Former WWE Champion Sheamus has revealed the real story behind his iconic mohawk and braided beard look, and how it left Vince McMahon furious.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight podcast, Sheamus confirmed that in 2015, after recovering from an injury, he felt his character had grown “stagnant” and needed a drastic reinvention.
Without seeking company approval, he shaved his head into a mohawk and added braided facial hair, a move he admits was a calculated risk. “The great thing about that was I pissed the brass off on that one, because I didn’t ask for permission, I just did it,” Sheamus said.
He continued, “I think I’ve been off with an injury, and I just kind of felt stagnant… I need something different and cool, right? So I did it, and I think Vince was pissed big time because I didn’t tell him I was doing it.”
Sheamus thought the new look made him a “bleeding ass kicker” and expected an intimidating crowd reaction when he returned.
Instead, WWE fans in Chicago erupted into a now-famous “You look stupid” chant, something he wasn’t expecting but quickly embraced to generate heat. “I thought, man, I look cool, dude. I look badass… I walked out, and then some bollocks in the audience started a ‘You look stupid’ chant, and that was it. It just carried across all the arena. I was like this is not what I was expecting. It was not the reaction that I was going for. It was great… I leaned into it, and it was class. It was fun.”
The mohawk era became one of Sheamus’s most recognizable looks, defining his ruthless heel run during that time.
