Shawn Spears Discusses The Challenges Of Creative Freedom In AEW

Shawn Spears made an immediate impact in AEW during his feud with Cody, waffling him with a chair, which eventually led to a match between the two at All Out. 

Since then, Spears has remained an active player on Dynamite and Dark thanks to his pairing with Tully Blanchard, though hasn’t reached the same level he was at a year ago.

Speaking to Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture, Spears discussed his time in AEW. 

“I think in my time in AEW, I haven’t been put in a very prominent position. I came in very high profile against Cody, which anybody in that spot is gonna be high profile when you’re facing a guy like that but that was in a time when there was no AEW Dynamite yet that received a lot of attention. Since then I think I have shown a lot of versatility…and I ‘ve proven that I am pound for pound the most well rounded performer AEW has. I even put myself up against anybody on that roster in terms of being able to adapt to any situation on any given night, in any given moment and that just comes with nearly twenty years of experience and paying attention to the guys that I’ve tried to emulate throughout my career… I also feel I’ve earned trust, because I believe in doing the right thing, I believe in professionalism, I believe in putting on the best possible match regardless of the scenario for our audience,” he said.

Many in AEW have discussed the creative freedom they have with ex-WWE wrestlers believing it to be night and day between the two companies. Though creative freedom can lend itself to more success, it can also lend itself to more challenges as the onus is on the performer. 

“Coming in the door I heard that talent was gonna have creative freedom. I heard they were pretty much gonna have to put everything on their shoulders, whether it was gonna succeed or fail, it was gonna be on the talent, and I was like ‘okay well there is still gonna be some restrictions and some guidelines and there really isn’t.’ And that is a beautiful thing for someone that’s been around for 20 years and someone who’s been around for 2 years, just coming into the door of AEW. The ownership of your career is on you, so that is the biggest difference and that’s the most exciting challenge with All Elite Wrestling; is to week in and week out, to come up with different content and come up with a different way to present yourself and present talent to the world and hopefully get people involved and get people watching the product,” said Spears.

Spears, now sporting a black glove, is still aligned with Blanchard on AEW television. He picked up a victory over Jessy Sorensen on AEW Dark.

You can watch the latest episode of AEW Dark by clicking here.