Bully Ray Reacts To Shawn Spears, Formerly Tye Dillinger, Returning To WWE NXT

Shawn Spears is back in WWE, and despite wrestling there for many years as Tye Dillinger, he's retained the name he used during his tenure in All Elite Wrestling. On the latest "Busted Open Radio," former TNA World Champion Bully Ray was happy for the former AEW star, but wondered where the two parties went wrong.

"It was great to see Shawn Spears back ... but when it comes to the misuse of talent in AEW, I can probably put Shawn Spears up in the top three names of guys that were just not used, mistakes were made ... whatever you want to call it," Bully said, adamant that Spears' introduction to AEW — smashing Cody Rhodes with a chair, leading to a nasty gash on Cody's head and a lot of hatred from fans — was never properly followed up on. "We talk about 'WrestleMania moments,' how about an 'AEW moment?'"

Bully believes AEW had a major heel in Spears following his gruesome debut. The WWE Hall of Famer thinks Spears will be used well in "NXT," but bemoans AEW for never finding a way to get the former "Chair Man" over.

"They tried to repackage him with Tully, that didn't really work," Bull said. "What went wrong with Shawn Spears and AEW?"

Spears asked for his release from AEW last year and was granted it, leaving the promotion in December. He had not wrestled on AEW programming since September 3, taking part in the Over-The-Budget Battle Royal at AEW All Out, which was eventually won by Hangman Page.