Sheamus has been with the WWE since October 2009 and is already a two-time WWE champion, a United States champion, a former King of the Ring, a Royal Rumble winner and the current World champion. Not bad for the 34-year old from Dublin, Ireland. So it only makes sense that his first DVD would feature his biggest accomplishments so far in the World Wrestling Entertainment. But the just-released five-match DVD, Superstar Collection Sheamus is only for the die-hard Celtic Warrior’s fans. Hopefully this is only the preview of an upcoming two disc-set documentary kind of DVD.
With his red hair, Irish accent, 6-foot-4 frame, and whiter-than-white look, Sheamus is one of kind in many senses. That he won his first WWE title less than three months after he started with WWE is a feat few people can claim.
It’s only normal then that the first of five matches shows Sheamus defeating John Cena in a table match at the TLC PPV on December 13, 2009, becoming the very first Irish-born WWE champion. It was Sheamus’ first big break with WWE. Throughout the match, the commentators put over Sheamus’ accomplishments, noting he took WWE by storm, forcing Jamie Noble to retire and putting guest host Mark Cuban through a table the week before.
The match was good and showed that Sheamus could hang there with the best WWE had to offer. In other words, he didn’t look out of place doing a PPV main event so early in his career. This match has to be on any Sheamus DVD, since it’s his big break-out match.
The second match takes us back six months later, on June 20, 2010, at Fatal 4 Way PPV where Sheamus actually won his second WWE title, a title he had lost in February 2010 at the Elimination Chamber PPV. Including Edge, Randy Orton and Cena, this bout took place was during the short but intense NXT angle. Another good match for the “Great White,” who pinned Cena after the NXT stable attacked the former champion.
The chronological journey to Sheamus’ greatest moments continues with his win over John Morrison on the November 29, 2010 Raw edition, becoming the newest King of the Ring. In that one-night tournament, Sheamus had beaten Kofi Kingston in the first round and received a bye for the semi-final, only to face Morrison in the final, who had beaten him the week before at the Survivor Series PPV. This was another good, but not great, match.
This King of the Ring win was to be his last before the next match on this DVD. Known as the King of the Ring curse, Sheamus had lost against Morrison in singles and tag teams, lost to the returning Evan Bourne and after losing to Daniel Bryan on Raw, he challenged the latter for his U.S. title, on the March 14, 2011 Raw edition, putting his career on the line if he was to lose again.
Of course, since you don’t need a winning-streak before getting a title nowadays, Sheamus defeated Bryan with a pretty neat finish, hitting his Brogue Kick on Bryan who was coming from the top rope. It is the shortest match but without a doubt the best match on this recollection.
The last encounter on this DVD is the 2012 Royal Rumble. Unfortunately, the match only starts with Sheamus’ arrival in the Rumble, which was late as he was number 22. This was kind of disappointing as the full Royal Rumble match is always a fun one. After eliminating Kofi Kingston and soon after he threw over Jack Swagger, Randy Orton eliminated The Big Show only to be eliminated himself by Chris Jericho, leaving Y2J and Sheamus in the ring.
As one can recall, it was Jericho’s first actual match since his latest return and the two of them really gave a very good exciting one-on-one to the fans in attendance or watching this DVD. After seven minutes, Sheamus won his first Royal Rumble, and was on his way to win the World title at this year’s Wrestlemania.
As huge all of these moments were, this is definitely not a best-of DVD of Sheamus. If so, matches like his Ladder match and Falls Count anywhere against John Morrison, his Hell in a Cell against Randy Orton, his Wrestlemania XXVI and Extreme Rules’ matches against Triple H would have made the cut.
Instead, WWE chose to showcase only the biggest accomplishments Sheamus had so far, probably wanting to leave itself some room for a more complete DVD to come — and this is exactly what every Sheamus fan should hope for. Being the first Irish-born WWE champion, WWE should really capitalize on his roots even more since they had never done a documentary-like DVD on guys like Fit Finlay or William Regal.
So at the risk of a Celtic Cross, I can only recommend this DVD if you are a hardcore fan of Sheamus.
