Shawn Spears

Ronnie William Arneill (born February 19, 1981) is a Canadian professional wrestler and trainer.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Shawn Spears.

Having begun his career on the independent circuit in 2002 as Shawn Spears, Arneill initially joined WWE in 2006 and worked for the company between 2006 and 2009, performing in the developmental territories Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) as well as briefly on the main roster brand ECW under the slightly modified ring name Gavin Spears.

Upon wrestling his debut match in March 2002 as Shawn Spears, he began wrestling for some of the biggest independent wrestling promotions throughout Ontario and the United States, including Border City Wrestling, World Xtreme Wrestling, and Blood Sweat and Ears.

On February 27, 2005, Arneill made an appearance on an edition of WWE Heat, unsuccessfully teaming with Mikael Yamaha to face The Hurricane and Rosey.

After sending a tape to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) officials, Arneill was called for a try-out in Buffalo, New York.

He was signed to a developmental contract by WWE following the tryout, on January 21, 2006.

He made a cameo appearance at Cyber Sunday as an employee called "Stan", who gets superkicked by Shawn Michaels of D-Generation X when Michaels is told that he doesn't understand the meaning of the word "controversial".

After signing his WWE contract, Arneill was assigned to the company's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

He made his OVW television debut as "The Canadian Sensation" Shawn Spears, where he defeated then-SmackDown! superstar Simon Dean.

After his victory, Dean attacked Spears until Spears was saved by Al Snow, who fended off Dean with a chair.

After his debut, Spears quickly made an impact in OVW with a short undefeated streak that was soon ended by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens when Stevens made Spears submit.

After this, Spears formed a tag team with Cody Runnels and they feuded with The Throwbacks for the Southern Tag Team Championship.

On December 15, 2006, Spears and Runnels won the title from The Throwbacks.

During 2006 Spears appeared at Cyber Sunday 2006 as backstage producer Stan, getting superkicked by Shawn Michaels.

On March 17, 2007, Spears won the Television Championship from Boris Alexiev, his first singles title in OVW.

Soon after winning the title, he became more focused on championships and even began trying to steal Runnels' Heavyweight Championship opportunity.

During Runnels' Heavyweight Title match, Spears interfered and performed a piledriver to Runnels, preventing him from winning the Heavyweight Championship and thus solidifying his heel turn.

Spears then began feuding with Runnels and eventually lost the Television Championship to him on July 6, 2007 before winning it back one week later.

He once again lost the title on September 19 to the debuting Ted "Manbeast" McNailer.

Spears later regained the Television Title, only to lose it to Colt Cabana.

Spears then began feuding with Cabana and the pair went on to win the vacant Tag Team Title with on November 7 after defeating Paul Burchill and Stu Sanders.

On December 19, Cabana and Spears' feud culminated in a ladder match in which the winner would claim the Tag Team titles for themselves and choose a new partner.

Spears lost to Cabana, who then chose Charles "The Hammer" Evans as his new tag team partner.

After OVW split with WWE, Spears debuted in WWE's new development territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), and teamed up with Nic Nemeth to defeat The Puerto Rican Nightmares for the Florida Tag Team Championship on August 17.

Nearly a month later, Nemeth and Spears lost the title to Joe Hennig and Heath Miller on September 11.

On the August 19 episode of ECW, Spears made his WWE television debut as a heel under the name Gavin Spears as part of Theodore Long's "New Superstar Initiative" in a losing effort to Ricky Ortiz.

After his ECW debut, Spears began splitting time between ECW and FCW.

On the September 2 edition of ECW, Spears was defeated by Super Crazy.

After a three-month absence due to competing in FCW, Spears returned to television on the December 16 episode of ECW, where he lost to Finlay in what turned out to be his final match for the company.

After being released from WWE in 2009, he returned to the independent scene, before rejoining WWE in 2013 where he was assigned to NXT under the new gimmick of Tye Dillinger.

He previously performed in WWE from 2013 to 2019 under the name Tye Dillinger.

After a rise in popularity, he was promoted to the main roster in April 2017, working on the SmackDown brand until his second release from the company in February 2019.

He is also known for his time in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2019 to 2023.

Shortly after leaving WWE, he signed with the newly founded AEW in May 2019, reverting to his Shawn Spears name.

After his AEW contract expired at the end of 2023, Arneill rejoined WWE in February 2024 where he was assigned once more to the NXT brand retaining the Shawn Spears character.

Born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, Arneill attended Laura Secord Secondary School.

He played hockey for over ten years until he decided to leave the sport and enter professional wrestling.

During his childhood, he was a fan of Rick Rude, Rick Martel, and Mr. Perfect.

Arneill trained at the Hart Wrestling School in Cambridge Ontario with Smith Hart, Ike Shaw and Waldo Von Erich and then with Eric Young at the WrestlePlex school before receiving further training from Derek Wylde and Cody Deaner.