Gavin Spears

On the August 19 edition of ECW, Spears made his WWE television debut as a heel under the name Gavin Spears as part of Theodore Long's "talent 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 over three months of inactivity due to competing in FCW, Spears returned to television on the December 16 edition of ECW, where he lost to Finlay in what turned out to be his last match for the company. One month later on January 19, 2009, Arniell was released from his contract, only having three televised matches with the company.