Sheamus was recently a guest on Corey Graves' "After The Bell" podcast, and among the topics he discussed was his recent feud with Jeff Hardy on SmackDown. That's seen The Celtic Warrior use Hardy's past substance abuse issues against him, and a recent segment ended with urine being thrown in the Irish Superstar's face.
As you might expect, Sheamus is well aware of some of the backlash the storyline has received online, and understands that he's now one of the most hated men in WWE as a result.
"There was a lot of backlash," he started. "A lot of people really hate me right now. At the end of the day, we are characters. My job is to be the most hated character ever and I thrive in that situation. When I first started, the aggression part of the ring has always been easy for me. I always felt the promos in the ring was where I wasn’t sure where I needed to be. I would trip over things I have to say because I have to get this promo out exactly right. It held me back quite a bit in my career."
"My look was so unique. I was a big Irish dude," Sheamus continued, reflecting on his career in WWE. "When it came to the stick, that left a lot to be desired. When you talk about coming back with a passion, I knew there were certain things in my game I had to work on. When I was Cesaro and The Bar, we weren’t challenged in that situation. We shared promos together. There were certain things in my game that needed to be tightened up. One was my physique which I wasn’t happy with."
"I’m enjoying this stuff with Jeff because it has given my character a lot of opportunity to play with words and watch the reaction, especially on social media, to how much people hate me, the more I enjoy sticking a knife into Jeff," he concluded.
It's definitely interesting getting this insight from Sheamus, and he's certainly put himself back on the map as a monster heel in WWE. How this storyline with Hardy will continue to develop remains to be seen, but it's definitely one that's grabbed the attention of wrestling fans on Friday nights.