Sheamus leaving WWE

[JRH]

This is surprising as I had him pegged as a lifer. Still, he had an excellent run there.

[Timbo Slice]

Seems like the New Day issue where they wanted to slash his money significantly. I don’t know if he would even want to go to AEW but there are worse folks to try and get young talent over with. 

[The Thread Killer]

The dude is 48 years old, becoming increasingly injury prone, and has always had a reputation as a bit of a backstage bully…but I guess if AEW wants him, more power to them. He’ll probably get signed to a massive contract, make a couple of appearances, and then disappear into the AEW vortex, never to be seen nor heard from again.

[sek69]

Claudio is apparently pushing for him in AEW, so there's that. Its tricky since one of the things that turned the tide to WCW in the early stages of the Monday Night Wars was all the WWF guys jumping ship and making them the cool place to be, but you don't want to end up looking like the Senior Tour like Hogan era TNA was. 

Another factor would be what else is Sheamus going to do? I don't really see him going on a Matt Cardona style indy barnstorming tour, and AEW is pretty much the only other place that would pay him anywhere near what WWE was. 

[Coffey]

I like Sheamus but isn't his back jacked up? It already feels like AEW doesn't use half their roster, so I don't see how adding more people is going to help but if AEW wanted to pick up Sheamus, and maybe Bayley later, I would get it. They have relationships with a lot of the people already there. Bayley in particular though, would be a great person to have around after she's done in-ring because she can be a great trainer for the women. I'm not sure what Sheamus is bringing to the table when he wraps up outside of his YouTube workout videos?

[DMJ]

I mentioned it in another thread, but I think part of the "math" that TKO/WWE is working through when it comes to who they are/aren't going to pay - in the other thread we were talking about Sami Zayn and my hesitancy in believing he was the guy who accepted a 50% cut - is whether AEW is going to take them.

Sheamus, to me, is someone AEW can pass on. I'm not diminishing his talent, but it's just not the right fit unless they negotiate some sort of limited pay-per-appearance deal (which would likely be good for AEW, bad for Sheamus). I defended the Lashley signing years back and continued to defend it for quite awhile, but its pretty clear to me that it was a bad signing in hindsight (mostly because it does seem like Lashley isn't interested in doing any sort of actual singles program where he might have to lose based on how the Swerve and MJF storylines played out). 

Sheamus could come in and do some "dream matches," but how do you get there without also putting him on TV a bunch for the build and also derailing all the stories going on? Like, sure, The Bar vs. Brodido would likely be terrific and The Bar vs. The Bucks could be fun and I'd love a Darby/Sheamus match and, when it comes to hoss battles, Sheamus/Mark Davis would work, and I'd even be game for a fun Sheamus/Orange Cassidy match (Sheamus is surprisingly good in "silly" matches), but is Sheamus going to accept "Dustin Rhodes/Jeff Jarrett money" to do those sorts of midcard things? And for how long could he even do them?

The AEW is audience is built different than the TNA audience or the 90s WCW audience. Historically, yes, when a big name talent jumped ship from the WWE, it was a no-brainer to push them. Christian and Angle and RVD and Jeff Hardy in TNA all spring to mind. Obviously, Hall and Nash in 96' but also Jake Roberts and Rick Rude in the early 90s when they came to WCW. Hell, didn't The Barbarian challenge for the World Championship in WCW (against Ron Simmons) on PPV around then? But, in 2026, in AEW, I think things are really different. The AEW core fan base doesn't view Hangman and MJF and Swerve and Omega, etc. etc. as being beneath the "ex-WWE guys." Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy are bigger stars to the AEW fan base than Aleister Black ever was. The AEW core fan base won't shit on Sheamus - he's too good and well-respected - but I don't think they want to see him come in and get World Championship matches based on his name either. As I alluded to earlier, I think the right role for him, theoretically, if he can stay healthy and if he were interested, would be to be the next Dustin Rhodes/Jeff Jarrett-type guy, doing some of the "dream matches" and having fun at first with maybe some "feel good" victories early on with The Bar or in squashes, but then moving on and probably not getting his arm raised all that much as he works with the younger talent that need to climb the ladder.

[Jmare007]

Or you know, they could sign a 1 year deal, make the most of it and that'd be that. Both sides win. 

[Scarletlikesounds]

Yeah, I think Sheamus is one of the few people I'd say is good enough to be worth signing at 48 with a completely fucked up back and spine, You're getting like a max 12 matches out of him but it'd be one hell of a 7-12 match run. That said, more old guys coming out of WWE is definitely the opposite of what they need right now, MCMG already feels like pushing it if that rumor is true.