Just a couple of years ago, there were rumors that Sheamus' career could be wrapping up. Now he's having one of the best in-ring runs in his career.
In speaking with Fightful in Las Vegas, Sheamus explained to us how the lowest point in his career ended up becoming the catalyst for one of the most physical runs of his life. In 2020 and 2021, Sheamus competed in a torrid run of violent matches as WWE competed without fans in attendance. After over a decade in WWE, his work was maybe the best it'd ever been.
"When I went out with the concussion, I had a chance to reassess my body and work on some stuff, some instabilities in it. So, I worked on that," Sheamus said. "I worked with a guy called Ken in Nashville Hip Institute. I worked on all these different types of movements. I still do them before every match. It’s definitely helped me get back on track. So, yeah, I had some stuff that might put me out. I was kind of worried about it, but I’m back and that’s the great thing about it. Something like that motivates you because now I just go out for every match as if it’s my last match. So, I just go out there balls to the wall, fella, you know what I mean? Just go out there and go out there ‘cause I love what I do, mate. I sat on my couch for such a long time and unsure about what my future held or was gonna hold. It puts everything into perspective. When I was doing the Celtic Warrior Workouts, which is kind of on the backburner at the moment. But I did one with Edge, too. I saw every title that Edge had. The one title I hadn’t won, the IC title. I saw how much he wanted to get back as well. All these little things motivated me and sent me on the right course to come back in the ring. People talk about the ThunderDome era, well it wasn’t just the ThunderDome era, mate. It was the PC era. Without the PC era, the ThunderDome era wouldn’t have happened, do you know what I’m saying? All these things happen. I laugh when I hear people going, ‘I was the star of the ThunderDome era.’ Well, mate, where were you in the PC era? It’s not just that part. It’s the whole year and a half in that environment with no fans. I was just able to focus on different things. My promo, my character. Going out there, I got loose. My ring work has always been intense, but I was able to bring in a new level of intensity. I was able to bring out a lot of good stuff out of my opponents."
Speaking of Edge, he has cited the workout with Sheamus as the turning point when he decided he could return to the ring. Edge took a nasty spill on a bicycle and didn't feel any pain. Sheamus recalled the scary spot.
"We’re on the bikes. We did two days. One day was working out in his garage and then the second day was we went out on a mountain biking ride. He took off, mate. I’m like, the whole time, ‘I’m gonna end up on my face here. This is not gonna be good.’ I haven’t been mountain biking since I was a teenager.’ So, he’s taking off down the road. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be bad.’ I got two GoPros, put the GoPro on the bike. Wes switched it around. He just took off then because he wanted to do something to show off how good he is. ‘Cause he lives in Asheville, he lives in the mountains. He’s always on the bikes, so he just took off. I remember we got back and we’re looking at the card on the GoPro watching it back from when he spilled over. It just gave him his confidence back. Before that as well he got himself in great shape. He wouldn’t do the workout until he was entirely happy with the way he looked. Which is a credit to him. I thought he was just putting me off, thought he was fobbing me off, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it.’ But no, he made sure he got himself in great shape. All credit to him, dude. He looks amazing and he’s back doing what he wants to do when everyone had written him off. Ten years he was out of the ring," Sheamus said.
Edge's former partner, Christian Cage is also back in action after a seven year hiatus. Sheamus has a distinct belief when it comes to putting in high level work at a more advanced age.
"Yeah, look at (Christian). He’s killing it as well. It’s unbelievable. Age is just a number, man. It’s not about the age; it’s not about the numbers. It’s about what’s in here [gestures to heart] type of thing. It’s all about what’s in here, all about the passion you have and everything that goes with it. That’s what really matters. People put stuff on age, but the way we are, top athletes, top stars are performing to a later age. You have to put the hard work in, you have to stay dedicated, you know what I mean? You can’t take the foot off the gas. The rewards of that are continuing to do what you love to do," said Sheamus.
You can see our full interview with Sheamus at the top of the page. He appears on WWE's Raw brand every week on the USA Network at 8 PM EST. You can catch his match with Damian Priest at Summerslam on the Peacock app.
