Enter your email address to receive exclusive content from CVV!
Sheamus: BANGER After BANGER, Chasing The Intercontinental Title, John Cena, Gunther
Sheamus (@WWESheamus) is a professional wrestler signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Phoenix, AZ to discuss his YouTube channel Celtic Warrior Workouts hitting 1 million subscribers, his first championship reign being with the WWE Championship after beating John Cena, why he is still chasing the Intercontinental Championship, his 18-second victory over Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 28, being Edge's final WWE opponent, why he and Gunther always have great matches, coming back from a potentially career-ending injury, signing a new 5-year deal with WWE and more!
Quote I'm thinking about: “A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” – Jim Watkins
Sponsors:
PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux
TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insight33 to get 33% off your order of Mitopure while supplies last
VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv
ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv
ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight
BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv
BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com
RHONE: Rhone’s premium performance clothing is made to move you. Use code CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV
MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at https://manscaped.com
PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com
"Yeah, what a ride, man. We started out, me and a friend of mine, Ray Senior. We started in Dublin. I was going through some issues with my training and I just kind of lost all motivation to work out. I started doing these kind of, I wouldn't say CrossFit style, but just kind of more functional training stuff, wall balls into burpees and then sledge pushes down the street and all these different exercises. I just kind of got to challenging myself in the way I never challenged before, rather than just doing static weight lifting, bench press or barbell curls, doing one armed with the land mines. So yeah, it just became a thing where I started getting my passion back for working out. I talked to Ray about it and we're posting all this stuff on Instagram because there's nothing really happening at the time. At the time me and Cesaro were tagging, but we're kind of in a period of just purgatory where we weren't really doing much. Think we might even have been the champs at that stage, but we weren't really doing much on TV, so I was just trying to figure a different way to burn off energy and be more creative. Then came up with the idea of the channel, because in WWE the entire roster is made up of athletes. There was nothing that touched on working out. Just one handheld camera, did a couple of videos. Then on the road I asked the talent if they wanted to do it and if they'd help me out and they all did. I'd phone up the gym, I'd ask one of the social media guys to come in, throw them few quid to record it, and we basically go in there and we'd film the workouts, and Ray took until four o'clock in the morning editing them. So my part was easy, and his part was torture, a nightmare. But it just grew and grew and grew. Then, the biggest thing for me was seeing the responses from people in the comments about how they've always wanted to work out, and they just didn't know how. They started doing these workouts and how it changed their lives. Was incredible. That's really the biggest benefit from the channel of seeing people just have their lives changed by just diving into health and fitness."
"I definitely felt during the pandemic I really came into my own skin. I really felt like I had an opportunity to kind of recreate myself and show people what I was really about. And that's I think where the whole physicality came from. You know how it was, nobody is physical in the ring as I am and then that's where we went into the banger era of Sheamus. But yeah, I still get nervous every time I go out there because I care, I've still got passion. I've always said to myself, if I'm ever in the business where I go out there and I just phone it in, then I think it's time for me to hang up my boots. But it took me a long time, I definitely faced a lot of negativity from people when I first started the whole thing, working out with Triple H, his workout buddy. Then I became the WWE champion really quickly and people just hated that. A lot of talent hated that too. But it's been a long journey, and I'm like, sometimes you kind of feel where's this going. But I think the whole part where it really came together was when I started tagging with Cesaro, and we became The Bar that best of seven series, that's where I really got my passion back."
"Claudio just came back and he did a short run. He was off for a while. I think he did something to his shoulder, and then all of a sudden he was doing nothing. I know Claudio well. He's very, very passionate, he's very motivated, he's very disciplined. I know he put a lot of effort into coming back. Then he comes back and after a short time, there's nothing there for him, he has a chip on his shoulder to show people how good he is, and in the ring he is one of the best. There's not many people who can touch him. So I was going through a phase after being World Champion with Roman, then we did the League of Nations thing, which kind of just self-imploded, and then we're just thrown into to the best of seven stuff. We'd already wrestled each other twice, and people were just like I've seen this match twice already. But then by the end we told a great story over seven matches, and really had people involved. Then the yay boo stuff as well was fantastic and just our chemistry just grew and grew and grew. That was one of the funnest periods of my entire career working with him. It was great."
