Jay's Ways - Shawn Spears Debacle Submitted by Justin Watry on 12/26/2020 at 06:42 PM
Let me tell all of you a quick story about Tye Dillinger.
He was a pretty good wrestler in NXT. He had the fan support. He had the chants, the catchphrase, the look, the personality, and the entire wrestling world cheering him on. It worked for him. Everything he did was a "10." That was his deal. Two hands up with five fingers in each hand. Ten, ten, ten. Kind of a small rift on Mr. Perfect but in his own fun way to make it a 'face' thing rather than a 'heel' thing.
People loved it.
After awhile though, NXT was no longer for Tye. He was above that and had to make that next step. Up to Raw and/or Smackdown. It made sense. Just how things go in the WWE hierarchy. Thus, he debuted on the main roster, and immediately fans started getting their hopes up for his future. What would he do? How many titles would he win? How cool was Mr. 10 going to be?
Turns out he did a whole lot of nothing.
Like, flat nothing.
Coming February, he realized he wasn't going anywhere and requested his release. To the shock of many, it was actually granted. Usually WWE likes to drag this process out through legal crap and not just giving the talent their release outright. Make them wait or at least earn a little back in a settlement. Whatever, I get it. It's a business. You have to do it sometimes, even when it may seem cold blooded. With Tye Dillinger though, it was granted.
Certainly interesting, especially because All Elite Wrestling was starting up at the time, and the would never want to willingly give their new competitor a star.
Well, he did go to AEW. A long time buddy of Cody Rhodes' - you do the math there folks. It was only a matter of time before he showed up, so it wasn't any entire shock when he did. Coo. Good for him. The handcuffs were going to be off! He was going to show WWE! He was going to prove all the critics wrong! He was going to be Shawn Spears now and not some silly "10" guy! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!
Yeah!
Yeah.
Yeah...
After a hot start feuding with (of all people) Cody, he lost their first match and has spiraled since. I would have never had him lose the first match right after debuting, but I don't have an Executive spot within the company. What do I know? Anyways, AEW tried giving him a glove, tried giving him a tag team partner, tried giving him a legendary manager and even tried to give him some wins! Amazing concept, I know. It didn't work.
None of it worked.
Now we may know why WWE was all too eager to let the guy walk away without any fight.
This past week, he finally had enough. Just like early 2019 with WWE, he showed his frustration and was tired of not being able to showcase his talents. Shawn Spears claimed to have all the makings of a top talent and blah, blah, blah. When questioned that maybe it was HIS fault he constantly fell flat, he stormed off and made a fuss. Well, now he has been removed from the roster page on the AEW website and most of his social media pages are blank. Just like his 19 year resume.
I know this is a story line, but the facts are the facts. WWE and NXT couldn't do much with him, despite doing their best with a fanbase cheering him on. Just as now AEW has attempted at least four different gimmicks to get fans to care about him. Viewers obviously haven't taken to him, hence the near 20 year career with nothing but 'potential' as his middle name. My guess is he shows up on Impact Wrestling as part of this crossover deal with AEW. Impact is about as low as it goes in the wrestling world, so it would make sense.
How about YOU? Anybody care about the latest attempt at building up Shawn Spears?
