How Sheamus Saved His WWE Career

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Check out Sportskeeda's brand new game, BrainBuster! Can you become the undisputed quiz champion? Play now to find out - https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/brainbuster-wwe-player-guessing-game  Let us explore the incredible journey of WWE Superstar Sheamus and how he turned his career around. From facing setbacks and career-threatening moments to making a powerful comeback, discover the strategies and pivotal moments that contributed to Sheamus’s resurgence. You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #sheamus #gunther #drewmcintyre #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00Let's talk about one of the most underrated

00:02Superstars of this generation of WWE believe it or not

00:07Seamus is one of the most accomplished WWE superstars of the 21st century. He's done it all

00:13He's won it all almost any way you could think of it

00:16He's done that big accomplishment except short of winning an intercontinental title and headlining a WrestleMania

00:22He's pretty much checked all those big boxes a superstar in WWE wants to check off

00:28Not only that he's had an insane level of longevity in the biggest wrestling company in the world on

00:35WWE's main roster

00:3715 years in counting four World Championships

00:4112 overall titles a money in the bank briefcase a Royal Rumble and he was even a king of the ring for a little

00:48while back in

00:492010 but despite all of that at the turn of the decade

00:53His career was at a bit of a lull in the eyes of the casual fan

00:57Though the diehards knew that he had a lot more in him fella

01:02Yeah, he is easily one of the most successful wrestlers ever out of Ireland

01:07But let's make the case for why Seamus is way better than what some of you think he is

01:12This is sports key to wrestling. I'm Kevin Calum

01:15Let us know what you think of Seamus in the comments below

01:17The Celtic warrior has an unfortunate reputation of having his biggest moments may be overlooked or overshadowed or

01:25Circumstantially not giving him that pinnacle pivotal moment to make him the guy when he won the Royal Rumble

01:32You know the match where you win it you get launched into a big world title match at WrestleMania

01:37Everybody thought he was gonna be the runner-up to Chris Jericho in the closing moments

01:41Considering how Jericho was also in a world title match against CM Punk at WrestleMania. It makes a lot of sense

01:47But at that year's WrestleMania where you know Seamus won his way into a world title match. He had a few seconds

01:54It was more of an angle and Jericho got an elaborate thing with CM Punk

01:57Yeah

01:58Even world championship reigns aren't looked back on in the same way with Seamus as they are with other

02:03Superstars one of the most defining world title reigns in 2012 was Seamus's and it was kind of

02:10It was kind of there

02:11It wasn't the big thing in WWE that year many fans at the time were even happy to see the freaking big show dethroned him

02:19Even though the big show was bouncing back and forth from me a good guy to a bad guy

02:22It seemed like every other week

02:24Which should tell you the kind of job that WWE is doing with Seamus as their world champ that era of WWE

02:30Essentially was all about Roman Reigns gotta talk about Roman Reigns gotta stick with that Roman Reigns thing

02:36He was kind of overshadowing plenty of other talented wrestlers and Seamus felt like a placeholder

02:41a

02:42Transitional champion to get the belt on the guy that brings the kids and the girls to the show that era of WWE

02:48Essentially was all about Roman Reigns gotta talk about Roman Reigns in

02:532015 he cashed in his money in the bank briefcase and got a hold of the WWE championship for a whopping 22 days

03:01Yeah sounds transitional, but guess what? He was getting reactions and some of you forget that

03:06Also these transitional champions make the next champion, yeah, there's no

03:13these count

03:15Some of you guys just want to leap over that stuff. This era of WWE was all about Roman Reigns

03:222016 saw Seamus with a new look a mohawk and a septum piercing some people thought it was weird

03:27I thought it was cool. He's still big booting people in the face, but he wasn't the guy

03:322016 those saw a real turning point for him in his career and maybe some of the high points of the PG years

03:38Seamus had his best of seven series with another European bruiser in Cesaro the Swiss cyborg

03:45who was an arguably one of the best technical athletes in pro wrestling at the time and

03:50Seamus and him had an amazing series of beat the snot out of each other matches

03:55You haven't seen them seek them out from that rivalry the odd pairing evolved into a tag team

04:02Yes

04:03The tag team division needed new blood and they were the bar you had to raise your standard to meet

04:09The bar and they succeeded winning the raw tag team titles four times and the Smackdown titles once

04:16They were the tag division

04:19The three-year run alone added five championships to Seamus's already stacked trophy cabinet

