Sheamus came back in 2015 with a look he felt was going to be badass for everyone watching.
In 2015, Sheamus returned from injury on the WWE Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania 31. He presented a brand-new look, sporting a mohawk, a braided beard, and a new heel persona where he demolished Dolph Ziggler, and the WWE Intercontinental Champion at the time, Daniel Bryan.
Sheamus did not look for permission from Vince McMahon at the time or any higher-ups in the WWE, instead, he just went for it and the payoff was not what he expected it to be.
“The great thing about that was I pissed the brass off on that one, because I didn’t ask for permission, I just did it. I think I’ve been off with an injury, and I just kind of felt stagnant, and I’d done that babyface. I was just like, I need something different and cool, right? So I did it, and I think Vince was pissed big time because I didn’t tell him I was doing it. But I did all this stuff, my beard and all the braids and everything, and I thought man, I look cool, dude. I look badass. I look like a bleeding ass kicker again. I’m gonna go out there. I think I attacked Wade and Bryan. I was going out, I looked badass and I thought people are gonna go, this guy looks cool. I walked out, and then some bollocks in the audience started a ‘You look stupid chant’, and that was it. It just carried across all the arena. I was like this is not what I was expecting. It was not the reaction that I was going for. It was great, you know, I leaned into it, and it was class. It was fun,” he said while speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight.
Sheamus new look would pay off, he eventually won the Money in the Bank briefcase and cashed in the guaranteed championship match at Survivor Series against Roman Reigns, who had just won the title in a tournament, last defeating then-Intercontinental Champion, Dean Ambrose to win his first world title.
You can watch the full interview below.
(h/t to Fightful for the quotes/transcriptions.)
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