Sheamus On What Vince McMahon Said To Him That Caused His Diet
WWE Superstar Sheamus was recently a guest on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with WWE Legends Edge and Christian. Among many other things, Sheamus, who recently filmed two episodes of his Celtic Warrior Workouts YouTube series with podcast co-host Edge, talked about the impetus behind changing up his fitness routine. Additionally, Sheamus discussed the workouts on his show that made him the most uncomfortable. Also, Sheamus weighed in on what he has left to accomplish in WWE.
According to Sheamus, he decided to diet, in part, when WWE Chairman Vince McMahon made a joke about 'The Celtic Warrior' putting on unnecessary weight.
"At one stage, I was kind of thinking, 'man, I should bulk up!' Like, I was seeing a lot of guys in there and 'how do I get back?' At one time, I was pretty much one of the biggest guys in there, like, not 'I'm a giant-wise,' but I was, like, size-wise, bulk-wise, and I was like, 'yeah, I should bulk up again.' And I kind of bulked up. I was seeing, like, Brock [Lesnar] and Braun [Strowman] and all these lads, and I'm thinking, it just got to a point where I didn't look good, mate. Just like I put on a lot of weight, but I was carrying a lot of body fat and I just kind of lost control of where I was at."
Sheamus recalled, "it also started because I came back from holidays in Ireland and me and Cesaro were walking by Vince and Vince goes, 'hey Sheamus!' I said, 'yeah?' He goes, 'enjoyed the holidays, huh?' and he was looking at me in the gut and I was like, 'okay, that's it. That's it. I need to do something about it.' But that was the change in gear and Cesaro will tell you as well. Cesaro knew right away when that comment was made. I just put too much weight on, man."
In Sheamus's unpopular opinion, bigger is not always better in WWE.
"I feel so much better," Sheamus admitted of his weight loss. "Like, it's all a myth where you think bigger is better, but it's not, especially when we're in the ring. The leaner we are, the bigger you look and the better you look and that [has] definitely been evidenced in the last few months I was in the ring."
On the subject of which WWE Superstar workouts made Sheamus most uncomfortable, the four-time world champion mentioned plyometrics with Alexa Bliss, Ali's Ramadan workout, and mountain biking with Edge.
"If you want to know when I was super uncomfortable, there [are] a couple that really stood out to me as just being seriously out of my zone, like, really, really out of my comfort zone. One is when I was with Alexa Bliss and we were doing a kind of like an aerobics style workout. I don't know what I was doing, mate. But I do know that aerobics have never been done like that before in its history and it has never been done like that since. I pretty much destroyed the workout. The same with Mustafa Ali. I basically drove up to Louisville, Kentucky from Nashville [Tennessee] and I did the whole [fast] because it was a Ramadan workout, so I basically starved myself all day. You're supposed to fast from sunrise to sunset and the last time I ate was 10 o'clock the night before, so I'd say I was on about 24 hours with no food and there I was doing this kind of aerobics style workout I had to do with Ali, which he does every night to keep himself fit. And I have no idea. My left foot was going where my right foot should be and my right arm was going where my right leg should be. It was super uncomfortable and if you ever watch that one, I look like the most uncoordinated person on this planet, but it was fun doing it." Sheamus added, "and then mountain biking thing in Asheville [North Carolina] and I'm not just saying it because I'm on the podcast. But there were a couple times where I thought I was going to faceplant down the hill on the mountain bike. You probably hear me in some of the footage where I literally thought, 'this is the end.'"
Despite having a highly decorated WWE career, the Intercontinental Championship Sheamus is the one title that has eluded 'The Great White'.
"There is one thing missing from my [WWE career] and that's the Intercontinental Championship. Yeah, I've silently won a lot of trophies. I've won a lot of titles I mean and I got a lot in the very first half of my career. And then, of course, the two things that were missing [were] the IC title and the tag titles. And then, with Cesaro, we basically blitzed five titles, four RAW and one SmackDown [Live], in about two-and-a-half years, which was incredible. So yeah, that IC title is next on the list. And the irony of that whole thing is is that that is the one title that basically brought me into WWE. When I was a kid, in Dublin [Ireland], I was a massive 'Macho Man' Randy Savage fan, and he was like setting up for that [Ricky] Steamboat/Savage match at 'Mania 3." Sheamus explained, "that was the one title I loved. And then, Warrior got it, Bret Hart, and it's the one title that I haven't won, so that's the coveted prize for me, to join [Edge] on that [list] that have won as an ultimate grand slam champion, full house."
Brave change, Kalisto! If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.