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WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg has criticized Tony Khan for what he believes to be a poor booking for AEW star Shawn Spears.
Spears last appeared on the May 25, 2022, episode of AEW Dynamite, where he lost in a steel cage match against Wardlow, with MJF as the special guest referee. Since then, The Chairman disappeared from television as he and his wife Cassie Lee (fka Peyton Royce) announced they would have their first baby.
On the latest edition of his Oh, You Didn't Know podcast, Road Dogg compared Spears' WWE and AEW runs. The Hall of Famer said that while the sports entertainment giant properly utilized the latter in high-profile matches, the same can't be said about the Jacksonville-based promotion.
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The DX member slammed AEW by pointing out their lack of usage to The Chairman:
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"Same people love Shawn Spears, ‘Give Shawn Spears a chance … What did you put him [in a triple threat match against AJ Styles and Baron Corbin at Hell in a Cell 2017] for?’ You can’t have it both ways. If you want the guy to work, we put him in there and let him work. You know, now all of a sudden everyone says, ‘Oh, he’s going to go to AEW where he’ll be used right.’ He hasn’t been on AEW in two years," Road Dogg said. [H/T EWrestlingNews]
Spears had a nine-year-long career with the sports entertainment giant, where he mainly wrestled for NXT and SmackDown. After departing the Stamford-based promotion, he joined AEW in 2019 and associated himself with Maxwell Jacob Friedman's (MJF) The Pinnacle.
WWE legend Road Dogg says he was unfamiliar with some AEW talents
During the same podcast episode, Road Dogg disclosed that WWE's programming has drastically improved over the past few months compared to AEW, which he thought was "not fluid."
He also revealed difficulty familiarizing himself with some wrestlers of the Jacksonville-based promotion.
"I also don't know their [AEW] talent like I know our [WWE] talent, you know what I mean? So it's more difficult for me to have a connection to get into it. Because I don't know those guys," Road Dogg added.
AEW is scheduled to have its first show in Canada this week as Dynamite and Rampage will travel to Toronto, Ontario. It will be interesting to see if the inaugural episodes outside the United States will result in a massive rating spike.
What are your thoughts on Road Dogg's comments about Shawn Spears? How about his comparisons between AEW and WWE's programming? Sound off in the comments section.
