The following are highlights of a new U.K. Huff Post interview with Sheamus, the full text is here:
On his advice to NXT Talent:
I’d tell them to have a lot of patience. You have to be patient. You don’t come to WWE to be at FCW, which is where I started. You come to WWE to go to Raw or Smackdown. It can be monotonous though. You know you’re there to get better and do shows but it can be like Groundhog Day sometimes, so you need a lot of patience and focus and to know why you’re there.
The writers are doing a good job at NXT. A lot of the producers go down there, as does Triple H and so the talent gets to see them and knows they’re being looked at directly. When I was at FCW, we didn’t have that. All our matches were taped and sent up to the office but whether they watched them or not we don’t know. I felt there was a huge disconnect at that time between the talent and the creative team but at NXT they can make the most of those people. I think there’s a better chance for them to impress and it’s clear that the information going back to the office isn’t second hand -everybody who’s involved gets to see first-hand how good the talent is and what the talent is doing.
On If He’d Merge the IC/US Titles:
Yeah, I was hoping they’d be merged a couple of months back when we had a Pay-Per-View Battle Royal match. That would have been a good idea. I think you can easily make the titles more important by putting them in better storylines or highlighting them. The Intercontinental title has been highlighted a lot recently with Dolph Ziggler, he’s been doing a great job. My issue was that I didn’t get a chance to defend my US title enough. I was in a lot of six-man and non-title matches. I want to defend the title every week! That was my intention when I won the championship but it wasn’t up to me. Now Rusev has it and hopefully he can take it and put some heat behind it.
On Concussions:
Dealing with concussions and the Wellness Policy is huge for everybody involved in WWE, from the management staff to the talent. Every year we do a baseline concussion test and if someone has a concussion in the ring or if they suspect you have one, you have to go and take the test. You won’t be able to get back in the ring until you’ve passed the computer test and then an exertion test in the ring. So it’s not a case of an immediate return if you have a concussion, it’s not that at all. If you’re concussed, every possible effort is made to ensure you’re able to get back in the ring but are at 100% before doing so. We’ve had Chris Nowinski come and talk to us about the symptoms and effects of concussions in order to help to educate us. Whatever your knowledge base, you may not know you have a concussion, so we had a 2 hour educational seminar where he explained to us what to look out for.
Check Out The Complete Interview at the Huffington Post UK
