Shawn Spears On Wanting to Turn Heel in WWE, How He Came Up With His AEW Heel Character

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet recently, Shawn Spears revealed that being able to turn heel was one of the clinchers for his decision to sign with AEW. Spears was a perennial babyface in WWE as Tye DIllinger, but when he left and then later signed with AEW, he took on a very different role as he feuded with Cody, got Tully Blanchard in his corner and played up his new heel persona. Spears talked about how he wanted to turn heel during his WWE run and how he developed the character he currently portrays in AEW. Highlights and the full video are below:

On what clinched his decision to sign with AEW: “Coming in in a different role. So when I was asked, ‘What do you want to do coming in here?,’ I said, ‘I just really wanna be a heel.’ I had asked to be a heel probably a year and a half before I left WWE … what I was doing as a babyface wasn’t really working either. It was just kind of time to switch. The crowds were turning on me at live events. I was like, ‘Oh, this is a perfect opportunity.’ So it was the first thing, like, ‘You know, if I can switch and see what I’m capable of as a heel, that would be fantastic.’ So I was given that opportunity.

On being able to be a part of something big in AEW: “And the fact that it was just something groundbreaking. I say this to many people, like everybody always talks about the Attitude Era. Like, the Monday Night War. Well, it took another almost 20 years for something like that to come around again. So something like this that happened with AEW and WWE, and now NXT and AEW and all that kind of stuff — it’s not gonna happen again in my in-ring career. I’m not going to be a part of anything like that. So I had a chance to get in on the ground level of something fresh. What is new in wrestling anymore? Very little. So that was very appealing to me. I wasn’t promised the world. I didn’t ask for pushes, I didn’t make any demands. It was like, ‘Look, if you want to work here, we’d love to have you. And it’s all on you. You’re gonna get out of this what you put in.’ And that was all I really wanted.”

On if he had his heel character decided on already: “Nope … I’m just a big believer in, the business is evolving. And I know that kind of rubs some people who have been in the business a very long time the wrong way. ‘Oh, it’s too fast. The moves are too high-risk.’ Like everything, the industry evolves. So when I sit back and go, okay. It is getting a little faster. It is getting a lot more high-risk, and a lot of heels nowadays want to be like, maybe the ‘cool heel.’ They want to do stuff to get kind of cheered. Okay well, I’ll take a step back. What’s old can be new again. So you know what? I won’t do anything flashy. I won’t have crazy pyro, I won’t come out and try and amp of the fans to get cheered. I’m all business, I walk with Tully Blanchard. We care about one thing: winning, money, all that other kind of Horsemen stuff. I’ll leave the fancy stuff to my opponents. Let them get cheered, I get booed, and we do what needs to be done. Whether it works or not, I don’t know. That depends on the audience, but that’s just the mentality. I’m a big fan of the old-school Mr. Perfect, Rick Martel, Rick Rude kind of heel guys. I just love those kind of heels, those are the guys I grew up on.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.