Ever since Shawn Spears made his debut in AEW, he has seemed to struggle to find his place. Now, it appears his manager Tully Blanchard offered him a gift, an old-school gimmick that could help him discover his character.

The gift was a black glove. While some younger fans might think it just a silly piece of ring wear, the black glove has a long and illustrious history, and it has nothing to do with moonwalking.

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Shawn Spears made his debut in AEW when he came in and saw an old friend from WWE in Cody Rhodes. He then smashed him in the head with a steel chair, busting open Cody and leaving him with a deep gash and stitches. The debut was massive, and it looked like Spears was ready to become a star and prove that WWE had dropped the ball with the former Tye Dillinger. It didn't happen.

Cody beat Spears in their first match after the attack, and then the push was over. After starting his AEW career with a bang by destroying one of the top stars in the company, Spears ended up mostly on AEW Dark. This was a tough break, especially since AEW brought Tully Blanchard out of retirement to be his manager and even teased a conflict between Blanchard and former tag team partner Arn Anderson.

After a short feud with Joey Janella, mostly on AEW Dark, Spears disappeared into nothing but vignettes. For the next few months, Spears was hunting for a tag team partner, but that angle never went anywhere as he never found one. The good news is that, since the COVID-19 pandemic, AEW has used wrestlers in the audience, and one of the main faces seen was Spears, who told CBR in an exclusive interview that Tony Khan told him to further his character in that audience.

Spears teamed up with guys like MJF there and looks ready to finally be ready to make something out of his AEW career. If Blanchard's gift is any indication, it is an old-school angle that could push Spears to the top. The single black glove has a strong history in professional wrestling with legends like Blackjack Mulligan, Ted DiBiase before he was the Million Dollar Man, and Barry Windham.

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Bo Dallas wore a black glove a few years ago in WWE because his grandfather, Blackjack Mulligan, made it famous. As for Ted Dibiase, he took it one step further when he revived the black glove in Mid-South Wrestling, often loading it up with a foreign object to cheat during matches; shades of what we could see from Spears, perhaps.

ted dibiase

This glove led to matches like the infamous coal miners' glove matches that DiBiase had with Hacksaw Jim Duggan years before either man worked their way to WWE. Move ahead further, and Barry Windham also used the black glove. Like Dallas in WWE, Windham used the glove because Blackjack Mulligan was his dad, and it was a way to honor him.

When the Four Horsemen received their induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, the members were Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham. This fact links the black glove from Windham to Blanchard and could explain the significance of Blanchard being the person who brought the glove to his client to revive the classic gimmick.

Whether or not the black glove gimmick that made men like Windham, DiBiase and Mulligan successful helps Spears remains to be seen, but he certainly needs something to light a fire in his career, and Blanchard hopes this classic weapon of mass destruction could be the match.

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