When I last spoke to Sheamus, he was preparing for the Halloween edition of Raw with the Muppets. But after his controversial 18-second victory over Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania XXVIII for the World Heavyweight Championship, Sheamus now has much more serious things to think about as he prepares to defend the title in a 2-out-of-3-falls match this Sunday at Extreme Rules. But even with that rematch just days away, he takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about becoming World Champion, WWE‘s influx of indie talent and being related to a Muppet.
On Halloween we found out you and Beaker are actually related. How’s he been doing lately?
He’s done really well with that movie. He’s a big movie star now since The Muppets came out, so right now he’s riding high and has a bit of an ego. We’re kind of not talking at the moment. He’ll calm down in a couple of years and give me a call when he needs some money or something.
Speaking of movies, WWE Studios has been releasing a lot of movies starring WWE wrestlers. Do you think you’ll ever star in one of those movies?
Sheamus celebrates his Royal Rumble victory. Courtesy WWE
I’d like to think so, definitely. That’s something I’d love to do and I already had a hand in it before I came to WWE with a small role in The Escapist. As long as it doesn’t interfere with my schedule in WWE, I’d be very happy to do it.
You won the WWE Championship very early in your WWE career and now you are the World Heavyweight Champion. How do you think the two titles compare?
I think both titles have serious lineage and history behind them. Both are a great honor to hold. I held the WWE Championship twice and I’ve always wanted to be the World Heavyweight Champion. When I won the Royal Rumble in January, there was no doubt in my mind I was going to challenge whoever the World Heavyweight Champion was because it’s a title I’d never held.
You defeated Daniel Bryan for that title and the current WWE Champion is CM Punk. Both of them were celebrated indie stars who are now having success in WWE. There are several more guys like them coming up in WWE. How do you feel about this influx of indie talent?
I think it’s fantastic. These guys have a love for what we do and have watched it since their childhood, like myself. They’ve gone through the independents on their own and made a huge name for themselves. A lot of people don’t know that myself, Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre were also on the indies, so I think it’s great. If you watch Daniel Bryan, he’s a tremendous superstar and talent, just like Punk. They’ve created niches for themselves and it just shows that the company is going in the right direction. There’s a lot of exciting and hungry new talent coming through and it’s a make-or-break competition.
When you were on the indies in Europe with Barrett and McIntyre, how did WWE discover the three of you?
They do TV there twice a year and we had tryouts every six months. We kept our skill up, we kept our level up and we kept getting experience in the independents and we got signed in April ’07. It’s been a phenomenal five years and I can’t believe how much I’ve accomplished.
For more information, go to www.wwe.com.