During a recent WWE ‘12 press event, GamerNode News Director Mike Murphy caught up with WWE Superstar and former WWE Champion Sheamus to discuss The Celtic Warrior’s role in Road to WrestleMania mode, his thoughts on the game itself, voice work for WWE games, and more. You can either listen to or read the full interview below.
Mike Murphy, GamerNode: Hey everybody! This is Mike Murphy, News Director for GamerNode.com and I am with the former WWE Champion Sheamus, who is here to promote WWE ‘12. Sheamus, how are you doing today?
Sheamus: Oh, fantastic fella! I’m just very excited. WWE ‘12: the launch of a brand-new massive game from THQ. And as you saw earlier on I’m featured in one of the career modes, three storyline modes – Road to WrestleMania – so I couldn’t be happier.
GN: Speaking of Road to WrestleMania mode, you’re one of only two people with Triple H, which anytime you’re with Triple H as you well know by yourself is a pretty big deal. And Road to WrestleMania has been a big feature of [the] WWE game series for a couple of years. So how does it feel to be in Road to WrestleMania and when you first found out what was your reaction?
S: It was incredible. I didn’t find out until too long ago. I knew that Randy Orton was on the cover and I saw the trailer for it so I was very excited about it. But I haven’t found out too long ago. It was a couple of weeks ago and fella I couldn’t be more excited. This is literally my third THQ game – third WWE game, what I’m saying – and it’s just amazing. I still can’t get used to the fact that I’m in a video game.
Everything is spot on in this one. I mean trunks – everything – gear, laoch on the whole deal. Has the cool gold, black, and green tights too. So yeah man, everything is spot on and as I said I’m very excited about it.
GN: You said this is your third WWE SmackDown! game-
S: Including All-Stars. WWE All-Stars.
GN: Ah, yes. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2011, All-Stars, and this.
S: Yeah.
GN: When you first went in to do – you said you did motion capture earlier for FCW for these games and you also did voice work. When you first walked in to do voice work and you knew you were going to be in a video game, there was going to be a digitized version of you on the screen that people were going to be playing, how did you feel from that having just come up from FCW just a couple of years prior and coming all the way from Ireland?
S: I hadn’t really seen much, I just went in the studio. I knew that going in there I wanted to put on the -make sure the voice and everything was spot on. I didn’t want anything to seem different from what you would see on television, so I wanted to make sure that that was solid. And that was very important to me too because everything else about this game is…so classic and so spot on to what you see on TV. I mean the graphics are off the charts, the sound, from the way the cameras are rolling through the arenas, the way RAW starts, the way SmackDown! starts, it’s the same thing.
So I wanted to make sure the character, the voice, the verbiage I used for my character in the storylines was perfect the way I say. That’s why I was saying that I use my own brogue and my own sayings and stuff when I was talking. And the producers were very happy with me to do that, so that worked out really well. As I said, watching that back on the screen today is just a testament to how much work has gone into it and how great it is.
GN: Now, you guys are on the road a lot. It’s really grueling. You guys have very limited downtime. Do you happen to have any time to play games while you’re resting up or on the road and are there any in particular that you like to play?
S: I do. I have a bit of time, some time. I do have a PSP that I bring on the road. Some of the guys, like Mark Henry will bring his Xbox with him and stuff like that, or a PlayStation 3. I have a PlayStation 3 at home.
I try to play as much as I can but when we get home sometimes all we want to do is either sleep, do laundry, or catch up paying bills or just get out of the house and stuff. But I’ve definitely been fond of games. Ever since I was a kid with a Commodore 64, Omega 600, Mega Drives, PlayStation 1, [PlayStation] 2, and as I said I’ll definitely make sure I play this game because it’s a lot of fun. Playing it yourself or playing with guys you see on a daily basis. And the great thing about it is I’m at the show all the time and everything about the visuals of this game and the movement of the moves and everything, just so much work has gone into making sure that everything is 100 percent spot on.
GN: There are a lot of Legends and former Superstars in WWE ‘12. Among them [is Stone Cold Steve] Austin, [The] Rock’s a pre-order bonus, there’s also… [Brock] Lesnar just got introduced, there’s Eddie Guerrero, both the Road Warriors, Vader, Kevin Nash. I’m going to go out and ask the typical fan question right now. Out of all those Legends that are going to be in the game that I just named, is there any of them you would most love to have a match with?
S: Brock Lesnar, actually. Brock would be great; big ginger-haired fellow like meself. And he was another big brawler, big brute…the amateur background and stuff. He was always rag-dolling people around like meself, so me and Brock would be a fun match to have.
GN: Yeah. Well, Sheamus, thank you very much for your time.
S: Thank you very much.
GN: And [we] can’t wait to see you in WWE ‘12 in Road to WrestleMania.
S: I appreciate it. Thank you.
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