Cody Rhodes Compares WWE & AEW Pops, Sheamus Credits Stan Hansen
In a recent interview with Metro, Sheamus discussed the development of his wrestling technique, drawing inspiration from Stan Hansen’s in-ring style, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On using Hansen’s performance as a foundation for his own work: “When I was in FCW, Dr Tom Prichard – who was an unbelievable trainer, loved that guy – he had me watch videos of Stan Hansen. It was a different era and everything, but Stan’s physical style… because I was a lot heavier too, I was about 290, I wasn’t in the shape I was in now. I was bigger and rounded, I was more like a brawler. I watched that stuff and I was like, this is what wrestling needs to be. People wanna see a brawl, they don’t wanna see tippy-tappy shite, they wanna see physicality!”
On ensuring he mitigates the risk for his opponents: “Everything’s done the right way, no noses are being broken – well mine got broken twice. But you’re not hurting anybody. I pride myself on that style.”
In an interview with Fightful, Cody Rhodes discussed how he is trying to build toward the ‘ultimate pop’ in his career and compared the reactions he receives in WWE to what he got in AEW. Rhodes said,
“In both places, the reactions were wild. Arthur Ashe Stadium, I remember, in a way you think, ‘this is the coolest thing ever.’ There is this narrative that people want to push that we ‘weren’t trying for that.’ No, we were absolutely trying for that. It was happening and it was fun. I enjoyed it, not to the degree that I enjoy this, because this is times 100. No matter what times in the night when it happens, there is something special when it happens here. I don’t have one that I favor. The thing I favor is still being built, it’s still happening. The ultimate reaction, the ultimate pop, it doesn’t come every night, it comes maybe once. Once in a career, once in a lifetime. That’s what I’m trying to build to. You always feel a sense of responsibility, but you don’t want to be carny where you’re trying to work them. Working them, you can, but what’s best is to work with the audience. You’re never trying to hoodwink people into believing you’re a bad guy or believing you’re a good guy. That’s like running a political campaign. Just saying it sounds slimly. For me, I just had a lot of confidence. Ego was full, confidence was at an all time high that, I am better than everybody here, and I’m going to bring that in the most positive way I can here and deliver on Monday nights, every week, and hopefully deliver on the big PLEs as often as they come. I had a lot of confidence. The only time my confidence was really rattled was when I tore my pec. I don’t like inconsistency. In my former gig, I barely believed in injuries. You have to believe in them, but you have to have that toil mindset of ‘tape it up and go to the ring.’ I know that’s not the proper mindset, I would not encourage anyone other than me. When that happened, I felt, maybe I’m one of those guys. One of those guys who gets there and ‘maybe it can’t handle it,’ which is why it’s so important that I wrestled. I didn’t want to call out sick. Just the thought of that, my head is spinning. I had to do it.”
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