page_title: Shawn Spears
section_title: Developmental territories (2006–2008)
hierarchical_section_title: Shawn Spears / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2006-2009) / Developmental territories (2006–2008)
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo I took of Shawn Spears in Charlestown IN on 12/14/2007
context_page_description: Ronnie William Arneill is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling under the ring name Shawn Spears. He is also known for his time with WWE under the ring name Tye Dillinger.
  Having begun his career on the independent circuit 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 and Florida Championship Wrestling as well as briefly on the main roster brand ECW under the slightly modified ring name Gavin Spears. 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. After a rise in popularity, Dillinger was promoted to the main roster in 2017, working on the SmackDown brand until his second release from the company in 2019.
  Shortly after leaving WWE, he signed with the newly founded promotion All Elite Wrestling in May 2019, reverting back to his Shawn Spears name.
context_section_description: 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.
  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 would go 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.
caption: Spears with the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in December 2007
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