"The Randy, Cena thing had just done its rounds, they wrestled about 100 times, and then me and Kofi got picked. Kofi got to go with Randy and I went with John, and we had a couple of matches on a European tour. We had definitely had one in Wales or Minehead. I think it was where I actually wrestled for All Star Wrestling before I got picked up by WWE and I guess that was a test, I think, be honest with you, I don't know for sure, but there was a throw up between me or Swagger to go in with John at the time, because obviously Jack was obviously a fresh, new talent as well. And that whole initiative, you look back at the Survivor Series, which we're touching on next Saturday, if you look at that like it was Miz and me and Drew. The talk at the time was I was supposed to go with Hunter, Drew was supposed to go with Taker and Miz was supposed to go with John, and then it all switched with Taker and Shawn for WrestleMania 26 which is in Phoenix, which is where we are."
"Not really. It comes back when I go home. When I am talking to you it definitely gets watered down a bit. Because the first year was tough because nobody understood a word I was saying. Like Drew, people still don't know what Drew was saying half the time. [Drew said he had to get lessons.] He still has to get lessons. I can't even understand some of his texts, to be honest. But yeah, there's no chance. He gets the bollocks slagged off of him when he goes to Scotland. Actually, I think it was a Scottish comedian, has a show, sketches, like I think you should leave. And one of them is where just this Scottish lad goes over to America. Comes back, and he starts speaking like an American. Drew, reckons it's about him, bit of an ego. I think he thinks a lot of himself, but, yeah, I still don't understand him half the time."
"You say that, right? It’s the IC curse of The Celtic Warrior. It's the one thing I can't win. The irony is that it's the first title I really became focused on because Macho Man was in a feud with Steamboat over it. So when I started watching Macho Man was the first IC champion. So the one title that I was exposed to as a fan is the one I can't win, which has become this kind of crusade. But it's definitely an IC curse for me."
"Ultimate Grand Slam Champion. It's basically the first one to win everything. It's true King of the Ring as well is in there, Rumble, all the rest of them. Jesus. I was almost one of the longest reigning World Heavyweight Champions too but Big Show messed that up, but I was close. I think I'm like the third longest, whatever. But, yeah, it's been a hell of a ride. Sometimes it's hard to imagine that I'm going into my 18th year with the company."
"European style maybe. I think a lot of talents when they come up, when they're going in with top talent, I feel they're just afraid of hurting them, and they're afraid of just leaving it all out there. For me, they know I don't give a sh*te. They know you better bring it, because I'm gonna beat the sh*t out of them, but I want them to beat the sh*t out of me too. I want them to bring it. It's not a thing where I'm going in there taking advantage or taking liberties. That's the word they used to say. It's not just like people going, Oh, he's taking liberties with the younger talents. No, I want them to step up. I want to show a side that no one has seen before, and I bring it out in whatever way I can. Whether it's the shots, whether it's the clubs or the 10 beats of the Bodhrán. I want to see them show a side of them that's never been seen before and they've never seen in themselves before. So that brings it out, because you can do all the flips and you can do all the stuff, and there's definitely a place for that, and people love that. I can't do it. I'm never going to take it away from anyone. But there's still a lot. This is still an art to two physical lads going out there and just absolutely tearing each other apart physically, where the people in the crowd just believe that these two individuals hate each other. And I take pride in that. You better step up or just step off. That's the way it is for me, and I love it, and I know that. And do I get the crap knocked out of me as well because I have that style? Absolutely. This time last year I was sitting on the on the sidelines coming back from what I thought could have been a career-ending neck injury. People don't realize I went through a lot of procedures, a lot of physical therapy, and I couldn't move my neck. I went in. I got cortisone shots, I went to see spine surgeon specialists, and then I thought it was good. Then I went back in the ring, and I took a bump and I kept getting stingers, so it wasn't looking good. Then eventually I got my nerves burned in the back of my neck. And even then, it took a while for that all to settle down. But I literally thought that was it."
