Sheamus recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview, discussing his career, aspirations, and experiences in professional wrestling. Below are the key highlights from their conversation:
On the short Daniel Bryan WrestleMania match:
“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.”
On if he was OK with the short match:
“I mean, look, we knew that we could have an amazing match. When we were running the US title back in the end of 2010, 2011, we knew how good our matches were. We were putting on such good matches I think a couple of lads in the main event actually asked like, just so you know 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 was before WrestleMania 27. But yeah, we’re having great matches.
We had these street fights we are beating the bollocks out 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 at the time 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 with as much intensity as he had.”
On being Edge’s final WWE opponent:
“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 because we did a promo the week before, and then we did the match the week after. Edge’s contract was coming up. 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 were talking about 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. 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.”
On how much longer he hopes to wrestle:
“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 until the wheels fall off me. Could do it until physically I can’t do it anymore. I love what I do, 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, 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 up my boots when that stuff happened with my neck I’d be at peace with it, because you know there’s nothing you can do. When some talent have retired before their time, you can tell there is a bit of regret there.”
