Shawn Spears recently reflected on his appearance in the 2017 as one of the fondest of his career. Spears entered the Rumble match at #10 as a member of the NXT roster, and he spoke with Fightful about the quick appearance.
On the moment being one of his favorites: “That goes down as one of my fondest memories, and that’s a lot of people’s, like you’re saying, a fond memory of that era or the Perfect 10 era. Man, it still, every year, pops up in my timeline right around Royal Rumble time. I start getting tagged. It’s always good to see because I’m able to look back on that. The reaction plays a big part. It’s very important to me and its wonderfully appreciated.”
On what led up to the appearance: “At the same time, I think about how I got to that moment, like I said, the peaks and valleys that led up to that. I think the biggest thing to me about that night and I don’t know if I’ve said this—I might have said it publicly on one other person’s podcast—was that as the countdown was starting in Gorilla; so a lot of my peers were in Gorilla with me, a lot of people that I had worked with over the years, a lot of people that had seen or at least heard about my story and rocky road up until this point.
“As it was counting down, they all started clapping for me before I went out. I’m getting a little choked up about it now because it was just more of a solidified confirmation that, ‘You got here, man. Enjoy the moment. Everything was for this and it was 100% worth it.’ So one of my fondest memories of my career, but more the camaraderie and validation from my peers that night was what I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.”
