Ronald William "Ronnie" Arniell (born February 19, 1981), better known by his ring name as Shawn Spears, is a Canadian professional wrestler best known for his stint with World Wrestling Entertainment under its ECW brand where he wrestled under the name Gavin Spears.

Born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, Arniell was an avid hockey lover during his childhood but eventually chose wrestling over hockey as a child.

After becoming a licensed casino dealer in Canada, Ronnie moved to Cambridge to try his hand at wrestling. In 2001, he made his decision to study wrestling with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling wrestler "Showtime" Eric Young at the Wrestleplex training school.

Upon wrestling his debut match in March 2002, Arniell began wrestling for some of the biggest independent wrestling promotions throughout Ontario and the United States, including Border City Wrestling (BCW) and World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW), and Blood Sweat and Ears (BSE). In February 2005, Arniell made an appearance on an edition of WWE Heat in a tag team match against Rosey and The Hurricane.

On January 21, 2006, he signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and reported to Ohio Valley Wrestling. He wrestled his last match in Ontario for Great Canadian Wrestling May 11, 2006, taking part in a three way dance for the GCW National Championship in a match involving the GCW National Champion Michael Elgin and TNA's Shark Boy.

Arniell made his Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) television debut as "The Canadian Sensation" Shawn Spears, where he defeated then-SmackDown! superstar Simon Dean. Despite his victory, Dean beat up Spears after the match until Spears was saved by Al Snow, who was also then beat down with a chair by Dean. After his debut in OVW, Spears quickly made an impact by starting his OVW career with a short undefeated streak that was soon ended by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens when Stevens made Spears submit after applying his new Downer Clutch finisher. After this, Spears formed a tag team with Cody Runnels and they feuded with The Throwbacks for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship. On December 15, 2006, Spears and Runnels won the titles from The Throwbacks.

On March 17, 2007, Spears won the OVW Television Championship from Boris Alexiev. Afterwards, he became more focused and greedy on championship titles then anything and even began trying to steal Runnels' OVW Heavyweight Championship title shot. This greediness started to peak after the team lost the OVW Tag Team Titles, leaving Spears with only his OVW TV Title. He would later deliver a piledriver to his former partner, preventing him from winning the OVW Heavyweight Championship, thus, finally turning heel. Spears lost the OVW Television Championship to Runnels on July 6, 2007 before winning it back one week later. He once again lost the title on September 19 to the debuting Manbeast (Ted McNailer). Spears later regained the TV Title, only to lose it to Colt Cabana, who he then went on to win the vacant Tag Team titles with on November 7 after defeating Paul Burchill and Stu Sanders. On December 19, Cabana and Spears' feud with each other 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 and the other half of the new Tag Team Champions.

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 The Puerto Rican Nightmares for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship on August 17. Nearly a month later, Nemeth and Spears lost the titles to Joe Hennig and Heath Miller on September 11.

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. Before the match, Spears cut a promo, where he claimed to be "the crown jewel of the talent initiative". 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 both the brand and the company. One month later on January 19, 2009, Arniell was released from his contract, only having three televised matches with the company.

In June 2009, Arniell would take part in a Ring of Honor show on June 12 defeating Alex Payne after a Hangman's neckbreaker. On May 27 Arniell was defeated in a TNA dark match by Elijah Burke.

• Finishing moves
  • Running Death Valley driver^[1]

• Signature moves
  • Belly to belly suplex^[1]
  • Lariat^[1]
  • Powerbomb^[1]
  • Sharpshooter^[1]
  • Spinning backbreaker^[1]
  • Superplex^[1]

• Nicknames
  • "The (self–proclaimed) Crown Jewel of ECW's New Superstar Initiative"

• Adrenaline Live Wrestling
  • ALW Georgian Bay Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Canadian Independent Wrestling Alliance
  • CIWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Florida Championship Wrestling
  • FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Nic Nemeth

• Great Lakes Championship Wrestling
  • GLCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Flexx Falcone

• Neo Spirit Pro Wrestling
  • NSPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with J.T. Playa

• Ohio Valley Wrestling
  • OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Cody Runnels (2) and Colt Cabana (1)^[2]
  • OVW Television Championship (3 times)^[3]

• Online World Of Wrestling profile
• Official website
• OVW profile