Recent months has seen some significant changes take place within WWE. More Superstars are openly expressing their discontent with their positions and how the company has utilised them, with more and more talent requesting their release from the company.
Some were granted their requests; others, however, weren’t so lucky.
One Superstar who requested and was subsequently granted their release was the former “Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger.
Catching up with Edge and Christian on their popular podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, Dillinger—who is now wrestling under his former indie name, Shawn Spears—opened up about the entire process.
“It Was Time To Go”
He admitted that the decision had been on his mind for about six months. It was during his time off injured that he was able to clear his head and figure out what he wanted to do in WWE and accomplish in pro wrestling. This injury gave him three months to think about his options. During that time he changed his look, his gear, and recalled pitching at least half a dozen ideas to WWE Creative.
Recalling speaking with Vince McMahon, he said that he “might have put my foot in my mouth, but I needed to say what I needed to say and I stand by what I said. I did feel that when I came back, things were going to be different. They were not. I had a conversation and was told to wait and give it a few weeks. Weeks passed, and it was it,” he said.
“It put me in a bad place because my performance was suffering. I was dreading it. I was praying that [the audience] would acknowledge that I still existed because it felt like I didn’t at the time. When you’re not giving it your all, they could see it, and it wasn’t fair to them. It was time to go. I was probably late in leaving, actually.”
Dillinger revelled via Twitter on his birthday, February 19th, that he had requested his release. WWE would grant this request only a few days later on February 22nd.
H/T to Fightful.com for the transcription.
