Stephen Farrelly () (born 28 January 1978) is an Irish professional wrestler and actor, best known by his ring name Sheamus, . He is signed with WWE and competes on the Raw program, currently tag teaming with Cesaro, where they are former 2 time Raw Tag Team Champions.
Prior to joining WWE, Farrelly was also a two-time International Heavyweight Champion during his tenure in Irish Whip Wrestling. He is a three-time World Champion, having held the WWE Championship on two occasions and is the current World Heavyweight Champion in his first reign. He also won the King of the Ring in 2010 and the Royal Rumble in 2012, as well as the WWE United States Championship once.
Early life
Farrelly was born in Cabra, Dublin and was raised within the city. His father, Mark, was an amateur bodybuilder. Farrelly speaks fluent Gaelic, having attended Scoil Caoimhin Primary and Secondary School, a Gaelscoil During his school years he sang in the Palestrina Choir until the age of thirteen, as part of which he appeared on the Late Late Show and Live at Three television programmes. He played Gaelic football for the Erin's Isle team where he was declared sports star of the month. He also played rugby for the National College of Ireland, where he gained a National Diploma.
Farrelly is a former IT technician. He also worked as security for a nightclub which led to him occasionally working personal security for Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 as well as Denise van Outen.
Professional wrestling career
Training and character development (2002–2004) Farrelly's inspiration into a professional wrestling career came from watching both British wrestling from ITV's World of Sport and American wrestling from the World Wrestling Federation on Sky One. On the advice of Bret Hart, Farrelly began training in Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory wrestling school in April 2002, alongside Tank Toland, Cliff Compton and Cindy Rogers. Six weeks later he officially debuted as a fan favorite under the name Sheamus O'Shaunessy against Robert Pigeon. It was during this time that he developed the nickname the "Irish Curse" after low-blowing an opponent. He soon suffered a serious neck injury after botching a hip toss which sidetracked his career for two years.
Farrelly soon developed his wrestling character by drawing on Celtic mythology. Wanting to move away from limiting Irish stereotypes of lucky charms, leprechauns and alcoholism, he instead wanted to portray an Irish warrior. Going to a Gaelscoil, Farelly grew up aware of the four cycles of Irish mythology and, inspired by the artwork of Jim Fitzpatrick, incorporated the sword and axe-wielding imagery into his gimmick. This included the design of his own pendant, the crossos, which combines the Celtic cross with a Celtic War sword to illustrate his character's "indigenous origins with a hybrid of warrior strength matched with a strong ethical centre."
Irish Whip Wrestling (2004–2006)
In May 2004, still using the ring name Sheamus O'Shaunessy, Farrelly returned to wrestling at the newly opened Irish Whip Wrestling (IWW) school in Dublin. He then made his debut match for the promotion at their Mount Temple show on 9 July against Mark Burns, who he easily defeated. He went on to win a battle royal the following month.
O'Shaunessy spent the rest of the year engaged in a rivalry with Vid Vain after losing to his tag team partner Joey Cabray the same night as winning the battle royal. On 22 and 23 October they traded wins, leading to O'Shaunessy recruiting help from CJ Summers to help defeat the tag team on 24 October. Still O'Shaunessy failed to defeat Vain in singles action the following day.Despite these losses, his impressive showings earned him a place against Alex Shane in a guest match for the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) British Heavyweight Championship. Despite putting on a strong showing and being close to winning, his friend Red Vinny interfered in the match and cost him the championship.