10 Times WWE Forced It Down Our Throats

It's amazing how far you can get in such a short space of time, fella. Especially when someone as influential as Triple H thinks you've got all the tools to be a success in this business. The internet rumours about The Game and Sheamus being workout buddies may or may not have a basis in fact, but one fact does remain: Sheamus became WWE Champion a mere 166 days after his debut.

Sheamus had a great look, a solid moveset and an entrance theme that we all enjoyed (too many limes, etc). He first appeared on the dying ECW brand in June 2009, and feuded with Goldust before being drafted to RAW where he beat Jamie Noble up every week. After winning a Breakthrough Battle Royal for wrestlers who had never won a world title (a laughably transparent contrivance even within the confines of a scripted show), Sheamus found himself in a tables match at TLC 2009 against John Cena for the WWE Championship.

It came as something of a shock when Cena was sent crashing through a table to crown Sheamus as WWE's very first Irish-born Champion. In retrospect, however, it was the perfect way to protect Cena, who looked an unfortunate loser rather than being dominated. On the flipside, Sheamus looked to have fluked his first title win, but this didn't make it any easier for us to suspend our disbelief and accept such a new talent, who we barely knew anything about as a character, as our WWE Champion. Knowing that there were wrestlers who spent years in WWE before they even got a shot made it all the more grating; putting a world title on a newbie in the hope that it would help him get over just wasn't the done thing.

Sheamus has talent, no doubt, and deserves to be where he is in WWE today, having managed to become popular with the fans despite his too fast, too soon push into the WWE title picture.