Irish wrestler changes path from IT to WWE

Information technology seems like an unusual career route to becoming a professional wrestler.

But that’s exactly the path taken by Sheamus, the Irish giant of WWE SmackDown. He’s one of the featured wrestlers in the SmackDown World Tour, which lands in Amarillo on Saturday for a show in the Amarillo Civic Center Cal Farley Coliseum.

Sheamus grew up watching professional wrestling as a kid in Dublin, even getting mocked by classmates for saying he wanted to be a wrestler.

So he went into IT, “but in the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a WWE superstar,” he said.

He took a chance and came to America in 2002 to go to a wrestling school in New Jersey, but “that was a waste of money and a waste of time.”

A neck injury prompted him to return to Ireland and the safety of another IT job.

“But I couldn’t put that feeling away. I couldn’t put the dream to rest,” he said.

When a wrestling school opened in his homeland, he started taking classes at night and on weekends.

He returned to the United States in 2007, debuting with the WWE two years later.

Though his wrestling dreams have come true, Sheamus said he hasn’t forgotten the laughs from his doubting classmates or the bullying he used to suffer.

“I wasn’t always as big. ... I was a small, fat kid, ya know? Kind of a easy target when I was small — a late bloomer, ya know?” Sheamus said.

That, in part, is why he’s involved with the WWE’s “Be a Star” anti-bullying program.

“As WWE superstars, I feel we have a responsibility to help educate kids. When you’re a child, your teacher isn’t normally the coolest person you know,” he said. “... But when you see a WWE superstar on TV, we can have a positive influence.”