10! 10! 10! 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tye Dillinger

8. He Was Trained By Eric Young

Tye Dillinger Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

Though it took Eric Young even longer to break into the WWE system than Dillinger himself, Tye credits 'EY' with giving him the fundamentals to make his way in the industry.

Training under Young at the WrestlePlex school in Ontario when first breaking into the wrestling business in 2002, Dillinger took on the name 'Shawn Spears' for the first time and began plying his trade throughout Canada and North America.

Within three years, he'd catch WWE's attention in the aforementioned Sunday Night Heat dark match before eventually signing a developmental deal with them in 2006.

Young became a talismanic figure in TNA thanks to his extended tenure with the group, lasting 12 years with the organisation before joining NXT in 2016.

Their careers came full circle on Royal Rumble weekend earlier this year, as Young would wrestle his first NXT TakeOver match the same weekend Dillinger would make a main roster mini-debut in the 30-man match.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett