Shawn Spears Reflects On Returning To WWE With His Name, Reveals Dusty Rhodes Named Him ‘Tye’

Shawn Spears reflects on what it meant for him to return to WWE with the presentation he used outside the company instead of returning as Tye Dillinger. 

Tye Dillinger had made a name for himself on WWE NXT and parlayed that momentum into a short run on the main roster that didn’t see him reach the top of WWE. After leaving WWE, he joined AEW and resumed using the name “Shawn Spears.” Spears would reach main event level in the early days of All Elite Wrestling, and when he returned to WWE, he retained the presentation that he used in AEW as opposed to once again using the Dillinger name 

Spears recently revealed during an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight that Dusty Rhodes gave him the first name ‘Tye’ during his first run in NXT, which remains special to him. Still, it meant more for his confidence that he could make such an impact outside of WWE that it was decided he should keep the name he’s been using upon his return. 

“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.  We’re still building baby, still building.”

Fans can read Spears’ thoughts on working with Shawn Michaels in NXT at this link. 

Thanks to Chris Van Vliet and his team for sending the above quote.