Shawn Spears has explained how his mindset about retirement has changed after having kids.
The new NXT North American Champion recently had an interview with Gabby Laspisa. He talked about things such as leaving AEW for NXT, Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania plans, and more.
When asked about plans for his retirement, Spears who made his wrestling debut 23 years ago in 2002 noted that he always wanted to complete 25 years in wrestling. After the birth of his two sons with WWE alumni Peyton Royce, his mindset has changed:
“Before the kids it was kind of like, let’s just, I’ll just listen to my body kind of thing, which kind of still plays today. I thought if I can make it to a quarter of a century, cuz that just sounds, a, old but also sounds kind of neat. If I can make 25 years. 25 years at anything is impressive. 25 years in a sport? It’s pretty rare.
But now it’s pretty much as my kids get into playing sports, once they can play baseball, soccer, in another couple like another year, year and a half, two years. I also want to do Jiu-Jitsu with my kids. So once they’re old enough to understand some kind of control, like emotional regulation or whatever, maybe like four or five.
I want to do that with them. So that’s something we would do together. So when they see me getting beat up a little bit, which I will, I’m gonna get my ass thrown around. It’s one of those things where it’s okay. I just need to control how I react to it, kind of thing.”
I’m Not Going Anywhere: Shawn Spears
Apart from running his own successful wrestling school named Flatbacks Wrestling, Shawn Spears also teaches a class in NXT. When the possibility of him leaving the development brand to go elsewhere was brought up, the wrestling veteran said that “I’m not going anywhere. This is the last stop.”
The 44-year-old explained that he’ll continue training people even after he has retired from active competition, though he’ll do it only as long as he can get in the ring and teach people things firsthand:
“So, if I’m still able to do those things and play sports and kick a ball and if they run and jump on me and I can catch them without blowing out my back or worrying about my knees collapsing, then I’ll be okay. But I’m gonna listen to the body on that regard.
Right now, I feel good. I’m still moving and I feel as if I can still keep up with the younger kids and I can still you know, I can still hang. But as long as it doesn’t kind of disrupt any plans I have in the future with my kids, I’ll do it as long as I can. The beautiful thing is that even when I step back from on-screen performing as a professional wrestler, I’m still gonna be, I’m still gonna have the school, I’m still gonna teach.
I’m still gonna be actively in there because I believe that’s the best way to learn is by hands-on teaching. That’s the way I was taught by Eric Young and that’s the way I teach my kids now at the Performance Center and here. So, I’ll always be a hands-on coach. The day that I can’t be, that’s probably time to pack it in.”
