Shawn Spears Opens Up On Decision To Leave AEW, Explains What Led To His WWE Return
Shawn Spears recently appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the former “Chairman of AEW” and WWE NXT Superstar spoke about his decision to leave AEW, what led to his WWE return and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us by Chris Van Vliet on Thursday where Spears touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On returning to WWE as Shawn Spears: “It means a good deal to me. Not to take anything away from the Tye Dillinger thing, only because the way I got the name Tye Dillinger was pretty special to me, so that holds a special place in my heart. I don’t know if I’ve ever explained this. Dillinger I kind of came up with on my own, based on John Dillinger, the famous bank robber from back in the day, just public enemy number one but loved by the public and that kind of stuff. So I always have a fascination with things like that. Then Dusty Rhodes was the one who gave me the name Tye so that name will always kind of carry a special weight to it. But being away and going back to a name that I picked from a baby book way back when I was first starting out and being able to kind of put some weight behind it a little bit in terms of what I was able to do with that over the course of X amount of years. When I came back to WWE, it was presented as an option, which I’ve felt very grateful for. It was a conversation. It was like, how would you like to proceed? Would you want to go back here, or do you want to kind of hang on to this? And I just said, Let’s hang on to this. Let’s see what we can do. Coming back, a fresh start, a fresh slate. Let’s see what we can do. So it meant a lot that I had the option. And yeah, we’re still building baby, still building.”
On why he left AEW: “I think it just came down to a personal want, in terms of wanting to contribute a little bit more, both in front of the camera and behind the camera. I had a wonderful time in AEW. I have and have had a great relationship with Tony Khan. You’re never going to hear me say anything bad about that guy. Same thing with a lot of EVPs, talent, everything. I had a wonderful time. I got to learn a lot about myself as a businessman, a lot more of what not to do, and a little bit more so of it’s okay to kind of put your foot down. It’s okay to kind of have faith in what you’re worth and faith in your ability and things like that. So it was a really good learning process in terms of being an individual man in a different company. But man, my time there was special, getting to work with all the top guys based on a lot of storylines that I was in with Max and FTR and things like that. So a lot of things that I would have never gotten to do, I think in my career, I was very fortunate enough to do there.”
On what led to the WWE return: “I immediately reached out to Hunter and just said, I am paraphrasing, I can’t remember exactly what I said, just I’m free if there’s interest, the ball’s in your court kind of thing. He just says, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to contribute.’ And he said, ‘Okay, let me see what can happen.’ Then not long after that, I was in touch and when this presented itself, the chance to come back here, I go hold on a second. So you’re telling me, I get to go back to a time frame that was one of my favorites in my career. I get to be around a lot of the coaches that help kind of build me up to this point and I get to be under Shawn Michaels. I get to understand how he thinks, I get to work and see how he operates. Then I get to kind of pass that knowledge down to kids, and I get to pass that on to students at Flat Backs, and I get to be in my bed every night. Yeah, let’s go. Let’s do this. So it was kind of a no brainer. I jumped all over it.”
On the ‘Stan’ segment: “So when they pulled me aside for that, Cyber Sunday 2006. I just gotten down to OVW, and they needed a few extras. So they grabbed me, pulled me over, and this is where I meet Shawn and Hunter for the very first time. They’re doing DX and Shawn is talking with Hunter. He’s like, maybe I’ll talk to him really quick. Shawn turns to me. He goes, ‘What’s your name?’ And this is off [camera], we haven’t begun rolling yet, but we’re gonna roll live here at any minute. My name was Shawn Spears at the time, and I went, Shawn. And he goes, ‘Stan. I’ll kick Stan.’ So he just said, ‘Your name is not Shawn, my name’s Shawn. Your name is Stan.’ So he actually gave me the name. No one else did. He just went, I’ll kick Stan. I was like, this is the best! He’s gonna kick me! Just a kid in a candy store. But, yeah, he gave me the name. So I don’t know if anybody knew that, but it wasn’t creative, it wasn’t someone on the writing team or anybody else. Shawn Michaels, you’re at fault for Stan.”