"Just over time, took one big bump in the last one before I went away in my last match. I think it was Edge’s last match. I just took an awkward fall, and that itself just I woke up the next morning and thought my neck was broken, just because, again, me and Edge were just knocking the sh*te out of each other, just took a bad fall on the ground. At the time I felt it, but I just worked through it. Then the next day I woke up, it was not good, and it just didn't go away. I just could not move my neck. And then after that I was trying to work through and then I didn't know. I didn't know how serious it was. I just thought it might be something. Because over time, just wear and tear, especially how I work. For example, when I had my first major surgery where I tore my shoulder at the Money in the Bank match. I was out for well, supposed to be six months, but I got ready in three months. I tore my labrum and my left shoulder. So I came back, and the first thing I did was take the hardest post on my shoulder and Flair was in the back going, you're lunatic, what are you doing? You just had shoulder surgery and you're hitting the post 100 miles an hour. I said, Yeah, I gotta make sure it works. You know, gotta make sure it's all right. You gotta test it out. It's like when someone has something or injury, you gotta just go head first into it. You gotta go make sure you get that fear out of your way. So, yeah, so I took a post 100 miles an hour, but that's just the kind of mentality me. But, yeah, it was touch and go. There was a couple of times Pete Dunne was there. He was in and out of NXT. So it was Ridge. They both helped, Ridge and Pete really helped me out back in January, February. But there was, I was work with Fit and I couldn't even take a bump, like even a headlock takeover. I didn't know whether or not I'd be back."
"No that's on me, mate. So I was I was pushing for Mania. I was pushing for that Gunther match at Mania. [I know Walter had quite a few more pounds on him]. Not anymore. Gunther, he looks like a swimmer now, two different people. We just had different ideas on diet. But yeah, so Gunther. I was pushing that match with Gunther at Mania, and it just didn't happen. So I was really hoping to end the trilogy on that note, and then that didn't happen. So I just kind of lost a bit of motivation. I was full on speed towards that. And then once I heard it, once that was kiboshed, yeah, I was like, you know, whatever. So then I just kind of took the foot off the gas, probably drank too many Guinness, enjoy myself too much."
“No, they didn’t give us a time. I guess what happened was I heard from somebody that it was either going to be Punk and Jericho's match was going to be short, or me and Bryan’s match was going to be short. I don't know what the time was. They just said the idea was ding ding ding, distraction, finish.”
“I mean, look, we knew that we could have an amazing match. When we were running the US title back end of 2010, 2011, we knew how good our matches were. We were putting on such good matches I think couple of lads in the main event actually asked like, just so you don’t have to kill yourself. I just kept saying I was trying to break that glass ceiling. But we were just stealing the show every single night, we were tearing it up, knocking the crap out of each other. I remember one time, I don’t know where we were, I think it’s before WrestleMania 27. But yeah, we’re having great matches. We had these street fights we are hitting the bollocks of each other, hitting each other with everything you can think of. One time went for the Brogue and this happened. He’s ducked the Brogue, my left foot got stuck between the middle and the top, and I flipped over upside down. So I was hanging upside down outside the ring, totally by accident. The rope is just like strangling it, so much pressure on my ankle. Bryan comes in with the bleeding kendo and just starts whacking the sh*te out of me! But that’s what it was. We just didn’t care. We just went out there and just was physical as hell. That’s why I loved working Bryan. Bryan was just so unique because he wasn’t the biggest, tallest, whatever, but he had this heart in him and this fighting style, and just never gave up. Just unbelievable, great athleticism and also just very, very physical. The kicks when you’re on your knees, he brought everything. Every kick he did it was brought, was as much intensity as he had." I told this to Regal the day before we did this. While I was doing the stuff with Pete Dunne I felt Pete's exactly the same. Pete's very creative. People realize that, and I've got great, very creative mind, but he's also when he needs to be physical. He can be really, really physical. And that's kind of like when I was doing that feud with Pete on it kind of brought me back a little bit to the stuff with Bryan."
"Of course I have. Some of them are still there, so I'm not going to go down that road [laughs]. But yeah. But most of them enjoy it. I think most in the beginning are taken aback kind of deer in a headlight stuff. But if you ask them afterwards [they say] that was brilliant. 99% of them after match like that. Because I'm not dropping them on their head, not breaking their nose. I did kick out Jeff Hardy’s tooth once. That's probably the most damage I’ve done to someone. But yeah, everything I do they could wrestle again tomorrow. It's not like I'm putting them on the sideline, or I'm putting them in surgery, or I'm putting them in the hospital, or on the shelf. Because they'll come back. That was awesome. That was great. And you'll see just kind of adrenaline going in their face."
"I signed a new five year deal. It just started about two months ago. I'm loving it. The channel hit a million. A lot of great men and women, WWE superstars have given their own time as well to make that happen. So that's not something where I go I got a million followers. Again, the channel wouldn't happen only for a lot of the talents were so gracious with their time, and they were so nice about it, because they weren't getting any money. They're just on Saturday. You're on the loop, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, whatever. They'd have a Saturday morning off to get dinner, go to gym, and I'm dragging them into a Celtic Warrior Workout. And they gave their time graciously. So definitely, thanks to all every single person who's been on that channel, because every single one of them gave their own time, and it would not have happened without them giving their time to make the channel."