04:25But some of you are saying but he's still he's still just this guy stop

04:30Just like how his career was revitalized in an incredible year in 2016

04:34It took a dip arguably maybe one of the worst years of the PG years

04:392019 yeah before you know Triple H took over everything the bar came to an abrupt end before the pandemic

04:46Seamus suffered a concussion that would keep him out for months

04:49So Cesaro was drafted to raw and the bar just kind of ended

04:53Ending nearly a three-year storyline like that and fans kind of got deflated

04:58But saying the absence makes the heart grow fonder didn't really apply to Seamus when he was out for the entirety of

05:052019 he returned in early 2020 during the pandemic years which were just weird for everyone and it took some time for him to

05:12Get off the ground. He was a heelish character once again, and it wasn't that his entire 2020 was bad

05:18But most of it wasn't good because a lot of WWE programming right around then was just struggling to have the same type of energy

05:25Without fans present. Yeah, you see the trend here how certain superstars were way more relevant when things started to pick up

05:32Suffer more the overall quality of WWE television

05:35He spent the beginning of 2020 in a returning feud with Chad Gable who was called shorty G

05:41Then we still can't believe that was a thing and we can imagine the man above

05:45Who pulled the strings getting a kick out of calling Chad Gable shorty G?

05:51besides the point the first feud really helped Seamus revive his career at that point one with Jeff Hardy a

05:57Personal one that got really intense and had some great brawls inside of a bar playing off Jeff Hardy sobriety issues

06:05We're not gonna lie. It had its weird moments

06:07It was uncomfortable seeing some of those things and addiction issues play out on television

06:12But WWE went for the throat to grab fans attention during a challenging time with the pandemic

06:17There wasn't too much else going on on Smackdown post pandemic WrestleMania 36. Yeah that weird time

06:23We're yeah

06:24Unlike his story with the bar the rivalry of Jeff Hardy and Seamus had a strong ending in a bar of all places that bar

06:31Fight was something special go seek it out. We're actually kind of missing

06:35WWE experimenting with those matches during those pandemic times

06:39Seamus would have a brief feud with Big E who was soaring to becoming a world champion in his own right in the coming year

06:45And someone who would help him do that was Seamus apart from that

06:49It was October 2020 when his career finally started to pick up yet again

06:53He was a part of the Raw Survivor Series team in a match where Seth Rollins just sacrificed himself and took a broke kick to the face

07:01Once Seamus his friendship with Drew McIntyre became a thing on TV

07:04It almost felt like the Celtic warrior was a bigger

07:08Beneficiary of it him and McIntyre have a deep history going all the way back to the beginning of their pro wrestling careers

07:14Years before they ever had WWE stardom. So it was personal by that point. It was no disrupting

07:21Seamus was a certified Irish badass

07:24Associating with McIntyre the most important WWE superstar of the pandemic times and

07:29Bring it on from Roman Reigns was a strong call the Scottish and Irish

07:34Roughness the in-your-face attitude of both McIntyre and Seamus shared a compatible chemistry in the ring

07:40They beat the crap out of each other and you believed it

07:43They were entertaining and who would beat the living daylights out of each other and still have a laugh and a pint of beer afterwards

07:50It gave Seamus a level of likability and respect it reminded you that this guy lays his stuff in

07:57It was around this time that Seamus tapped into the wrestling vernacular with the bangers

08:02He was having banger matches left and right in front of every crowd that came to see the Celtic warrior

08:08one distinct advantage was that

08:10WWE knew this was a big thing and fans wanted to see it the partnership with McIntyre didn't last long when Seamus felt like he

08:17Was being relegated to a sidekick position, which was kind of the narrative of his career

08:22He was always just the guy who was there having a great match

08:25But someone else would step ahead of him in line seemingly jealous of his friend success because McIntyre was the WWE champion in early

08:332021 Seamus found himself in the mix and was considered a legitimate challenger

08:38Unfortunately for him

08:39It was Bobby Lashley's time to shine and Seamus ended up taking a step back from the world title picture heading into WrestleMania

08:4537 Seamus is never-ending hard work, which came after serious injuries and

08:51Continued to see him endure was now being recognized

08:55He ended up dethroning the impressive Matt Riddle to become WWE United States champion at WrestleMania that year and one of his strongest

09:03WrestleMania matches today. He had a respectable run that ended with yet another banger

09:08Helping Damian Priest step up a level once again. You seeing a pattern here Seamus is making

