Shawn Spears On His Shift In Attitude Leading To An Unbeaten Streak, Potential For A Pinnacle/NJPW Crossover
Shawn Spears says everything is going according to plan.
Shawn Spears recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard and talked about how he’s been able to turn things around in All Elite Wrestling this year. Spears is still unbeaten in singles action since last year’s Double Or Nothing and he says he’s aware of his streak, but spoke about how he knew things needed to be tweaked.
“Last year’s match at Double Or Nothing, it was a joke, a complete joke. The whole idea was a joke, Dustin’s a joke, the whole match was a joke. I just knew that after that match that things were gonna change, things had to change and when Tully came back, you saw some of those scathing promos that he cut, so things were definitely going to change. So, since then I haven’t exactly been keeping track, I just know that I haven’t lost since that time. There was a little bit of a switch in terms of character development and there was an attitude that needed to be adjusted and along with Tully and behind the scenes,” he explained, “working with MJF and when FTR came aboard, things just started to slowly fall into place.
“The biggest thing in wrestling, as you know, is timing. We live in a world now in professional wrestling that everyone wants instant gratification, especially the audience. ‘We want it, we want it now, so give it to us.’ We don’t have to give it to you when you want it. You’ll get it, but we’ll give it to you when we want to give it to you and you will wait until we do. That’s just the nature, whether anyone wants to admit it or not,” Spears said, “the audience is going to watch whether they like what they’re seeing or not and they’re going to wait to see what will happen. It just depends on if we decide to go through with it. When you saw The Pinnacle finally show up all together against the Inner Circle, that was the moment.”
Spears continued, saying he’s not sure why he’s not in title contention yet, but he made sure to point out that things with The Pinnacle are going exactly as planned.
“Look, numbers don’t lie. It’s funny because I was saying that about three or four years ago, that the numbers don’t lie, and it stays the same to this very day. My record is fantastic, I haven’t been beaten in a year, at least. I don’t see what the problem is, I don’t see why my number hasn’t been called,” Spears noted, “but during that time, during that year, there’s been a plan in place to get where we are now with The Pinnacle.
“This wasn’t a last-minute throw together, this wasn’t a, ‘hey that guy’s not doing anything, this guy’s not doing anything, let’s throw them together.’ That’s not what this is,” he said, “and you see a lot of factions forming in AEW, you see it a lot now that some of them are thrown together, some of them are last minute, some of them are ‘let’s fill some gaps’… that’s not what this is. The Pinnacle has been in the works for over a year, before the pandemic even started.”
I’ll answer your question with another….
What would happen if #ThePinnacle showed up in NJPW?
— “The Chairman” Shawn Spears ™️ (@ShawnSpears) May 26, 2021
Spears was recently asked by a fan if he’d like to work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling one day, and Spears answered with another question—what would happen if they did show up? Asked by WrestleZone how he saw it going, Spears said it was an exciting idea to even think about and one that didn’t seem possible last year —and that was the point.
“A year ago, did you ever think that there was a possibility of a top faction that included MJF, Shawn Spears, FTR, Wardlow and Tully Blanchard, did you ever think that those guys, collectively could possibly take on Bullet Club? Maybe, maybe not, maybe it never crossed your mind. The beautiful thing about AEW, the beautiful thing about was Tony Khan is doing, all roads are open. All roads are open, all business opportunities are kind of on the table as far as I know. I’m not in those meetings, I’m not a part of management,” he noted, “but that’s exciting, it’s an exciting possibility for us to end up anywhere, so when somebody asked that, I said wouldn’t be awesome if just one night, when nobody is expecting it, The Pinnacle just shows up, that’s wild. Who’s to say Bullet Club won’t show up in AEW, who knows—but the possibilities are there.
“That’s what creates excitement for the casual wrestling fan, matches they never thought they were gonna see, it’s a possibility now. That’s wild to me. When I was growing up, there was wrestling on once a week and then there was another wrestling company and they were on twice a week, now wrestling is on five times a week, that is insane to me. That’s the beauty of pro wrestling, that’s the popularity of pro wrestling, it’s not going anywhere. AEW realizes that, Tony Khan realizes that, so he’s gonna bring the audience, his audience, the best possible matches that you can find on this planet. He’s gonna do everything he can to make that happen. So, being in this, right now, at this time, it’s exciting because I might get to work with guys that I never have before. Suzuki, I’d love to work, Jay White, I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, publicly on Twitter, that Switchblade is a guy that I’d love to work. So, two, three, four or five years ago I thought that was never going to happen,” Spears said, “but now, anything’s possible.”