Sheamus Reveals His Favorite WWE Royal Rumble Match Of All Time
With the Royal Rumble just weeks away, the entrants for the Men's Royal Rumble are stacking up day by day. For Sheamus, he is not sure if he'll be in this year's Rumble and admits to The Bump panel he's ok with it. But if he were, he'd like to recreate history like he did when he won the match nine years ago.
"The Royal Rumble is very special. I've always said that," Sheamus began. "There's only a very elite group of people who have won the Royal Rumble. It's a really hard match to win. It really takes a lot of ya. I've had some great moments, and I've had some embarrassing moments. The most important thing is that it's an exciting match for the fans.
"I think when Drew [McIntyre] won that was probably one of the more exciting Rumbles that I've watched in a long time. It's really an exciting match to start off the road to WrestleMania. At this stage, I've already won it. I've got nothing to prove to anybody."
Looking back at this huge Royal Rumble win in 2012, he recalls the adrenaline rush he had after the match and how he felt like he'd accomplished a career-defining accolade in WWE.
"It's pretty surreal. After every match, your adrenaline is going like a hundred miles an hour. I'm that kind of person after Raw, SmackDown or a pay-per-view event it takes me a long time to sleep just because my adrenaline is going for long. I just can't relax," he began. "Like, there's so many emotions going through you. It's hard to kind of take it all in at that moment in time... I couldn't exactly tell you what my exact emotions were, but I know it was another notch in the belt and a major accomplishment. It was something I took off my bucket list."
Two years before winning the Royal Rumble, Sheamus was the target of "The Viper" Randy Orton when he issued a match for his WWE Championship. Luckily, "The Celtic Warrior" retained his championship that night. But getting their match planned out was quite chaotic, as he remembers.
"Madness," he chuckled. "Me and Randy were coming up with things at last minute. There was a lot of chaos going on backstage. The whole day went by so fast."
Going back to the Royal Rumble, the panel asked Sheamus which match was his favorite of this event. For him, it was the Rumble of 1990, when Hulk Hogan won it all. But his favorite part was seeing The Ultimate Warrior square off against Hogan right after his victory.
"Uh, I think for me as a kid, the biggest moment for me was the Royal Rumble in 1990," he replied. "I remember I snuck downstairs and watched it – I recorded it – and watched Hulk Hogan win it all but then he and Ultimate Warrior went at it. I remember that was an unbelievable moment 'cause I was a huge Warrior fan because of his intensity. I liked the energy he brought to the ring. There was a lot of electricity about him. It was such a surreal moment. You didn't really see two good guys go at it like that, you know? They both had such a high profile in the company. So, it was crazy."
Lately, Sheamus admits staying consistent with his Celtic Warrior Workout videos has been a challenge. He hopes once this pandemic lifts that he'll be able to make up for the missed time.
"Well, it's been tough with the pandemic to get stuff done," he admitted. "The great thing about the Celtic Warrior Workouts when we were on the road full time was the fact that we could organize a session in whatever city we were in. Obviously, since we're confined now, it's a lot harder. I did one with Dana [Brooke] not too long ago, which she's awesome and so is her boyfriend... I'm not getting to do as many as I'd like to do right now, but I need to stop making excuses and try to get back on it."
You can watch Sheamus' full interview here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.