Shawn Spears On Why He Turned Down A Big Pay Raise With WWE, Why He Thinks They Granted His Release

A few months ago Tye Dillinger was granted his release, and he returned to the independent circuit to work as Shawn Spears. The news of his release was surprising to many, as WWE has refrained from releasing other talents in recent months.

Spears recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet about why he thinks the company granted his release while they denied the requests of others, and he said he listed off a number of possible reasons.

“That’s tough to answer because no one else was granted their release. And it’s one of three things, maybe it was a mutual respect that I had built up with them. I was with them for eight and a half years total including my first time around. I did things right, I never got into any trouble. I was professional and I carried myself well and always did what I was asked to do. So that was one thing, the other thing is that statement that I put out later that evening on February 19th kind of handcuffed them a little bit. If they would have kept me, that might have made a lot of people unhappy. If they would have kept me and utilized me in a negative way or have me get killed on TV every week that would have made people upset. I think it put me in the best position possible to get what I was looking for. And the third possible reason is maybe they didn’t see anything in me and they go ‘You know what? We don’t see any value. It is time to go, so go ahead and to be honest with you I really hope it’s that one. I really, really do because that just fuels a little more fire.”

The former WWE Superstar also talked about why he turned down a big pay raise, and he noted that he didn’t want to live with regret.

“Because I’m scared s***less of regret. It’s going to matter to me when I’m 70 and I’m not mobile and I can’t do much else with my life except think, I’m going to think about three things: whether I was a good person, whether I was a good father and whether or not I lived a life worth living and that includes what I did with my career. So did I settle for money that I could no longer use. It might support my family, that’s great, but it’s no use to me selfishly. Or am I going to, when all I can do is think, think back and smile and go I did it on my terms. I finished the matches the way I wanted to. I went out of my in ring career the way I wanted to. Those things later on in life are all that I’m going to be able to think about. That was the deciding factor when asking to leave. I didn’t let them get the number out. They told me they were going to give me a substantial raise and I just went it’s not going to change how I feel tomorrow morning when I wake up.”

It was recently announced that Spears has signed with AEW. Do you think he made the right choice? Sound off in the comments below.