Shawn Spears made a surprising return to WWE, jumping ship from AEW and joining “WWE NXT” in February, shortly before his wife Cassandra Arneill, better known as WWE’s Peyton Royce and TNA’s Cassie Lee, welcomed their second child into the world. Spears recently appeared on “Insight” with Chris Van Vliet to talk about all things wrestling, including his wife’s possible ambitions to get back in the ring after years of working alongside Billie Kay as “The IIconics.” Spears said his wife misses wrestling, and watches her friends perform a lot.

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“She’s still getting the itch, so she’s already weight training, she’s doing all that kind of stuff,” Spears said. “She’s getting back into the mix and things like that. When she feels 100% good to go, there’s a ring close by. She plans on getting back into it. She doesn’t know to what capacity, meaning no one’s said anything to her. Nobody’s said, ‘Hey, when you’re ready, come on back!’ Not Impact, not anything, but [with] the working relationship, who’s to say that’s not a possibility.”

Before announcing her second pregnancy, Royce revealed she had been training at the wrestling school run by Spears and former WWE star Tyler Breeze. She also said in an interview she had been taking acting classes to “better prepare” for a wrestling return. Royce’s last match was in World Series Wrestling, where she teamed with AEW’s Harley Cameron to defeat Charli Evans and Jessica Troy. She and Spears also teamed together in WSW. When asked if Spears would like to compete alongside his wife once again if she makes an in-ring return, the “NXT” star laughed. “She’ll make me look second-rate,” Spears said.

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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Insight” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

It’s been nearly four months since former AEW star Ethan Page made his debut on “WWE NXT,” and during that time he’s already been able to main event three Premium Live Events, wrestle the likes of Trick Williams and Joe Hendry, and capture the NXT Championship. Page transitioned quickly to become one of the brand’s top stars, with his role in AEW being much different, often being placed in the mid-card while never winning an AEW title. On “Insight,” Page reflected on his “NXT” debut, getting the call to sign with WWE, and being afraid that people wouldn’t recognize who he was.  

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“My debut was like two weeks later, maybe less because I had to come down here to do like a physical, meet with everyone and then the following week I debuted … I don’t know if I’m like revealing how self-conscious I am as a human being, but obviously that’s like on the back of your mind like is anyone going to even care … people were very excited, and it’s cool that we got to keep the momentum going cause that’s like very hard in wrestling.” 

Page also expressed gratitude about becoming champion at Heatwave in Toronto, Canada, a mere 30 minutes away from his hometown of Stoney Creek, Ontario. He also stated that since signing with WWE, his entire journey has felt like a nonstop dream, and only continues to get better with time. 

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Insight” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Although the online discourse between wrestling fans regarding WWE and AEW can often become heated, most of the actual performers seem to feel the “tribalism” in pro wrestling is unnecessary. Additionally, rather than proclaiming one company as superior to the other, some feel that the two brands are trying to appeal to different audiences. Speaking on “AEW Unrestricted,” AEW’s Mansoor compared the stylistic differences to a pair of popular Hollywood directors.

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“If WWE is like a Michael Bay movie, I see AEW as like a David Lynch movie, you know what I mean?” Mansoor said.

While Bay is famous for bombastic action movies like “Transformers” and “Bad Boys,” Lynch is known for artsier films such as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive.” Mainstream Hollywood blockbusters like those made by Bay usually deliver crowd-pleasing action sequences and digestible narratives, while Lynch is more focused on building atmosphere rather than laying out an easily-followed plot.

Elaborating on his point, Mansoor stated that he and his MxM tag team partner Mason Madden have enjoyed the level of creative freedom within AEW. Though they still work with the company’s creative team, being able to utilize their own ideas has resulted in Mansoor feeling like the duo is currently putting in their best work.

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After departing WWE in 2023, MxM began working with AEW in July and have since made at least one appearance on all of the promotion’s major series. Earlier this month, the duo took part in the Casino Gauntlet tag match on the September 11 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” which saw Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher win to become new number-one contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “AEW Unrestricted” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

When characters evolve in wrestling, it can be a daunting task. For Mercedes Mone, current AEW TBS and NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion, it came easy. After she left WWE, beginning the path that would eventually lead her to AEW, Mone felt empowered to expand the image she was trying to sell back in the heyday of the “Legit Boss” era to a more compelling go-getter who refused to take no for an answer. Recently, Mone sat down with “The Breakfast Club” to discuss the difficulties one experiences when embracing the world of kayfabe, and how she refused to have a defeatist attitude when her Banks character wasn’t working out anymore.

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“Being a wrestler is role-playing online; it’s role-playing offline. Once I put on that wig, I’m Sasha Banks … but I’m not. I’m not her. I’m Mercedes Mone,” Mone commented. “I really felt like it was time to be that, and to own that brand.” In her own words, Mone argued that her Banks and Mone characters are night and day. With Mone, she has more freedom behind the wheel to make her own creative decisions, a major factor in why she signed with AEW. Back in WWE, she felt her Banks persona did not have an active voice, which she mentioned more about when asked about her past relationship with former WWE CEO Vince McMahon later in the interview.

“Sasha was a ‘Legit Boss.’ Now, Mercedes, she leveled up. She is the ‘CEO’ of her own life,” Mone replied. “She is the CEO of the women’s division, and she is the best in the game. She won’t let anybody tell her no. With Sasha Banks, I was told what to do. I was told what to say. I was told where to be. And now, really, I get to be the CEO of my own life, and let people know where I want to be.”

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Breakfast Club” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

WWE legend JBL had an over-the-top, uber-confident gimmick, but the man behind the character wasn’t so self-assured when he first joined WWE in the ’90s.

After calling time on his fledgling football career, JBL tried his hand at pro wrestling, featuring in Mexico and Japan before eventually signing for WWE in 1995. The former APA star has recalled being apprehensive about becoming a success in WWE in his early days with the promotion and has admitted that he was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the pro wrestling juggernaut, especially after watching an iconic WrestleMania match. 

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“A lot of people get overwhelmed by WWE, especially — I don’t know back then, maybe more so because we had the territories back then,” began JBL. “But once you get to WWE, you had 14, 15 TV trucks, it was just a different level of professional wrestling and a lot of guys got overwhelmed by it. I certainly did. I remember watching Shawn [Michaels] and Bret [Hart] in that incredible Iron Man match at the Pond [Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim], my first WrestleMania. I wasn’t on the show but I was backstage watching, and I remember just watching Shawn rappel from the ceiling and had that incredible match. I remember thinking, ‘I probably should go back to Japan.’ It was really overwhelming.”

The WWE Hall of Famer realized that WWE was on a different level when he first debuted in the promotion, despite having been a “top guy” in every other promotion at that point in his career. But, JBL eventually put his anxieties away as he became a mid-card and tag team star alongside Ron Simmons in APA during the Attitude Era, and later went on to become a world champion and one of the most-despised heels in pro wrestling.

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