Shawn Spears Makes His WWE Return on NXT: Former AEW star Shawn Spears made a shock return to WWE on this week’s episode of NXT when he surprise attacked Ridge Holland with a steel chair.
Spears, who was known by the name Tye Dillinger back during his first stint with WWE, was released by the Stamford-based promotion back in 2019. After that, he joined AEW, which back then was the home of his long-time friend Cody Rhodes.
While he made an impressive first impression in AEW at the 2020 Fight For The Fallen show by hitting Rhodes right on top of the head with a chair, his subsequent run in the company did not bore much fruit.
In his three-year stint in the Tony Khan-owned promotion, he was given the nickname of “The Chairman”, he was managed by legendary wrestler Tully Blanchard and even became part of MJF’s faction, The Pinnacle.
But after Cody Rhodes’ exit from the All Elite in 2022, Shawn Spears saw less and less time on television. His last match in AEW came at September 20203’s All Out pay-per-view, where he participated in the Over the Budget Charity Battle Royal and was eliminated by the Aussie Open.
After spending the past few months in indie promotions like World Series Wrestling and DPW, Spears returned to WWE and will be part of the NXT brand.
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Shawn Spears Makes His WWE Return on NXT
Several cryptic vignettes have been shown on NXT TV for the past few weeks, with people speculating that these could signal the WWE debut of former IWGP World Champion Kazuchika Okada.
On this week’s episode of the white-and-gold brand, Ridge Holland was cutting a promo when the arena went dark, the same ‘three faces’ vignettes started playing all over the arena and a recognizable voice cut a promo through the PA system.
Then, a shadow figure wearing a hoodie struck Holland with a chair. This person then removed the hoodie and revealed himself to be Shawn Spears.
In what was another unexpected part of his presentation, during a backstage promo, he was referred to as Shawn Spears. It seems that his former WWE name, Tye Dillinger, is being ditched in favor of his name on AEW and the Indies.
Several WWE Superstars referenced Spears’ return to WWE, with most of them referring to his Tye Dillinger gimmick by tweeting the number ’10’.
Shawn’s friend Cody Rhodes took to X and just tweeted, “10.”
On the other hand, The New Day star Xavier Woods posted a GIF of Kobe Bryant showing a ‘10’ sign.
Shawn Sears himself tweeted about his return with a simple message, “I’m Back.”
With it looking like Shawn Spears will keep his AEW name and gimmick in WWE, it will send out a solid message to other AEW wrestlers who are looking to jump ship to WWE.
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