AEW’s Shawn Spears recently returned to the storylines after taking some time off. Spears was originally gone from May – October of last year, but he returned at the October 13, 2022 AEW Rampage tapings, teaming with current AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR for a win over current ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Embassy. After that match, Spears spoke to the crowd about losing his mother two months before, in August. He then took more time off and in January of this year, Spears and wife Cassie Lee welcomed their first child, a son named Austin Jay.
Spears appeared on Chris Van Vliet’s “INSIGHT” podcast this week and talked about how good AEW was to him during this time.
“Last year was tough,” Spears said. “I lost my mom last August. We kind of knew it was coming. But then it happened very suddenly. So that was tough. But at the same time, Cassie was five and a half, six months pregnant. So, I’m expecting and losing at the same time. And then, you know, I’m in Florida, and I’m trying to settle my mom’s estate, all my family [is in Canada]. I have no family here.”
“I didn’t have a chance to mourn because I’m way over here and I’m not with them, and then you go home quick and then you have to get back to your wife and it was just a lot and AEW is very good about kind of allowing me that time.”
Spears later discussed AEW President Tony Khan, and the crazy work ethic his boss has. Spears again mentioned how good Khan was to him when he needed some time away in the last several months.
“I have never seen him yawn, so I’m assuming no [he doesn’t sleep],” Spears said of Khan. “He might be half a cyborg, who knows? But that guy has a tonne on his plate. And just a steel trap of a mind, remembers everything, every detail. When I first met him, we were having conversations, he’s like, Oh, I remember the match you had, I forgot about it. I was like really? Yeah, it was in such and such city. I’m like, holy sh*t. I was like, Oh, you’re just buttering me up? No, he remembers everything. But he’s not just like that with wrestling.
“I’ve walked into his office and I’ve seen him, he’s got his iPad, I hope I’m not gonna get in trouble for saying this. But he’s got his iPad set up. And he’s watching like a Jags game and they are at you know, he’s watching a Fulham game. And he’s, he’s, he can multitask like, like no one I’ve seen before. But in the midst of putting a card together and getting everything done. And so, I mean, yeah, and like I was saying before, just what a sweetheart of a man, gave me all the time in the world when my mom passed. And now that Austin’s been born, I had all the time in the world to be home with my wife, because it’s just us here, like just a good man, a busy man, but a good man.”
Below is the full interview with Spears:
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