Edge and Christian open today’s show by speaking about WWE’s new “Wildcard Rule”. Edge is quite confused by the concept, and notes that if former professional wrestlers like he and Christian are confused by it, there’s a good chance a lot of fans are confused about it as well.

Christian notes that at least this is something that we haven’t seen before, and given that the brand extension has been done so much in the past, anytime something new is introduced it’s a positive. Edge agrees, but says that this feels like WWE booking themselves into a corner, and then having to do something to book themselves out of it without any long-term planning.

Edge and Christian welcome Shawn Spears (Tye Dillinger) to the show.

Spears says that his first hero in the wrestling business was The Ultimate Warrior. His mom would let him watch wrestling from a very young age, and when his step dad came into his life when he was ten, he would bring Spears to his friend’s bar to watch wrestling PPVs.

Spears says he didn’t know Independent promotions or live events even existed until he started training to become a professional wrestler. It was a different time then with no internet or social media, so the only thing he knew about was the television shows.

Spears says he was a huge wrestling fan in high school, and even though wrestling was a priority for him he wanted to get an education as well. Unfortunately, he was rejected from three Universities and this forced him to begin training without a backup plan. Somehow it all worked out in the end.

He says he found a wrestling school and maxed out a $3000 credit card to join the school. Unfortunately, he wasn’t receiving great training there and Eric Young actually noticed this and invited Spears to come and train with him for free. Spears jumped at the opportunity and the rest is history.

He knew that he had the ability to pick up the in-ring movements quickly, but for whatever reason he struggled with throwing a dropkick and executing a headlock takeover. Those two moves took him much longer to master than most other things.

He did a WWE tryout in 2006 and got picked up by the company. It was one of the hardest things he’s ever done, and it became more difficult as WWE Superstars like Randy Orton and The Undertaker began to show up and watch him at the end of the session. Luckily it all worked out and he was sent to OVW.

Spears liked his time in OVW. He learned a lot there and even became Champion at one point. One time OVW held a battle royal to see who’d get the chance to face John Cena in a one off match. Spears won the battle royal and went on to face Cena. He says that Cena couldn’t have been nicer, and came up with a great layout for the match that really showcased Spears. He knows Cena didn’t need to do that.

After that Spears thought things were really looking up for him in the company. However, soon after this OVW folded and Spears was sent to FCW. He was soon released from the company altogether and the next few years were very dark for him. He worked in Puerto Rico and Mexico, and picked up odds jobs on the side. He knew that he absolutely had to find a way back to WWE.

Spears was good friends with Joey Mercury, who was working with WWE developmental at the time and managed to get him another tryout. His first WWE tryout was hard, but this one was even harder. His body was beat up and tired but he was 32 at the time and knew that this was his last chance to make it in the wrestling business. He also didn’t want to let Mercury down.

He spent some time training in WWE developmental. The coaches there grade each talent occasionally on certain metrics on a scale from 1-10. Spears accidentally saw his scoresheet one day and he had received all 9s and 9.5s, but the head coach overruled all of this was a bunch of 5 and 6s. Spears knew then that he was being held down there by one individual.

He told this to a friend of his, who responded by saying that Dillinger should have all 10s. This stuck with him and he decided to pitch the Perfect 10 character to Dusty Rhodes and other NXT officials. The day he made the pitch Rhodes told him straight up that there were no plans for him to move to the main roster, but this only made Spears more determined to change their mind.

The pitch went well and a few months later the character debuted. The fans quickly got behind him and he can never thank them enough for the support they showed him. He knows that it was because of the fans that he got called up to the main roster. Unfortunately, after getting there he thinks WWE left a lot of money on the table with his character.

He says it was a 6-month process for him deciding whether or not to leave WWE. He got hurt at one point and was out of action for 3 months, which allowed him to really consider his options. He decided to change his look and his ring gear upon his return, and even went to speak to Vince McMahon one-on-one in the hope that things would change, but they did not.

He began to lose his love of the business and his in-ring work started to suffer because of this. He knows that wasn’t fair to the fans, so he had to leave. It was the hardest decision he’s ever made, but he went to Talent Relations and asked for his release.

Talent Relations quickly responded by saying that they were about to offer him a big raise but he didn’t even give the the chance to tell him how much they were offering. It wasn’t about the money for him. When he’s old he wants to remember these last few years of his career fondly, and he doesn’t want to have any regrets.

He’s really looking forward to getting back into the ring at the end of May, and he has bookings right up until August.

That sums up today’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!