Long before Dillinger arrived on NXT in 2013, he was known to a small portion of the WWE Universe as Gavin Spears, or at least to anyone who watched WWE's version of ECW. He was a part of the brand's “new talent initiative” in late 2008. However, he was on the losing end of the three matches he had in the Land of Extreme and was released the following January.
He resurfaced years later in NXT as Tye Dillinger, but was once again utilised as an enhancement talent. Dillinger has done the job for everyone who has come through the black-and-yellow including Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Austin Aries and Finn Balor.
From the get-go, I knew he had the potential to be something special because of his natural in-ring ability. However, he suffered from a lack of charisma and personality, and pairing him with Jason Jordan in 2014 was seemingly the answer. Well, it wasn't, and the team found very little success before parting ways at the onset of 2015. They simply weren't a good fit together, but breaking them up was the best thing that could have happened to either of them.
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