Shawn Spears & Mike Santana Reveal Why They Left AEW

During a recent appearance on the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast, WWE NXT Superstar Shawn Spears discussed his reasons for leaving AEW, his return to WWE, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On returning to WWE with the Spears name: “It means a good deal to me. Not to take anything away from the Tye Dillinger thing, only because the way I got the name Tye Dillinger was pretty special to me, so that holds a special place in my heart. I don’t know if I’ve ever explained this. Dillinger I kind of came up with on my own, based on John Dillinger, the famous bank robber from back in the day, just public enemy number one but loved by the public and that kind of stuff. So I always have a fascination with things like that. Then Dusty Rhodes was the one who gave me the name Tye so that name will always kind of carry a special weight to it. But being away and going back to a name that I picked from a baby book way back when I was first starting out and being able to kind of put some weight behind it a little bit in terms of what I was able to do with that over the course of X amount of years. When I came back to WWE, it was presented as an option, which I’ve felt very grateful for. It was a conversation. It was like, how would you like to proceed? Would you want to go back here, or do you want to kind of hang on to this? And I just said, Let’s hang on to this. Let’s see what we can do. Coming back, a fresh start, a fresh slate. Let’s see what we can do. So it meant a lot that I had the option. And yeah, we’re still building baby, still building.”

On why he decided to leave 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 a 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.”

On what led to his WWE return: “I immediately reached out to Hunter and just said, I am paraphrasing, I can’t remember exactly what I said, just I’m free if there’s interest, the ball’s in your court kind of thing. He just says, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to contribute.’ And he said, ‘Okay, let me see what can happen.’ Then not long after that, I was in touch and when this presented itself, the chance to come back here, I go hold on a second. So you’re telling me, I get to go back to a time frame that was one of my favorites in my career. I get to be around a lot of the coaches that help kind of build me up to this point and I get to be under Shawn Michaels. I get to understand how he thinks, I get to work and see how he operates. Then I get to kind of pass that knowledge down to kids, and I get to pass that on to students at Flat Backs, and I get to be in my bed every night. Yeah, let’s go. Let’s do this. So it was kind of a no brainer. I jumped all over it.”

On his “Stan” segment with Shawn Michaels at Cyber Sunday 2006: “So when they pulled me aside for that, Cyber Sunday 2006. I just gotten down to OVW, and they needed a few extras. So they grabbed me, pulled me over, and this is where I meet Shawn and Hunter for the very first time. They’re doing DX and Shawn is talking with Hunter. He’s like, maybe I’ll talk to him really quick. Shawn turns to me. He goes, ‘What’s your name?’ And this is off [camera], we haven’t begun rolling yet, but we’re gonna roll live here at any minute. My name was Shawn Spears at the time, and I went, Shawn. And he goes, ‘Stan. I’ll kick Stan.’ So he just said, ‘Your name is not Shawn, my name’s Shawn. Your name is Stan.’ So he actually gave me the name. No one else did. He just went, I’ll kick Stan. I was like, this is the best! He’s gonna kick me! Just a kid in a candy store. But, yeah, he gave me the name. So I don’t know if anybody knew that, but it wasn’t creative, it wasn’t someone on the writing team or anybody else. Shawn Michaels, you’re at fault for Stan.”

Mike Santana has also revealed his reasons for leaving AEW.

During a recent appearance on the “3NT Wrestling” podcast, the TNA wrestler commented on the reason he decided to leave AEW, his return to TNA Wrestling, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On leaving AEW: “I need to be world champ. I need to be world champ because — and I keep it a buck bro, when I initially came back to wrestling and decided to start my own journey and split away and carve my own path, it wasn’t met with a lot of support. It wasn’t met with a lot of, ‘Oh, yeah, you can do this.’ Everybody was like, oh, you’re doing career suicide or whatever. I was like, ‘Word.’ You know what I mean? Now it was like, watch me work. For me, when you’re made the world champion of a company, you’re the face of that company. Nothing is going to say success and this dude did it more than being the face of the company.”

On making a statement with his TNA return: “I came back to TNA and I made statement clear as day after that match I had at Rebellion, I’m coming for the top spot. I don’t care who’s there, I don’t care who has a title, I don’t care who takes offense to it, that’s not my business. My business is being at the top spot and that’s exactly my mission now. I will be TNA World Champ, I will be the face of TNA in the future. There’s nobody that’s gonna take that from me.”

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