"We talked about it. I remember we talked about doing an angle together, a storyline together for a while. We came up with a storyline, it was shot down for whatever reason. And then it just happened. I just got a call, I think it was because we did a promo the week before, and then we did the match the week after. Edge’s contract was coming up. I didn't know. No one knew if he was going to stay or go. No one really knew. I didn't know. I thought he was going to stay, because we're talking doing something after that as well. But yeah, it was just a situation. I think originally Damian Priest was penciled in, but then it just turned to me. So I don't know however it happened, but I was really surprised that did happen. Both excited about it too, because me and Edge have never had a one on one match. Me and Rey [Mysterio] still haven't had a one on one match. Me and Punk still haven't. Well, no, I think me and Punk did wrestle a couple of times back in the day, about 12 years ago. But for me, I think Rey is the only person I haven’t wrestled who has been on the roster for a substantial amount of time."
"Not really. Again, I just signed a new five year deal. [So that'll take you into your 50s?] Yeah, my wife reminds me all the time, 52. Listen, I'll go to the wheels fall off me. Could do it until physically I can't do it anymore. I love what I do, and listen, there's plenty of time to sit back and read a book and just watch TV. I know a lot of people. I've talked to some talents as well, but we meet them all of Mania and everything when they come in, especially the Hall of Fame, but also everybody gets invited to Mania. You can tell a lot of the talents who just retired too early. I mean, look, if I had to hang on my boots when that stuff happened with my neck, I’d be at peace with it. Because sometimes you can tell that when they have retired before their time there is a little bit of regret there."
"So that Monday we [Sheamus and Cesaro] were supposed to be off for Raw because we were SmackDown talents, and then we got pulled in to break up the Seth and Kofi match. Me and Tony are like this is horrible. They're just going to sh*t all over us. People want this title versus title match. Kofi had just beaten Bryan and then Seth had beaten Brock. But they're in New York City, Barclays Center. We're like, we're going to go in there and break that up? That's a terrible idea. There's going to sh*t on us. So it was just what happened was with the singles that turned into a tag. That's when the beach balls came out fella, all the beach balls because people are just angry, they took away what you're giving them, which I think was a terrible idea. And then the next night we had a six man. It was me, Drew and Cesaro against all of The New Day. So time got messed up in that one. It just got messed up, and it was a taped show as well. But whatever happened, I end up getting a concussion. Got a shin in the back of the head, so I was knocked out cold. I was knocked out on my feet, but I don't remember anything after the kick, and then I went back and I'll remember is I was not good for about a month after got really bad concussion. So that could have been [the end], I didn't know if that was it. I think, if you think back then, if I'd retired then, I'd missed out on the whole coming back during the pandemic era, going into the banger after banger, all the stuff I've done lately, that would never existed. That's kind of really where I started to show people, they started realizing who I was and how much passion I had and the matches I was putting on. So you take that out, you know what I mean? So it's like, when do you retire? When you go, like, I'm gonna pull the plug, when is the right time? Because if I've had a massive concussion. I can't do this anymore. Would I be a producer, or whatever it is, or just go on? I went on, and then I got the neck stuff, and then it's like, so that's just wouldn't have existed. I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now. So I think as long as you've got passion and your body can go, obviously you don't want to be. Like, my biggest fear with the Mrs is that if we have kids and stuff that I won't be able to play with them or whatever, but I think for a 47-year-old in January, I feel like I’m doing all right physically, I’m moving around pretty good. But I think I’ll go until I feel like I’m not wanted. Thanks for everything, but you know, we just don’t enjoy watching anymore, you can’t do what you can do. I don’t know when is that time? Could be 70 [laughs], I’m just throwing stuff out there. But I just feel like as long as I can do what I do, as long as I enjoy what I’m doing, as long as the fans are enjoying what I’m doing, yeah, I keep that banger after banger thing going. To keep the banger after banger era, just keep going and going, who knows where I end up because I’m still enjoying what I’m doing. The schedule is just a lot better now as well for the talent. So I think a lot of the talents are going to have longer careers because of the schedule being the way it is compared to what it was. I think that’s good.”
"My wife, my family, my friends, my health and my dogs."
