Sheamus Discusses His WWE Return, Wanting to Use His Old Music, Teaming with Cesaro, More

After recently returning to the WWE after an 8-month hiatus, Sheamus sat down with talkSPORT to discuss his return, plans for the future and if he considered retirement.

Sheamus believes that he is in better shape now then he has ever been throughout his career, and is excited for the next chapter.

“But, yeah, I’ve dropped a lot of weight, I’m still doing fasted cardio every morning for half an hour and then I’ll probably go eat or whatever, do my thing, and I’ll workout again later on that day, and sometimes I’ll do kickboxing and stuff. But it was very important for me to come back in the shape that I want to be in. I’ve had enough time, no excuses. Now I feel better than ever.”

Sheamus went on to discuss why he decided to lose the Mohawk and return to his more traditional look.

“We just went so far with the Mohawk. The Mohawk was done. I thought about it and, creatively, myself and a guy I work with called Ray, we just talked about it and it was like [debuting the mohawk] so shocking, you know, and I got that reaction ‘you look stupid’ and stuff and it was a great reaction. It was completely different because we we just hit a roadblock with whatever it was. You can’t go further than that.”

“So it made sense. People were asking on the channel, on social media – bring back the old Sheamus. So, I did. I wanted to bring back the old music too, but some things you can get and some things you can’t. But yeah, it’s very important, especially the spirit of the Celtic Warrior. That kick-ass, Celtic Warrior vibe. It made sense.”

Sheamus admitted that he felt burnt out with wrestling and even considered retiring completely.

“The truth is, I wasn’t ready to be done. There are things that pop into your head, like doubts and that saying ‘I might be done’. I got back to that question just after ‘Mania and I felt I was kind of burnt out too. I felt like me and Cesaro – as great as a tag team we were, we’d already won the titles five times.”

“And I just feel, creatively, there was no direction for us at the time. And I guess we were both burnt out. Then we went back for that Raw after ‘Mania, man. We interrupted that Kofi [Kingston] and Seth [Rollins] match. And we weren’t supposed to be there. We got a call a couple of hours before we were supposed to go on there, and, you know, the crowd just sh*t on it. And it was just like, we hit that point where it felt like we’d hit that roadblock.”

“And I was burnt out too, I wasn’t feeling great and I went away for a while. [Then] I just worked my ass off, man. I had so much fun wrestling with Cesaro and we created a legacy with The Bar and you don’t want that to be diminished.”

After spending the last few years of his career in a tag team with Cesaro, Sheamus now feels it is time to focus on his singles career again.

“Sometimes it’s good to get away for a while, you know, we can always go back to that. But I felt like it was time and there’s a lot more to accomplish as a singles wrestler – the Intercontinental Championship, for example. And I went back and I worked my ass off, mate. And I’m not trying to be like ‘Oh, I’m great’ this and that, but I could have easily come back and been like I’ve won all these titles, I’m just gonna live off that and collect a paycheck – for me, I went off, started doing fasted cardio every morning. I started kickboxing. I started tuning up my diet with the help of a really good friend of mine, Jerry. I started taking my training to another level and in my mind, I was starting again.”

Sheamus was dealing with neck issues, but after getting physical therapy and changing his workout routine he now feels he is 100%.

“Yeah, it forced me to think. I got physical therapy too – nothing injured, but like working on my form, working on my posture, my thoracic spine. A lot of stuff that people have anyway – and not by being in the ring – even by sitting at a desk all day or something. And so I’ve worked on fine tuning my body, I’m working on stuff that needs to be strengthened and I’m working on my weak points.”

“I don’t throw heavy weights around anymore. I think that’s another ego thing and I feel better. I feel better than they did 10 years ago. I feel better than I did when I started the WWE. Also, no gluten, no dairy. I feel so much better without dairy.”

Check out the full interview with Sheamus on talkSPORT where Sheamus also talked about how he was always supposed to win the 2012 Royal Rumble as far as he knows and plenty more.

Matt’s Musings: Great seeing Sheamus back in the WWE healthy and ready to go. Hopefully he can have several more great years in what is already a Hall of Fame career.