The Real Reason AEW Star Left To Join WWE
Shawn Spears shocked many when he appeared back in WWE following a nearly five-year stay in AEW and now he’s revealed why he made the jump.
Ridge Holland was in the ring on the 27th of February edition of NXT protesting his innocence over more recent storyline injuries attributed to him when the lights went out. The ‘Three Faces’ vignettes that have aired in recent weeks saw their latest play on the video screen and when they stopped a spotlight illuminated the ring and the mystery man who cracked Holland with a steel chair.
That man was AEW original Shawn Spears who is now back in WWE after five years away. Spears was known as The Chairman in AEW after he cracked Cody Rhodes with a brutal unprotected chair shot that busted The American Nightmare wide open.
Shawn Spears Explains Choosing WWE Return Over AEW Stay
Speaking to Sean Ross Sapp for Fightful, Shawn Spears explained his reason for leaving AEW and why he wanted the process to be handled as amicably as possible:
It’s very important to me. I am somebody who, for whatever anybody wants to say about me throughout the course of the 20-plus [year] career that I’ve been doing this, one thing that’s going to be hard for them to say is that I have been unprofessional. I’m a very big believer that as a professional wrestler, that word professional is paramount, is key. It’s almost more important to me than the second word that comes into play. It was amicable, absolutely.
It was just a time that I felt 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 more smoothly than they may.
As far as a return to WWE, Spears explained that it was important that he was able to make a return to the company and that only a select few people knew it was happening:
It was important to me to be able to come back to this company (WWE). That was the first big question, of whether or not that was a possibility and once the possibility was a definite possibility, then it became about what is the best course of action to take going forward.
This was pretty much kept close to the chest. I didn’t tell a lot of friends, I didn’t tell a lot of close friends. I told my wife and I told her, ‘Do not tell your friends, don’t tell your best friends, don’t tell anybody.’ I didn’t tell my family, I didn’t tell anybody.
The main people that knew was Hunter (Triple H) Shawn (Michaels), his team here and that was pretty much it. A lot of the coaching staff had no idea, the talent had zero idea. I was kept in a room for the majority of the day. It was just a matter of keeping things as tight-lipped as possible.
Since his return to WWE, Spears has defeated Uriah Connors and Ridge Holland as he looks to make his mark on the NXT brand on his second time around.