Shawn Spears had ‘wonderful’ time in AEW, will never say anything bad about Tony Khan

Working for AEW was a special time in Shawn Spears’ career.

Spears was with AEW for nearly five years, joining the promotion in 2019 and making the decision to leave in December 2023. He’s since returned to WWE as part of the NXT roster.

While appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Spears explained that he left AEW because he wanted to contribute more both in the ring and behind the scenes. But Spears had a wonderful time in AEW and still has a great relationship with Tony Khan:

• 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 the EVPs, talent, everything. I had a wonderful time. I got to learn a lot about myself as a businessman, and a lot more of what not to do, and a little bit more so of — it’s ok to kind of put your foot down. It’s ok 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 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 [MJF] 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.

Spears mentioned working with Sting and Chris Jericho as some of the fun times he had in AEW.

Now that he’s back in WWE, Spears wrestles for NXT and also works behind the scenes for the brand. Spears told Van Vliet that, after leaving AEW, he reached out to Paul “Triple H” Levesque about coming back to WWE. Taking the opportunity to return to NXT was “kind of a no-brainer” for Spears. He loved his first stint in NXT, he gets to sleep in his own bed every night, and he gets to work with the NXT coaches and Shawn Michaels.

Spears’ off-camera role with NXT includes helping to guide younger talent:

• Yeah, my responsibilities are more than just what you see on camera. So I relish in that opportunity. I enjoy it. It’s a learning curve, it’s a lot. But being on TV for as long as I have and being able to multi-task on live television with 15 things happening at once that you have to be aware of, I feel that has helped me behind the scenes, being able to adapt quickly.
• The best thing is: I know what a lot of young talent are going through. So when they seize up, or they panic, or they have a great match and that excitement — I know all of those feelings. So I’m able to kind of, when things go well, I’m able to kind of, ‘Hey man, yeah, enjoy this, remember what this feels like. Because there’s going to be down points. And just remember to keep your eye on the prize.’ And then when things don’t go well, or when things are really hard, or they’re in a tough spot mentally, I’m able to really understand. Because I’ve had a lot of down points too. If we’re looking at it in a totality type way. But I’m able to understand and put myself in those shoes and I’m able to kind of guide in the right way.

The 43-year-old Spears also runs the Flatbacks wrestling school in Florida with former WWE wrestler Tyler Breeze.