Sheamus On Being Frustrated Over the Past Year, Current Status of His Neck & More

– Sheamus spoke with TalkSport for a new interview discussing his time away from WWE due to injury and more. You can see highlights below:

On being frustrated during his time away: “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 s— 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.”

On the time off being good for him: “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. That’s what I was talking about earlier on. I feel now when I go out to the ring, I’m going out there thinking I haven’t achieved anything. Because that’s how passionate I am. Sometimes you feel like ‘Well, I have this, this and this’ and if you wipe that out of the equation, you go in there like you’re starting fresh and you got lots to prove, which I do. It just keeps the hunger, keeps the passion there. And that’s the same with the YouTube channel. I’m super passionate about that. And the one thing that makes it work is because there’s no ego, man. I put myself in these positions where I don’t come out on top. I always come out on the floor, wrecked and knackered and that’s the whole idea. All I know is I know is I know nothing, and the reason I say that is because I’m the person watching at home who’s wants to make that change, that brave change to start working out and they see me, they see me fail and falter, but I get through the workout. And that’s what it’s all about. Same with wrestling. I’m going in there with the mentality now that I’ve got no accolades behind me and I want to prove to everybody what I can do and what I can achieve. The first one was warm up – that’s what I wanted to say earlier!”

On his neck being completely fine now: “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,” Sheamus said. “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.”

On his 2012 Royal Rumble win: “People think that [Chris] Jericho was supposed to win that Rumble. As far as I knew that was never the case. But you know, I don’t think I can say too much. I had an idea [that I would win]. Yeah. And I just really wanted to make sure it was great. Jericho was great with me at the end. I thought that thing we had at the very end was awesome. The tease and stuff? Because I think a lot of people did think the Jericho was gonna do it. Funny thing is, right before that match, I got a sty in my eye! Day of the Rumble! So my eye is hanging down everyone is taking the piss out of me. The one day, right? And I look back at those pictures and that’s what motivated me. I look back and think I should have been in such a better shape for that, you know? But that’s what it is. We’re not perfect people we just we always try and make yourself better as best we can and improving each other. But yeah, I’ve had a lot of great moments and it’s fun to sit back and watch and be like ‘ah, that was great!’ But now, I’m like I want to make new moments. I need to start all over again.