Shawn Spears spoke with the media after his appearance at AEW’s Double Or Nothing event, where he entered the Casino Battle Royal. Spears says no matter where he was on the card, leaving WWE and coming to AEW was the right move for his career.
“Regardless of participating in this or not, it was the right decision for me. I knew what the concept and the plan was going to be. But to actually be here, walk out, see it, see the people, it’s a whole different thing. I’d say that I’m surprised but I’m not. I’m not surprised at all what they pulled off here tonight. When you have those four guys, possibilities are endless. In terms of whether or not I made the right call, I’ve 100% made the right call and I realized that the very day after I made that call.”
I also asked Spears about getting an endorsement from Cody after he requested his WWE release, and what it meant to finally get another chance to work with him here with AEW.
“It was cool because we were kind of in the ring together today at the same time. There were a lot of people in there going over a few things, and we just met and we locked up. I don’t know how many years it’s been since we’ve been in the same ring together. We’ve known each other for a very long time, that’s pretty common knowledge. You know, to get an endorsement from a guy like that, the lineage that his family has, the admiration that I have for that family, for the ups and downs both our careers have been through, any kind of nod from one of your peers is second to none.
Just being here tonight watching him perform, in that atmosphere, knowing all the hard work he put in. To see everything come full circle for him was pretty cool to see. Hopefully, we can continue to do a few cool things together.”
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As a follow-up, Spears was asked how Cody has changed since he worked with him in OVW. Spears talked about how they were a perfect matchup due to benefitting from each other’s strengths, and thinks Cody is just getting started with what he can do:
“I think he’s matured as a performer. When we were first put together, I lacked that fan following and he just lacked experience. We kind of meshed together and benefitted each other greatly. Afterward, he kind of took his own career into his hands and took the reins when he left. He got on his path and did some incredible things, all leading up to tonight. I feel that he’s just scratching the surface, and he’s definitely matured as a performer. I actually look up to him a bit now, the roles have reversed from our original partnership.”
