Tye Dillinger wasn't willing to watch his career pass him by.
Now known as Shawn Spears, Dillinger gained his release from WWE after months of sitting on the sidelines. Now with All Elite wrestling, he spoke to Chris Van Vliet of WSVN-TV recently, and expanded on his decision to leave the company, despite the fact that WWE was offering big money for people to stay.
"Because I'm scared s**tless of regret," said Spears. "It's going to matter to me when I'm 70 and I'm not mobile and I can't do much else with my life except think, I'm going to think about three things: whether I was a good person, whether I was a good father and whether or not I lived a life worth living and that includes what I did with my career. So did I settle for money that I could no longer use. It might support my family, that's great, but it's no use to me selfishly. Or am I going to, when all I can do is think, think back and smile and go I did it on my terms. I finished the matches the way I wanted to. I went out of my in ring career the way I wanted to. Those things later on in life are all that I'm going to be able to think about. That was the deciding factor when asking to leave. I didn't let them get the number out. They told me they were going to give me a substantial raise and I just went it's not going to change how I feel tomorrow morning when I wake up."
Spears has moved on AEW, where Cody Rhodes stated in a recent "Road To" show that his versatility would be key in his role (or roles) moving forward.
You can see Van Vliet's full conversation with Dillinger above.
