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Shawn Spears & Cassie Lee Announce Birth Of Their Son

By John Canton • Published 20th January 2023
shawn spears cassie lee peyton royce

There’s wonderful news to announce as Shawn Spears and Cassie Lee shared the news that she has given birth to the couple’s baby boy.

It was announced by AEW’s Shawn Spears on Twitter that Cassie Lee and himself are proud parents to a baby boy named Austin Jay, who was born on Tuesday, January 17th. Spears shade a photo of the couple’s hands along with their baby boy.

Shawn’s real name is Ronnie Arneill, so the baby’s name is likely Austin Jay Arneill.

The couple met when they were in NXT together with Spears using the name Tye Dillinger while Lee was known as Peyton Royce in WWE.

During Lee’s career in WWE as Peyton Royce, she often teamed up with her best friend Billie Kaye to form a team known as The IIconics. That duo won the Women’s Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Royce and Kay were released by WWE in April 2021 putting an end to their six-year runs in the company.

The IIconics would move on to Impact Wrestling in October 2021 where they became The IInspiration using the names Cassie Lee (Royce) and Jessie McKay (Kay). They went on to win the Knockouts Tag Team Titles there. Their Impact run was brief because, in April 2022, the duo announced they were stepping away from wrestling. Obviously, in Lee’s case, that plan involved having her first child.

As for Spears, he had multiple runs in WWE including six years as Tye Dillinger from 2013 to 2019. While he didn’t win any titles in WWE, he was popular with the “Perfect Ten” gimmick.

Spears has been with AEW since the company’s first year in 2019. He has feuded with Cody Rhodes and was part of The Pinnacle group led by MJF, but he hasn’t been used much on television over the last year. Spears also has a wrestling school that he runs with former WWE superstar Tyler Breeze.

Shawn Spears and Cassie Lee also recently donated to the GiveSendGo page set up for Jay Briscoe’s family following his tragic death. Their son’s middle name is also Jay, possibly in honor of Jay Briscoe as well.

Congratulations to Shawn, Cassie, and their family on the arrival of Austin.