09:15Superstars some of you people are forgetting that part that moment at SummerSlam did a lot for Priest's popularity

09:21Seamus deserves a whole lot of credit for that after

09:252021's draft he moved to SmackDown and formed the brawling brutes with Ridge Holland and a year later a guy you might know by

09:32The name of Pete Dunne who was called Butch at the time

09:35Yeah, but back then somebody decided that Butch was a funny thing to call him. Sure

09:41Yeah, it was a good run

09:43They had together and Seamus continued to grow putting on matches with a great faction and crowds

09:48Continued to react to him

09:50He reached the status of being a beloved veteran who is in the ranks of WWE every week and as WWE entered a new era

09:57In the summer of 2022 under new creative management

10:00It only stood to reason that Seamus would also step up in a big way enter another hard-hitting European the ring general

10:08Gunther he was a few months into his eventual record-breaking reign as WWE

10:14Intercontinental champion and he was yet to have a match that really cemented it all you knew he had it

10:19But you needed to hear the ka-chunk of this guy is the guy in front of

10:2662,000 roaring fans in Europe

10:29They stole the show and Gunther and Seamus exchanged chops and hard strikes on a level

10:36We've not seen in many major WWE matches in quite some time and they had in the eyes of some maybe one of the best

10:44WWE premium live event matches of the year in terms of beating an established veteran the match against Seamus was probably the biggest

10:52Bruising win of Gunther's career up until that point for the ring general

10:56He would skyrocket into becoming the greatest intercontinental champion of all time

11:02Seamus may not have won the title, but he won the respect of every single person watching

11:07I don't care if you're Gen Z or Gen Elf or you're new and he's not the flavor of the month

11:12No

11:13He's kicking that guy in the mouth and having a great match win or lose

11:17Getting a standing ovation from an entire stadium after losing is maybe one of the greatest signs of respect and admiration for a pro-wrestler

11:25Seamus got it that night in Cardiff, Wales

11:27His performance was so incredible that evening that he truly went from being a villain to a hero

11:32It is quite organic and quite beautiful later that year. He participated in the first WarGames match on the WWE main roster, though

11:39He wasn't winning in that match in 2023 Seamus found himself gunning for the IC title and Gunther

11:46At this time you have to deal with his frenemy Drew McIntyre in the mix in an outstanding

11:51Triple threat match at WrestleMania and Los Angeles, but it was Gunther who walked out with the title Edge

11:58hand-picked Seamus for something special his last match in WWE that took place on SmackDown a

12:05Special one it'd be the last time we'd see the rated-r superstar in WWE at least for the foreseeable future

12:10And their match was truly one of the best SmackDown televised matches in quite some time a momentous one

12:17That saw the rated-r superstar leave for all the wrestling and the man

12:21He chose to have that special match with was another respected veteran in Seamus

12:27So in the farewell he faced the man

12:29He shared the ring with and although Seamus lost it was another sign of respect from another legend in the industry

12:35Seamus wasn't just another guy

12:37He was one of the guys in 2024 Seamus returned from a long spell of injuries

12:42Which followed the edge match this time one with his shoulder

12:46But it seemed he had picked up right where he left off having banger after banger after banger

12:51He's been mixing it up with young guns like Pete Dunne Lukewood Kaiser and others and continues to elevate them

12:57The case of Seamus is a curious one on one hand

13:01He's reached the point in his career where he is unanimously loved respected and

13:06Undeniably a leader in the WWE locker room

13:09But even after all that appreciation it still feels like those great

13:15unfiltered moments of success

13:17Have eluded him on the biggest stages that WWE truly has in the eyes of some

13:23Seamus seems like one of those guys whose career will get a lot more appreciation

13:28Once it's done and he hangs up his boots

13:31We hope that isn't anytime soon and he looks to have more bangers in the chest of great matches of his career

13:38His career renaissance in the last four years has been nothing short of amazing and it's worth noting

13:43It hasn't involved a lot of championships. It's involved a lot of great matches

13:48We hope it gives you perspective on how selfless a performer Seamus is how much he's willing to push

13:55Someone else and push the business in the process

13:58The fact that we're probably seeing a gazillion photos of Seamus his chest being bloodshot red should show you his

14:06Appreciation for the art of brutality that is pro-wrestling

14:10we'd argue that the last four years of his career might have done more to boost his popularity and

14:15Maybe give him more respect in the eyes of younger fans who overlooked him. Yeah more bangers are to come

14:36You

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