The Watch List takes a look at what matches you should be watching and they come recommended by today’s professional wrestling stars.
WrestleZone recently spoke with Shawn Spears, who is proud of a few of his AEW matches for some of the challenges and opportunities they presented.
“The match coming into AEW with Cody was pretty important to me. We had always kept in touch obviously, but we hadn’t touched or wrestled each other in ten years. Then we go out there on pay-per-view and do what we did. I thought that angle created a lot of buzz because that was pre-TV. So we ended up really selling that match just based off of things we did on the internet.
“I think wrestling in the first-ever Blood & Guts was pretty important. The Stadium Stampede I loved. It was a long-ass filming of a day, but the stuff I got to do with Sammy, a lot of it was one take. We just went in there, balls to the walls at 2 a.m. knocking it all out, and then to see how well the production team put it together and how epic things were. That turned out really well.”
“Wrestling Chris Jericho was something that I asked to do because I wanted to see how his mind worked. I wanted to see what I could learn from him because I run a wrestling school. So anything I can learn from wrestling these guys who are considered greats, I can at least feel and understand firsthand and then pass that knowledge along to younger talent in hopes that one day they’ll be able to experience the same thing I did.”
Shawn Spears is aware of some of the criticism he still faces, noting how some might say he “hasn’t done anything” in AEW. Spears refutes that and says he’s done plenty of work he’s very proud of.
“I’ve done more in three years than I probably would have done anywhere else. I’ve wrestled guys that I probably wouldn’t have been in the ring with anywhere else. I’ve been put in very high-pressure situations more so than I probably would have anywhere else. So those are just a few matches that I really enjoyed. I thought the angle with The Pinnacle and CM Punk, and even when Max and I were doing the Wardlow bit, I thought those angles were fantastic. I think we did incredible business, we hit the nail on the head, and I’ve been fortunate to be part of some really fun stuff and good stuff going forward.
“I’ll never have a five-star match in my opinion. Never will I ever. A lot of people watching this will say, ‘Oh yeah, of course you won’t.’ No, because I don’t believe it exists because there’s always something to improve on somewhere. If I feel good about it, I’ll let it go, but I’ll never have five-star classics. I’ll always find something that I could have done better.”
Check out some full-length matches from Shawn Spears’ career below:
Shawn Spears vs. Luke Kurtis – GLCW The Chairman Cometh, April 22, 2023
Shawn Spears vs. Lord Crewe – AEW Dark, May 3, 2022
Shawn Spears vs. Lee Moriarty – AEW Dark: Elevation, December 27, 2021
Shawn Spears vs. Shawn Dean – AEW Dark, March 31, 2020
