Mark Long, star of MTV’s The Challenge, has looked back on his altercation with Sheamus at an episode of Raw back in 2021.
The August 9th edition of the show saw the Celtic Warrior defending the United States Championship against Ricochet.
At one point during the match, the Brawling Brutes leader left the ring and walked near to where Long was sitting. This led to the star yelling at the champ, who was all too happy to reciprocate.
Mark Long says things “went crazy” following Sheamus confrontation
During an appearance on Fighful Overbooked, Long recalled that he came to be at the show by chance and his decision to shout at the Irish star was “spontaneous”.
“That was the catalyst for this entire run for me. I met Matthew and Neil from BRCW (Boca Raton Championship Wrestling), they didn’t have BRCW at the time, they went to the charity event Give Kids A World in Florida.
“I met them and they were wrestling fans. Two weeks after, Raw came, and they said, ‘We’re going to be back in town, we have front row tickets, do you want to come?’ ‘Absolutely.’ I went to that with them.
“There was a lull in the match, Sheamus is outside walking, and I spontaneously jumped up and started yelling at him. Nothing was going on, so he noticed it, and started yelling back at me.”
Following the show, things escalated after the incident was picked up by social media and news sites. While that didn’t lead to anything, the pair did meet up by chance a few months later and had some drinks.
“We’re yelling and WWE on FOX posted something about it on their Twitter. My Twitter feed blew up. Maybe it was you guys, someone wrote an article. ‘Mark Long and Sheamus are on a collision course to wrestle.’ That went crazy.
“It led to, I went there for SmackDown in New York, and did a promo for Sheamus. Two months later, Sheamus was checking into a hotel at the same time as me, we ran into each other and he’s like, ‘Hey big guy.’ We started bullshitting. He came out after the show with us and had drinks. It was great.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.