps the best match on the card. And, while he takes care of his in-ring commitments as a champion, he’s once again throwing himself right into the WWE’s Be A Star anti-bullying campaign, recording new PSAs encouraging people to gain awareness with The Bully Text: Superstar Edition SMS text message game.

I had the chance to chat with Sheamus this week about his involvement with the campaign and how effective he’s found it to be with kids with WWE Superstars on the ground, in addition to his recent feud with Cesaro, how he’s dealt with injuries and his struggle to regain momentum in returning, his thoughts on the end of the brand extension and more. Enjoy.


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Billy Donnelly: Hey, good morning, man.

Sheamus: Hey, Billy. How are you, bro?

Billy Donnelly: I’m all right. How are you?

Sheamus: I’m doing very good.

Billy Donnelly: Well thank you for taking the time, man. So let me ask you about the campaign first, as far as you getting involved with the Be A Star Campaign. Do you think, at least in terms of your interactivity with it, and your interaction and getting the word out, that the anti-bullying campaign has helped change the perception, especially with young kids, that bullying is not okay, and that talking to them, you find that they’re able to get more of a realization as to what their actions may be doing to others?

Sheamus: Oh, absolutely. I’ve been doing the Be A Star program for the last couple years, since 2010, and yeah, it’s had a tremendous effect. You know, it’s WWE Superstars, we’re on TV every week, and when we get to talk to these kids in the flesh,they’re like, “Oh, I saw you on TV.” They tend to listen more as well. Sometimes they tune out what they hear from teachers every day, from adults everyday… As a kid, and you probably know yourself, it just becomes monotonous, and goes in one ear and out the other. But I’ve found that doing these rallies with the Be A Star campaign and going to schools and talking to kids, a light switch seems to go off and they seem to realize when you tell them the effect and you explain it to them. What you should do, what you shouldn’t do. It’s a way to make them more aware. They can take it in, and listen to it very closely. I think the response every time I’ve been there has been fantastic. There are kids making anti-bullying slogans, and they really get involved. They’re making signs, and it brings them closer together. Because my biggest thing was that, as a kid growing up, there was obviously bullying going on. As a kid, I was an easy target. A small, chubby redhead kid… I was subject to a lot of targeting from multiple guys. I was jumped by lie four guys before, and a lot of my stuff was vandalized and everything. But, you know, back in the day, there was no real awareness to speak of. Oh, you know… “Just toughen up there.” But the problem is that you’re hearing all of these tragic stories of these children who are realizing they’re miserable, they’re taking their own lives. I think with Be A Star, as I said…We can only do so much with Be A Star. Our relationship with them in trying to help them do something is really just taking a net and throwing it out there. It reaches so much further, it’s a great partnership and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Billy Donnelly: Well I do commend you on that, and I commend the campaign as well, because it has moved toward changing perceptions. It’s no longer just “kids being kids,” now it’s more actually trying to spread awareness and let people know that this is okay and this is not. But I also want to commend you on being a trooper and going out to promote these things, especially after having such a rough and tumble match at Night of Champions with Cesaro. The guy is deceptively strong.

Sheamus: Yeah… yeah, he is.

Billy Donnelly: And you’re no slouch yourself, when it comes to being physical. How quickly did you guys realize that you had this very solid chemistry in the ring, that your styles seemed to just match in order to turn out good matches time and time again?

Sheamus: So, one of the people that’s closest to me is William Regal, and he’s been a mentor to me since I first came on the road in ‘09. He basically offered to go on the drives with me and he gave me advice and watched my matches and he’s also still one of my best friends. He’s got a great eye for talent, and he’s a big fan of Bryan and Cesaro. I knew who Cesaro was because I had fought him on the independent scene. He’s a beast of a guy and he’s just a tremendous athlete. I was excited for him to come to WWE, because that European style he has fits mine, and he’s just a hugely motivated, and very, very physical. So the first time we get into the ring together is actually at an NXT dark match, when NXT just started doing the TV tapings in Orlando. Man, like we came back and people were on their feet about it. We got stuck in. It was great. It was like we got two bulls in the ring and knocking humps out of each other.And then we wrestled a couple of times on TV, and we never had a bad outing. It was cool, we just had that… We may not like each other too much, but we definitely have so much respect for each other. We get in there, it really is a competition to outdo the other guy, or to hit the other guy harder, which, at the end of the day, is really what the fans want to see, and what the fans will enjoy seeing. Last night was no different. When we went out there we didn’t really have the biggest build up for the pay-per-view, but we went out there knowing in our heads that we were going to steal the show. That we were gonna set the bar, and let’s see if everybody else can follow. As I said,right now he’s my favorite performer. My two favorites have been for a while definitely Bryan and Cesaro. We definitely have the best chemistry, and we’re definitely hoping that Bryan will be back soon, but Cesaro right now is definitely one of my favorite guys to work with. He’s a tremendous athlete, doesn’t mean I like him any better, but it’s okay because we’ll still hit each other as hard as we can.

