In a recent interview on the Edge & Christian Pod of Awesomeness, Shawn Spears (aka former WWE superstar Tye Dillinger) opened up on his time with the company, becoming a cult hero in NXT, the “Perfect 10” gimmick, his release and more.

On WWE not doing enough with the gimmick Spears stated, “I was curious as to how much they could have got out of the Perfect 10 character with the momentum and popularity. When something like that catches, the business side of things, you want to milk it for all its worth and then it moves aside. I don’t feel like we capitalized on the entire thing. The story of being here, being gone, coming back, transforming and having something people can grab on to and then paying it off would have been a fine way to do that. I pitched the idea to win a title at a TakeOver and then lose immediately at a TV taping. It wasn’t about the title, it was about the journey. I was in a program with Bobby Roode and he was the champion at the time. I think we had a feel-good story that we missed taking advantage of. That soured me up.”

On talking with Triple H prior to his release, Spears stated, “I had a talk with Hunter abut 7 weeks before I made my announcement to leave and I asked him some personal questions. To his credit, he answered them. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen the way you hope it will happen or the way it seems like it might happen. In this industry that is ever changing and ever evolving and has so much talent and limited time and space on television, sometimes good things can fall through the cracks. That’s just something you have to be aware of when you sign up for this.”

The interview is available in full at this link.