Sheamus

Stephen Farrelly (born 28 January 1978) is an Irish professional wrestler and actor.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sheamus.

Prior to joining WWE, he wrestled on the European independent circuit.

Stephen Farrelly was born in the Cabra suburb of Dublin on 28 January 1978.

He was raised on North Great George's Street in Dublin.

He speaks fluent Irish, having attended Scoil Caoimhin Primary and the Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire Secondary School.

During his school years, he sang in the Palestrina Choir until the age of 13; during this time, he appeared on the Irish shows The Late Late Show and Live at 3.

He played Gaelic football for the Erin's Isle team, where he was once proclaimed "sports star of the month".

He also played rugby union for the National College of Ireland, where he gained a National Diploma.

He is a former IT technician and also worked as security for a nightclub, which led to him occasionally working as a bodyguard for Bono and Larry Mullen, Jr. of U2, as well as actress Denise van Outen.

Farrelly was inspired to become a professional wrestler by watching British wrestling on World of Sport and American wrestling via the WWF.

Following advice given to him by Bret Hart, he began training at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory wrestling school in April 2002, alongside Tank Toland and Cliff Compton.

Six weeks later, he officially debuted as a fan favorite against Robert Pigeon under the name Sheamus O'Shaunessy.

After hitting an opponent in the groin, he gained the nickname of the "Irish Curse" (a reference to a slang term supposedly denoting a man's inability to perform sexually after consuming an excessive amount of whiskey).

He soon suffered a serious neck injury after botching a hip toss, sidetracking his career for two years.

Farrelly developed his wrestling character by drawing on Celtic mythology, moving away from Irish stereotypes of lucky charms, leprechauns, and alcoholism while aiming to portray a fiann, a type of mythical Irish warrior.

Having attended an Irish-speaking school, he was aware of the four cycles of Irish mythology and, inspired by the artwork of Jim Fitzpatrick, incorporated 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".

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, facing Mark Burns in a winning effort.

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 he won 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.

O'Shaunessy was still unsuccessful 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.

Although he put on a proficient exhibit and came close to win, his friend Red Vinny interfered in the match and cost him the championship.

In March 2005, he avenged this loss by teaming with Raven to defeat Shane and Vinny.

This victory was part of a winning streak over the end of March where O'Shaunessy wrestled twice a day on 24, 25, 26 – including an 11-man Rumble win – and 27 March with a standard tag match and a ten-man tag team match.

This series of victories, aside from one loss by disqualification to Vain, put him to a good form for the one-day tournament held in County Kildare to crown the inaugural IWW International Heavyweight Champion.

On 28 March, O'Shaunessy put an end to his main rivalries when he defeated Vinny and then Vain in the quarter and semi finals, respectively.

He met Darren Burridge in the final match and won to become IWW's first champion, but had to compete again in an evening show in Dublin, defeating Burridge and Vinny once more in a tag match alongside Vain.

O'Shaunessy's first successful title defence came against Burridge the following month but Burridge would not let his grudge rest, continuing to attack O'Shaunessy and finally costing him the title during a match against D'Lo Brown on 29 May.

O'Shaunessy earned revenge in July by defeating Burridge in a grudge match, though lost to him in an arm wrestling contest the following day.

Still, he continued on his quest to regain the title by winning a contendership three-way match against Vinny and Red Viper in August setting him up to regain the International Heavyweight Championship in October from Brown in Newcastle upon Tyne in England.

After defending his title against Vampiro and Viper, O'Shaunessy found himself embroiled in a new feud with rising Scottish wrestling star "Thee" Drew Galloway, whom he later admitted was his toughest opponent.

On 28 January 2006, he received his first championship match, evolving their rivalry from previous non-title contests.

The rivalry quickly took on a patriotic flavour, with Galloway's blue colours of Scotland clashing O'Shaunnesy's green colours of Ireland, mirroring the Old Firm football derby between Rangers and Celtic, respectively.

After becoming part of WWE's main roster in 2009, he went on to become a four-time world champion, having held the WWE Championship three times and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship once.

He is the first Irish world champion in WWE history, and is also a three-time United States Champion and a five-time tag team champion (four Raw and one SmackDown) with his tag team partner Cesaro.

In addition to these championships, he also won the 2010 King of the Ring tournament, the 2012 Royal Rumble match, and the 2015 Money in the Bank ladder match, making him the second wrestler (after Edge) to achieve all three accomplishments.