Why WWE Fans Love Sheamus Now

Triple H purportedly being a big fan of Sheamus was once a noose around the Irishman's neck.

The pair had a choice WrestleMania bout in 2010, with the central theme being that the rookie couldn't be that much of a rookie if he'd pushed 'The Game' to his limits. Unfortunately, the scuttlebutt was that they'd been real life training buddies and the relative newcomer had politicked his way into the spot rather than earning it. Which was already a prevailing take after he'd surprisingly defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship a few months earlier and just 166 days into main roster run.

This is rocket-strap stuff on paper, but the reality didn't play out quite as impressively. 'The Celtic Warrior' won the title by shoving Cena through a table at December 2009's TLC pay-per-view, having won the shot in a chancer’s battle royal weeks earlier. He lost the belt before WrestleMania, lost the Triple H match at 'The Show Of Shows' and redemption for both acts never really felt all that potent. He toppled Hunter on the smaller Extreme Rules stage in April, and regained the gold in June, but by then he was barely significant on the show thanks to the seismic initial impact made by The Nexus.

Worse still, because the push was accelerated, fans didn't gravitate to his matches all that much. Him carrying the belt didn't scan as egregious a la Jinder Mahal in 2017, but contests never felt like they warranted more than the midcard placements they received. This half-in/half-out storytelling with his character was something the vast majority of wrestlers were stuck with for well over a decade, but the damage this did to the perception of a meat-headed sh*tkicker like Sheamus took multiple failed attempts to clean up.

(CONT'D...)