{"id":164025,"date":"2026-07-05T18:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=164025"},"modified":"2026-07-05T18:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:39:15","slug":"former-wwe-champion-set-to-leave-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/07\/05\/former-wwe-champion-set-to-leave-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Former WWE Champion Leaving the Promotion Soon?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful<\/a>, former WWE World Champion Sheamus is set to leave WWE. <\/span>It has been reported that Sheamus was not released from his WWE contract but had declined a contract extension after WWE approached him with a restructured deal while he was injured. <\/span>As his WWE contract was set to expire soon, the company decided to let his contract expire and not release him.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no word on when exactly Sheamus\u2019 contract will expire, but it seems that it will happen shortly.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Look at Sheamus\u2019 WWE Career<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sheamus\u2019s departure marks the end of a 20-year run with the company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheamus would begin his WWE run in their developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, where he would become a former FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Debuting as a member of the ECW brand, Sheamus was seen as a top prospect in 2009 and rose through the ranks, moving to the Raw brand and becoming WWE Champion after defeating John Cena in a Tables match at WWE\u2019s TLC event, just six months after making his main roster debut.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sheamus
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following his first reign, Sheamus continued his success by main-eventing multiple pay-per-view events, winning three more world titles, becoming a three-time United States Champion, a five-time Tag Team Champion, winning the 2012 Royal Rumble, the 2015 Money in the Bank Ladder match, and the 2010 King of the Ring tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheamus had highly acclaimed runs, including his time with Cesaro as part of the tag team The Bar, and gained even more popularity later in his singles career, especially after a fantastic match against the then-Intercontinental Champion Gunther at Clash at the Castle in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also delivered memorable matches against Gunther and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 39 and Edge\u2019s final WWE match on Friday Night SmackDown<\/a> in August 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

However, Sheamus struggled with injuries after 2023 and had not appeared since the November 17, 2025, edition of Monday Night Raw, where he teamed with John Cena and Rey Mysterio to defeat The Judgment Day in what would be John Cena\u2019s final Raw match at Madison Square Garden.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following this match, Sheamus was set to compete in The Last Time is Now tournament to earn the right to face John Cena in what would be his final match at the December edition of Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Sheamus was taken out of the tournament due to an undisclosed injury and was replaced by returning Zack Ryder.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is next for the Celtic Warrior?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Monday
A WWE Raw graphic of Sheamus and Rusev. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s unknown what\u2019s next for the former world champion.<\/span><\/p>\n

AEW and TNA are two potential companies likely to try signing the Celtic Warrior to a long-term deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

For AEW, Sheamus would join many other wrestlers who have a huge history with him, including Claudio Castagnoli, Adam Copeland, and Christian Cage. There would also be a chance for him to face a brand new crop of talent that he has never faced before, which could lead to many fresh matchups.<\/span><\/p>\n

For TNA, Sheamus would be a massive boost for the promotion, especially with Mike Santana seemingly departing the promotion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the TNA main event scene looking weaker and new wrestlers needed, Sheamus would be put in a great spot on the card and also have a fresh batch of new matchups, as well as having the opportunity to face old foes, such as Nic Nemeth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible that Sheamus could work overseas in Mexico and Japan or explore other opportunities outside of wrestling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Promotions like CMLL or NJPW would be a good fit for Sheamus, especially with his bruiser style of wrestling.<\/span><\/p>\n

With there being many options in the current wrestling scene, the Celtic Warrior will have many different promotions to choose from, and many promotions will be interested in bringing him in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Preview:
A WWE Raw graphic featuring Sheamus and Bron Breakker. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, former WWE World Champion Sheamus is set to leave WWE. It has been reported that Sheamus was not released from his WWE contract but had declined a contract extension after WWE approached him with a restructured deal while he was injured. As his WWE contract was set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5885,"featured_media":163477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,2192,3],"tags":[399],"class_list":["post-164025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-sheamus"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164031,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164025\/revisions\/164031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}