Following his hard-fought loss to Rusev at Clash in Paris yesterday, Sheamus has taken to Instagram to reveal the brutal battle scars from their Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybrook match. The veteran posted a photo showcasing the physical toll of the bout, captioning it, “I asked for it.. i got it. The old Rusev is back. Merci Paris.”
The match in France, which marked Sheamus’s first on a premium live event since 2022, was a chaotic, no-rules brawl. It featured weapons like steel chairs and kendo sticks, as well as a unique ringside setup with a wooden bar and whiskey barrels. Key moments included Sheamus delivering a White Noise to Rusev from a stack of barrels through two tables, and Rusev later slamming Sheamus through the ringside bar.
The grueling contest ended when Rusev used a piece of a broken shillelagh to add leverage to his Accolade submission hold, forcing Sheamus to tap out. This was a notably rare occurrence, marking only the second time the 16-year veteran has submitted in a televised WWE match. His only other tap-out loss was to Bobby Lashley on an episode of Raw in 2021.
The high-stakes encounter was booked by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce to bring a decisive end to the rivalry between the two. Their feud began shortly after Rusev returned to WWE earlier this year and escalated after a match on the August 4 episode of Raw ended in a double count-out, leading to the Donnybrook stipulation for Paris.
The victory provides significant momentum for Rusev in his first major singles match since rejoining the company. For Sheamus, however, the path forward is less clear despite having signed a new five-year contract with WWE earlier in 2025.
The event in Paris wasn’t without incident for Sheamus outside the ring. Before the show, he was involved in a tense situation with an aggressive crowd of fans inside a mall, where he was recorded telling them to “Calm down!” after a woman was nearly pushed over.