WWE Sheamus Reveals Beef with Shelton Benjamin on ‘Talk is Jericho’ Podcast

Sheamus may have had one of the quickest rises to the top in WWE history. In June 2009, he debuted for the ECW brand and in a few short months he defeated John Cena fairly for the WWE Championship in a Tables match at the aptly named TLC Pay-Per-View. The next night on Raw he was dubbed the breakout Superstar of the year. The quick rise did not come without its critics though as one of the veteran superstars who made it hard for Sheamus was Shelton Benjamin. The Irish born superstar revealed this on Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast

According to Sheamus, Benjamin antagonized him by only referring to the rising newby as "rookie." Sheamus said Benjamin called him this in more of a demining way than in a way that was the typical rookie hazing that wrestling is known for.

"I've got no problem with Shelton, he's an amazing athlete," Sheamus said. "But every time we were sitting down he was calling me rookie. I don't know what it was. I'd never been anything but nice to him and I just wanted to make the feud good."

Sheamus then went on to say that once he beat John Cena for the WWE Championship he rubbed it in Benjamin's face. To Sheamus, it was a fair exchange for the rookie comments.

"It really annoyed me, but I was going to stay professional about it," he said. "At TLC after I beat John Cena, I was sitting there with the championship and I thought to myself, 'Who's the bleedin' rookie now, mate?'"

Sheamus' career began in 2002 at Larry Sharpe's wrestling school called the Monster Factory. Between 2002 and his WWE career he wrestled all around Europe from Dublin to Europe. Even after signing with the WWE he spent two years in their developmental Florida Championship Wrestling territory.