Shawn Spears Reveals How Many Times He Turned Down WWE Coaching Job
After spending roughly ten years in WWE, Shawn Spears made the jump to All Elite Wrestling last year and found himself in the middle of the Wednesday Night War. That competition is not only going against his former employer, it's also competition against his wife, WWE's Peyton Royce.
Spears was a recent guest on Instinct Culture and discussed his relationship with the audience and revealed that although they are in competition with each other in terms of business, their focus is solely on helping each other be better performers.
"In terms of my wife, obviously she's on Monday nights and doing very well," Shawn said. "I watch her when she's on and give her feedback when she asks for it. She'll watch me when I'm on and let me know what she thinks was good and bad. That's really the extent of our wrestling conversation and we love that about each other. We love watching each other perform and going back and forth about different concepts and ideas."
"You hear everyone talk about the Wednesday Night War and some talent calling themselves a 'Demo God' and all that jazz," Spears continued. "Knock yourselves out. Sell those shirts. Do whatever you need to do. At the end of the day, I don't care. All I care about it is the fact that 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 million people are talking about professional wrestling on a Wednesday night."
With twenty years of experience under his belt, Spears often finds himself sharing knowledge and coaching younger talent. Although that's the case, he's not ready to transition into a full-time coaching gig just yet. He did reveal that before he left WWE, they offered him the opportunity to coach several times and said he took it as an insult to his in-ring ability.
"In terms of the coaching aspect and things like that, I've always been someone that prides themselves in helping young talent," Spears said. "I have a school in Florida for that exact reason. I believe in giving back to the industry of professional wrestling that has given me a great deal in my life.
"Having said that, I am not ready to be a coach in AEW. WWE asked me to be a coach 3 times before I left. I took that as a back-handed stab at my in-ring ability, meaning, 'You're probably as good as you're gonna be, you're probably past your peak, maybe we should transition into some coaching.' I don't feel that. I feel I have a great deal to give."
"I still have a lot to accomplish," Shawn continued. "I haven't hit many of the goals I've set for myself. I also haven't been in the main event scene, so I haven't had to break my body for 20 or 30 minutes every night for 5, 6, 7,10 years on a consistent basis. I probably still have easily another 5,6,7 years of in-ring ability if I choose to, because I feel fantastic. In order to stay ahead of the young talent, you have to pay attention. You have to see what young talents are doing, and I see what a lot of young talents are doing. They are taking a lot of risks hoping for high rewards and with that comes a lot of high danger or risk."