Shawn Spears Reveals Why He Left AEW, Returned To WWE NXT

Shawn Spears returned to WWE NXT in February 2024, with the former ‘Tye Dillinger’ returning to the company a little under two months since his exit from All Elite Wrestling.

The ‘Chairman’ recently spoke to Fightful about his NXT return, revealing that his AEW exit was ‘amicable’:

"It’s very important to me. I am somebody who, for whatever anybody wants to say about me throughout the course of 20+ years that I’ve been doing this, one thing that’s gonna be hard for them to say is that I have been unprofessional. I’m a very big believer that in ‘professional wrestler,’ that word ‘professional’ is paramount. It’s key. It’s almost more important to me than the second word that comes into play. It was amicable. Absolutely. As was me leaving WWE in 2019. Again, I like to think that over the years I have accumulated a level of respect from my peers, from the people that employed me. There’s obviously a two way street there with a great deal of respect. So having things like that will prevent things from being nasty. They don’t need to get to that point. It was just a time that I felt it was best for me, best for my family and as difficult as some decisions are sometimes, it’s nice to know that mutual respect can allow things to go smoothly. Much smoothly than they may,” said Spears.

Spears continued, noting how he relished the chance at being part of NXT once more:

"It was important to me to be able to come back to this company. That was the first big question, of whether or not it was a possibility. Once the possibility was a definite possibility then it became about, what is the best course of action to take going forward? Let’s be honest, let’s be clear as day. I’m not gonna tell you guys anything you don’t already know. WWE’s on fire across the board. The numbers have never been better and I don’t know all the numbers. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t know all the numbers. But what I do know of them is that we’re smashing record after record. The attendance is going through the roof, merchandise is off the charts. That wheel that we talked about is spinning faster and stronger than ever. So to be able to come back into that and be a spoke on that wheel again and be able to contribute in anyway that I can is massive.

“Once the opportunity came to come to NXT, I jumped all over it. There’s gonna be people watching this right now that are saying, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to go to RAW? Why wouldn’t you want to go to Smackdown?’ NXT is also killing it. I’ve been here for a couple weeks now and I have seen talent that has blown me away. What I love about that is that it takes me back to when I first started training or reminds me of my time here in the Performance Center being in the spot that they’re in right now, knowing where they’re going to have the possibility to go, the things they’re gonna go through. I’m able to help guide in that sense, too, with my time here at the Performance Center. My responsibilities in WWE are a little more than just in the ring. That is something that I don’t take likely and something I am massively interested in. At the end of the day, what it boils down to after a conversation with my wife, I get to wake up every morning and see my son and play with him and do whatever I need to do and then I get to be home in my bed every night, sleeping beside my wife. So in the middle of that, the in between that, if I get to go hang out and learn from the Shawn Michaels of our world or the Matt Blooms or I get to be a big kid in between those very important things, and I get to do that every day. Tell me how I made the wrong call. Tell me how I made a bad decision there, man,” said Spears.

H/T: Fightful