Shawn Spears Doesn’t Care About Ratings, Talks Marriage With Peyton Royce While Being in Rival Companies

A lot of wrestlers and fans may be invested in the concept of the Wednesday Night War, but don’t count Shawn Spears among those concerned by ratings. Spears spoke with Denise Salcedo on her Instinct Culture channel for a new interview and discussed the AEW vs. NXT “war,” why he doesn’t worry about ratings and how he and wife Peyton Royce support each other while being on opposite brands. You can see highlights and the full video below:

On the Wednesday Night War ratings discussions: “I could care less about ratings. It’s not in my job description to care about ratings, I don’t get paid to care about ratings. That is a tens of millions of dollar[s] deal, and conversations between executive vice presidents and owners, and network executives. So my job is to go out to the ring and bell to bell, put on the best possible performance I can with the guy that I’m working with. So I’ve never cared about numbers. I’ve also worked in NXT, and even in that time I didn’t care about numbers.”

On his marriage to Peyton Royce with the two being in different companies: “In terms of my wife, she obviously is a Monday nighter, doing very well. It’s not as — I watch her. I watch when she’s on, and you know, kinda give her feedback when she asks for it. And she’ll watch when I’m on Tuesday nights, and she’ll kinda give me feedback or what she thought was good and bad. And that’s the extent of our wrestling conversation. But we love that about each other, and we love watching each other perform, and we like kind of going back and forth about different concepts and ideas.”

On the talent commenting on the ratings: “You’ll hear everyone talk about the Wednesday Night Wars. And some talent in AEW will call themselves a Demo God, and all this kind of jazz. Look, knock yourselves out, sell t-shirts, do whatever you have to do. At the end of the day, I don’t care. All I care about is the fact that 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 million people are talking about professional wrestling on Wednesday nights. That is all that I care about.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Denise Salcedo’s Instinct Culture with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.