Sheamus Comments on Being a Hated WWE Character, Jeff Hardy Feud, More

From necrophilia to giving birth to hands, WWE has never shied away from controversy. Recently Sheamus and Jeff Hardy have been apart of a controversial storyline of their own, with it focusing on Jeff Hardy’s real life substance abuse issues. Sheamus recently sat down with Corey Graves on After the Bell to discuss how he is beginning to get real heat from fans due to this storyline.

“Oh yeah. I think I’ve got a serious amount of backlash. A lot of people really, really, really hate me right now … You know, listen, when we’re in WWE man, talk about blurred lines. I actually read an interview with Bobby Lashley talking about the situation with him and Lana, and how he had to like, talk to his kids about what was going on. And somebody will blur the lines, you know what I mean? And it is! And listen, at the end of the day man, we’re characters. And my job is to be the most hated character ever. And I thrive in that situation. And this current environment is giving me a great opportunity to delve into that.”

Sheamus went on to explain how he feels his weakness in giving promos, has held him back in the past.

“I remember there was a time mate, when I first started. I don’t know what it was. Obviously this was what I wanted to do my whole life. And the aggression part of the ring has always been easy for me. But I always felt like, promos and stuff in the ring, I definitely fell short. I was not where I needed to be. And you know, I’d trip over words and trip over things I had to say, because I had to get this promo absolutely right, you know? And it definitely held me back quite a lot in my career. My look was so unique, my shape. You know, I was a big, pasty, Irish dude. And aggression, no one would match me with aggression in the ring. But when it came to the stick, you know what I mean? I just, I left a lot to be desired.”

Sheamus missed nine months last year due to injury. When Sheamus finally returned to the ring, he admits he was pretty disappointed at first.

“Yeah, I feel like I have. It’s funny, when I talked to you in the beginning, I was doing all these backstage promos in random corridors in different arenas all over the states, and I guess I felt like, when I came back, initially I felt like I was brought back for the sake of bringing me back because I had been on the sidelines for so long. I don’t think there was a definite plan when I came back. I did this thing with Shorty G that was pretty disappointing because Shorty G himself is an awesome, awesome athlete, man, an awesome wrestler, but we ended up doing the match at the Royal Rumble. You were commentating obviously, and there was nobody in the building, right? Because there was some sort of ticket issue. So here I am, I haven’t wrestled in almost a year since I left the SmackDown after WrestleMania, and I’m coming back and it’s supposed to be this big thing, coming back, and you know, I’m excited to wrestle Shorty because, you know, he’s such an exciting wrestler. And I come out, and there’s nobody out there. It’s actually, you know, it prepared me for this. There’s probably the same amount of people in that arena for my match with Shorty G at the Royal Rumble as there is at the PC right now for SmackDown. How ironic is that?”

Even though Sheamus was disappointed on how his return was booked at first, he does feel like he returned with passion.

“And I feel like when we talk about coming back with passion, I feel like I am. I knew there were certain things in my game that had to be worked upon. Because, when I was with Cesaro in The Bar, we weren’t really challenged in that situation. You know, we’d share promos together. But you’re in a tag team, you’re sharing a lot of things. You’re sharing the load. But I knew coming back into a singles competitor, Corey? I was like, there are certain things in my game that need to be tightened up.”

“One was my physique which, I wasn’t happy where I was. And I put like, train twice a day and getting stuck on my diet. And training and being religious with that. But also the other side was like, you know, nailing my promos. And making sure nobody could touch me in that area. And I feel like especially in the last couple of months, I feel like I’m just in a whole new, different world, different league, when it comes to that. And I’m enjoying the stuff with Jeff because it’s given my character a lot of opportunity to play with words. And really like, just watch the reaction, especially on social media, to how much people hate me the more I enjoy sticking the knife into Jeff.”

Thank you to Wrestlezone for transcribing the quotes.

Matt’s Musings: Glad to see Sheamus back and feeling like he is at the top of his game.