Sheamus and Drew McIntyre turned up in the same photograph this week. Sheamus posted the picture on X from the account he now runs under his own name, S. Farrelly.
The two wrestlers have history going back to their early WWE years and have worked a series of matches against each other, including at Clash at the Castle in 2022. They’ve also been close friends for years.
titans 🏈 pic.twitter.com/4cwQKt32B0
— S. Farrelly (@SFarrellyPro) September 13, 2026
Fightful Select reported on July 5 that WWE approached him about a restructured, reduced deal while he was recovering from shoulder surgery, that he turned it down, and that he would be leaving when his contract expired. Sean Ross Sapp followed that on July 19 with the detail that mattered most, which is that Sheamus remains under contract and becomes a free agent on October 1. Fightful said it was not clear whether time had been added to the deal for injury rehab or why it runs later than first believed.
The offer made to Sheamus was not presented as an ultimatum in the way some other restructured deals have been, and a senior figure inside WWE is said to have pushed internally to keep him. That separates his situation from Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed, who asked for and were granted releases in May after being offered terms Kingston has since said were a cut of more than 50 percent.
The signals since have all pointed one way without anything being confirmed. WWE moved him to the alumni section of its website. He stripped WWE references from his social media accounts, renamed them S. Farrelly and posted a farewell on July 10 that ran a long list of bangers before signing off in Irish. Speaking to Adam Glyn at an airport on July 26, he said only that some circumstances came up that he could not discuss, that he has enjoyed the time off, and that he will use S. Farrelly as his ring name wherever he goes next. Neither he nor WWE has announced a departure.
Sheamus has not wrestled since the November 17, 2025 episode of Raw, where he teamed with John Cena and Rey Mysterio against Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh in what was also Cena’s last Raw match. He had shoulder surgery the following month and was dealing with a head injury suffered in the gym during his rehabilitation.
Sheamus signed with WWE in late 2006 and debuted on the main roster in 2009. He is 48, a three-time WWE Champion and a one-time World Heavyweight Champion, and won the Royal Rumble, King of the Ring and Money in the Bank. The Intercontinental Championship is the only thing standing between him and the Grand Slam.
Claudio Castagnoli, his former tag partner in The Bar, has confirmed the two have been training together but would not be drawn on whether Sheamus is AEW-bound. One report has said a person close to Sheamus believes he would be open to an AEW opportunity, which is a long way short of an offer or a negotiation, and no promotion has confirmed contact. That is as close to a lead as anything public has produced, and it is not close.
October 1 is under three weeks away. Until it passes, a photograph of him standing next to another wrestler is a photograph of him standing next to another wrestler. Whether he shows up in AEW or any other promotion will be a wait and see thing.
