Few upper-echelon members of WWE's roster have floundered over the past few years like Sheamus. Nevertheless, the company decided that making him the WWE World Heavyweight Champion would be a beneficial move. Sheamus was injured in November of 2014, but he returned to WWE TV after WrestleMania 31 with a new look and a new attitude. Analysts had long predicted that the stale "Celtic Warrior" would benefit from a heel turn, but Sheamus's mohawk and beard overshadowed his aggression, and before long, he was more lost than ever - except fans chanted "You look stupid!" at him whenever he appeared. Feuds with Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton did nothing to help any of the men involved, and when Sheamus won the Money in the Bank briefcase - seemingly only so Roman Reigns could be screwed out of it - it was taken for granted that he'd fail on his cash-in. Not so - despite not having participated in any real storylines since the end of the Orton feud, Sheamus successfully used his title shot to beat Reigns at Survivor Series, implausibly becoming WWE Champion. Raw's ratings the following night were the lowest in 18 years, proving how entertained fans were by the new champ. After a few weeks of dire ratings, WWE switched the World Title to Roman Reigns and we're back to square one with Sheamus, the most boring wrestler on the roster.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
