AEW star Shawn Spears used to work in WWE under the name of Tye Dillinger. While Dillinger had a decent run in WWE, it wasn’t really memorable and despite having a fan following, the company didn’t see much in him.
This led to him eventually requesting his release from WWE in February 2019 and was granted the release three days afterwards. Spears would make his debut AEW in their first-ever pay-per-view, Double Or Nothing 201,9 where he was part of the Casino Battle Royale match.
While speaking to Inside The Ropes, Shawn Spears talked about what ultimately led him to make the decision to leave WWE for AEW. Spears revealed that he didn’t have confidence in leaving WWE at first but in the end, Spears decided to request his release as he didn’t want to have any regrets.
“I didn’t have it (confidence) at first. I think that was about as close to a six-month process of just every day thinking about it. Every week, going to work. It took a lot because obviously, I think she was my fiancee at the time, still worked there. I had all my friends that worked there.
I got along great with a lot of NXT management. It was just… It was a tough situation, but I knew… And I don’t know how, I don’t know how I knew, but I just felt, I guess that’s probably the better way to say it, that if I didn’t leave and take a shot on myself and see what I was at least capable of, in 30-40 years down the road, I was going to say I should have. I knew that that’s what I was going to do. I was going to look back on this time and go, ‘Damn it, I should have taken a shot on myself.’ And I’m a big believer in – the worst feeling in the world is probably regret. And there’s nothing… At a time where you can’t do anything about it.”
Spears is currently part of The Pinnacle faction in AEW and has become a mainstay of AEW television and receiving more focus than ever before. We will have to see if Spears will eventually win a singles title in the company as well.