Former AEW Star Makes Shocking WWE Return

Former AEW star Shawn Spears makes his return to WWE in shocking NXT debut

By Matthew Aguilar

Tonight's NXT was full of surprises, but the biggest was easily the WWE return of a former AEW star. Ridge Holland was delivering a promo about his recent actions against Gallus, but then the lights went out and some cryptic words filled the screen, which are the latest in a series of mysterious teases. Then when the light came on Holland was starting into that light, a figure could be seen picking up a chair. The person hit Holland with the chair and stepped further into the light, revealing themselves to be Shawn Spears, the newest addition to NXT.

This was quite a surprise, and that is rather rare these days in the wrestling world. Most debuts or returns don't stay secret for long, and if they do you at least know they're coming. In this case, the debut itself wasn't discussed beforehand, and Spears being headed to WWE wasn't discussed in previous reports either.

Spears previously confirmed that he had departed AEW and officially became a free agent on January 1st. The reports at the time said that the departure was amicable between Spears and AEW, and Spears thanked the company for allowing him to be a part of the journey on Twitter.

On Twitter Spears wrote, "What a wonderful time it has been. Thank you AEW for allowing me to be there from the ground level. It's been a fantastic 5 years of growth and personal development. This is a personal choice and one that is best for me and my family at this time. Thank you to all, staff and talent alike for the memories. 10."

Shawn Spears is returning to WWE, but he isn't returning to his old persona Tye Dillinger. The Perfect 10 was previously known for the ten count that became a part of his character, but in 2019 he was released by WWE in a wave of talent cuts, and would later join Tony Khan's new company of AEW. Spears made his AEW debut at the first Double or Nothing pay-per-view, and quickly became a staple of AEW in the years that followed.

Now he's back in WWE and looks to be in a feud with Ridge Holland to get things started. We'll have to wait and see what the future holds for Spears now that he's back in NXT, but there are a host of promising match-ups that fans will want to see now that he's back, and it should be fun to watch.

What did you think of Spears' shocking return? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

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