Billy Donnelly: You’re in the midst now of your second U.S. title reign, and for one reason or another the title has seemed to feel like an afterthought at times. There have been bouts where it hasn’t been defended and what not, but there’s obviously a long legacy that goes along with that belt. How do you go about trying to return the prestige of that title and make it feel meaningful once again?

Sheamus: Well I mean, obviously I don’t decide when I’m defending it. When I go out there, the title is around my waist, so I’m representing the title. Whether I’m defending it or not, I gotta go out there and give the best performance I can and leave everything in the ring because I’m representing the United States title. And the U.S. title is very very special to me. The first one I had didn’t last very long, but it kinda kickstarted me back again when I fell off the chart a bit after John Morrison. I felt I was kinda spinning my wheels. This country, the United States has given me a huge opportunity. I’m Irish, born in Ireland, and I’ll never forget that, and I love going home, but here’s the thing… This country has allowed me to fulfill my dream, become a WWE Superstar, travel all over the world, and perform in front of millions of people. That United States Championship is a huge part of the country where I live. I’m Irish, but I’m proud to say that I live here. I’m proud to live in America, and I’m very proud to be the United States champion.

Billy Donnelly: You’ve been working as a babyface now for quite some time, which is a far departure from how you kinda came up and were introduced. Do you find that’s what you’re best suited for with your personality and your in-ring style? Or do you prefer working more as a heel and kind of antagonizing other superstars and the fans as well?

Sheamus: Well that was one thing with being a bad guy in WWE, and they’re like, “Well how can the WWE promote anti-bullying when you have this physical stuff that goes on in the ring or superstars picking on each other in the storylines?” For example in Daniel Bryan’s storyline with The Authority.But we always let people know that’s entertainment, what we do in the ring. What we do away from that is real life. So we just try to make sure the people are aware of that line. I see everything as an evolution, as progress. When I started as a bad guy, I got a lot of steam with that momentum and I was fresh and raw, and I think people started chanting for me and I ended up turning into the good guy, which I still am. I think, to me, I don’t dislike either way, as long as there’s a great storyline there, or as long as there’s some cool stuff happening. I’m either or. To be honest with you, I am in my comfort zone when I’m the bad guy sometimes, but I’ve enjoyed both sides. What I really focus on is just getting better every time. Not getting complacent. I’ve built on my character more. I’ve had the chance to on commentary a couple of times, and that’s who I really am.People are gonna like you, people are not. It’s as simple as that, whatever your personality is, so I’m just trying to educate people on who I really am. Then the in-ring stuff, I just keep pushing forward, I keep adding stuff, adding moves, I just keep getting better. I’m never happy. I’m never going to settle and stay where I am and be like, “Ah, you know, I’ve done enough now. I’m gonna stay like this.”I’d never settle for it. I’m always pushing myself and trying to get better and better and better until the day I hang up my boots. I think it’s what the fans expect, and if you’re not doing that yourself, you’d better find another job.

Billy Donnelly: Let me ask you about the end of the brand extension, and RAW and Smackdown no longer being treated as separate entities. It seemed that during a long period of time, Smackdown looked to serve as the proving ground for guys to kinda show that they’re ready to take it to the next level, that they’re ready to be considered top level talent. Do you think that the number of opportunities have lessened for superstars to move up the ladder and put themselves as main eventers without Smackdown being treated separately? Or is it just a reshuffling of the structure and these opportunities do still exist?

