Last month, Shawn Spears made his return to AEW when Rampage debuted in Toronto, Canada. He was in a match with FTR against The Embassy. Prior to that, Spears was last on AEW programming back in May when he lost a steel cage match against Wardlow.
After the show ended, Spears explained his five month absence; his mother had died. On the latest episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette, he opened up about her death.
His mother had terminal cancer. Spears explained that in Canada, "you can set yourself up on how you want to go, so that's what she did. She wanted to go at home, surrounded by her children. She made me promise that if something happened where she wasn't able to walk, speak, anything like that, that it was time to go."
Shawn Spears Mother Left Him With One Last Lesson
"I was actually supposed to go to a signing on a Friday and she was doing well. But a major stroke had hit on Friday and basically paralyzed her ability to speak, walk, move, anything. So when we were finally all back home -- all the kids were there -- I had to make the decision to go ahead with the process. She could squeeze your hand, so I was asking her if you're ready to go, squeeze and let me know she's ready to go. Everything was on her own terms. That was the most beautiful thing. And that was the thing that brought me comfort during that time was that it was her call and we're doing things how she wanted them done.
But the lesson that I learned, the final one that she left with me -- and it's something I always knew -- but it was made more paramount in that moment: family was everything. That's all that mattered to her. So, all the money that I have would not have been able to take away her cancer. All that mattered is that she wanted to be surrounded by her kids."
"And once she passed, it was just like, you don't believe it, but it's just right in front of you. You can have everything together. You can have your job, your life, your marriage, everything is together, but then you feel absolutely lost. You don't know where to start, you don't know where to go or how to move and it kind of freezes time for a little while."
After speaking about why he was absent from TV, Spears received many messages from people who had recently lost people. He tried to respond to as many as he could. He reminded fans that we are all going to go through it eventually.