Shawn Spears is certainly enjoying his time in All Elite Wrestling.
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After becoming a star with WWE NXT as Tye Dillinger, he never quite gained a foothold once he was brought up to the main roster. During an interview recently with Muscle and Fitness, Spears talked about what went wrong with his time on the WWE main roster.
“I take great pride in being able to work with anybody,” Spears said. “Whether it be a brand-new talent, whether it be someone who has been in wrestling for four or five years, or even 15 to 20, I take pride in being able to cover the spectrum when it comes down to match preparation and execution. But that can also pigeonhole you, and I was pigeonholed for quite a long time. On one hand, I was very reliable when they (WWE) needed something done. I was there and I got it done, but at the same time I couldn’t break through the glass ceiling that seemed to be placed over my head. Now, that has changed.
“I have taken my career into my own hands, been given an opportunity to be on a worldwide platform (in AEW) with no restrictions. Now, this is all on me. Now there’s no more “Oh, well, maybe you are being held back or it’s not him it’s creative.” I want all that out of the way, I want everything to fall on my shoulders now. Regardless of what happens, when I’m seventy years old, I can look back and say that I did this the way I wanted to, on my terms, and I gave it everything I got.”
So what does the former NXT star think about his former employer going head to head with his new employer on Wednesday nights starting on October 2nd?
“I think no matter who is on, on whatever timeslot, everyone is going to be motivated regardless,” Spears said. “We are gonna do our thing on Wednesday nights, we’re gonna tear it up and if you watch, fantastic, we think you are in for one hell of a treat and if you don’t watch, you are missing one hell of a show, it is really that simple. But that is the beautiful thing about providing an alternative, it benefits the audience. Not just the audience of AEW, or WWE, or Impact, or Ring of Honor, it benefits the everyday casual wrestling fan. You now have another option.
“I can’t speak for everybody, but we are not looking at it as a head-to-head competition, where we need to knock these guys out of the water, we are going to go out there and do our thing.”
Spears wrestled Cody Rhodes at AEW All Out last weekend in Chicago, taking a spinebuster from wrestling legend Arn Anderson in the process.