Sheamus: So I really liked the brand split in the beginning, when it was two different brands. I don’t think I’d be where I am if the brand split wasn’t there because when I left RAW and went to Smackdown, me and Bryan got huge opportunities, both of us, to push ourselves and our stories. Now that the brand stuff is not there anymore, yeah… It all depends, really. We’ve got Main Event, Smackdown, RAW… There’s a lot of shows there. Sometimes people wrestle on Main Event and Smackdown, which is taped on a Tuesday. I dunno. Everyone creates opportunities. Obviously Roman [Reigns] is out now for a little bit, and some new guy could come in and try to prove himself in that time. So that creates opportunities. When someone leaves, opportunities arise. When Bryan got hurt, Roman kinda stepped in. So it’s all relative. I think the WWE gives people opportunities, it’s just the timing of them, and how you use those opportunities… But I think, looking at this talent coming through… We’ve got some tremendous talent. And in NXT as well, they’ve got some amazing guys. They just signed Fergal Devitt who is a friend of mine, and he’s gonna tear the place up as well. They’ve got Sami Zayn down there, they’ve got Adrian Neville… The future is brightening.

Billy Donnelly: Let me ask you quickly about injuries, because you did bring it up and obviously there are guys who step in and help fill the void when people are put on the shelf. But you’ve dealt with injuries yourself and being taken off the roster for a while in order to physically get better. How difficult is it then to regain the momentum you may have had when you’re forced out of action in your return? Obviously other guys are stepping up and taking the ball, but when you get back, how tough is it to hit the ground running and get back to where you were?

Sheamus: I don’t think I had much momentum before I left! I think it was kinda spinning my wheels, to be honest with you. I was a little bit on pause there, so I don’t really think that applies to me. I’m being honest with you. I did a thing with Sandow and stuff, who came up to me and he’s just a great performer, a very entertaining guy. I came back at the Rumble, and Batista came back at the same time, and it’s been a little bit difficult since I came back to gain momentum myself, but I’m doing whatever I can in the ring, and trying to tear it up and bring energy, so I think slowly but surely I’ve clawed back a little bit of the momentum on my own with my performances over the last month or two. But it’s taken a little while to get my momentum going since I’ve come back. The Rumble thing with Batista… I wish I’d come back just before the Rumble. Because I was ready, but they just wanted to hold me off until the Rumble. You do what you can. You take your chips as they fall, as they say, and you just get on with it. That’s exactly what I’m doing, and I’m having fun with this now. This thing with Cesaro is the funnest thing I’ve done in a long time. When you come back and you get the response with him after a match like that, it’s just the best thing in the world.

Billy Donnelly: And finally, with a lot of young talent on the way up, which you mentioned, a lot of good guys coming up from NXT, and a lot of guys who have made the transition already, whether it’s The Shield or Wyatts or Bo Dallas. You’ve kinda done this dance for a while now. You haven’t been around for an exceptionally long time, but you’re still what I guess would be considered a veteran, because you’ve been around for a few years now.

Sheamus: Oh my God.

Billy Donnelly: You’re not old, but you’re old enough. Are there lessons that you try to pass along to young talent coming up that you think they should put into play immediately that make for a smoother ride, for an easier transition, and to get them started on the right foot?

Sheamus: Yeah, I’m always there for advice. I don’t go up to people and say it right to their face or say, “This is what you gotta do.” No, I wait for some guys to come to me and ask me, and that’s cool. I’m more than happy to help anybody. But a lot of the guys coming up now… They seem to be having a ball. There’s no real lack of what’s going on, and especially the guys from the indie background too. They’ve been around the block, and they know what the story is. The trainers in NXT and with the one NXT TV show being down there and Triple H being hands-on down there, it just seems that everybody’s over prepared for coming up here. So it’s definitely a more settled vibe, and like I said, the guys are very aware of their surroundings. It’s a new generation, but again I’m always there if anyone needs any advice or help. I’m always happy to give them feedback or help or say any mistakes I’ve made. I can tell them, “Don’t do this, and this is why I messed up.”


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Original article can be found by clicking here (http://thisisinfamous.com/interview-wwe-superstar-u-s-champion-sheamus/).