During his appearance on Busted Open Radio, Shawn Spears discussed the importance of the “black glove” in professional wrestling history. Here’s what he had to say:
Well, I think after what happened Double or Nothing, I think we had hit the lowest point that we could possibly hit. Tully hadn’t been around in a couple of months due to the whole pandemic. So, you know, travel – I was kind of on my own. I was having a lot of fun. Too much fun to the point where I wasn’t really dialing in, so to speak. I wasn’t focusing on the end goals that we had talked about when we first paired up. So, when he kind of came back, he saw what happened at Double or Nothing against Dustin [Rhodes] and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I kind of needed a stern father figure talking to, and it made sense. It made 100% sense, but he also thought there was something missing.
So, the in-ring ability was there, like I said. The ability to speak, communicate, all of that jazz was there. He just felt there was something missing, something that needed to stand out amongst the sea of professional wrestlers. In AEW, there’s a lot of great talent. There’s not a lot of landscape. So, everybody is fighting for space, so to speak. We’re not going to over-saturate a show with, you know, 15 different angles that people are having a very hard time keeping track of. You know, we’re going to tell stories as best as we possibly can.
So that means that some talent – you’re going to have to wait your turn, if your turn comes. So the black glove was introduced, obviously as a throwback. Like you said, Ole wore it, Windham wore it, DiBiase wore it. I’m glad you said that because now people are familiar with it. Google! Go back and watch the history of the black glove. There’s a reason that it’s been brought back by a Horseman of all people. It’s brought back for a reason, and the challenge in 2020, for me, is to get something that is 50-60 years old and bring that to prominence, or at least bring it to the forefront once again with very little television time.
Normally, when someone is – I don’t want to say saddled, but when you’re given something to get over, or at least attempt to get over, usually there’s some good backing behind it. Alright, well there’s video packages, and there’s vignettes, and there’s television time, and all that kind of stuff. There hasn’t been a lot of that with the introduction of the black glove, which is a challenge that I enjoy. So, now I have to find ways in a digital world of social media and these other ways to collect information out there, I have a way to reintroduce something that has a rich lineage, and hopefully people can kind of get behind it. Hopefully.
Credit: Busted Open Radio. H/T WrestlingInc.