Shawn Spears recently appeared as a guest on Insight With Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Spears commented on also having a behind-the-scenes role with the company:
“My responsibilities are more than what you see on camera. 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 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. When they seize up or panic or have a great match, I know all of those feelings. When things go well, I’m able to be like, ‘Enjoy this. Remember what it feels like. There are going to be down points. Eye on the prize.’ When things don’t go well or are 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. I’m able to understand and put myself in those shoes and I’m able to guide in the right way.”
Spears also commented on his departure from AEW…
“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 EVPs, talent, everything. I had a wonderful time. I got to learn a lot about myself as a businessman, a lot more of what not to do, and a little bit more so of it’s okay to kind of put your foot down. It’s okay 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 Max 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.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(quotes courtesy of Robert DeFelice)
