Whatever Happened to WCW’s Daffney?

Posted on November 11, 2020 by bdamage1

Brian Damage

She was an actress who was only scheduled to appear on WCW television for four weeks. The strong reaction she received from fans led to a full time career in pro wrestling. She competed in WCW, TNA and various indie promotions. Today on the blog, we ask….’Whatever Happened to’ Daffney Unger?

Shannon Spruill was born in West Germany on an Army base where her father served as a Lieutenant Colonel. Her family moved to several different areas growing up. She played soccer and did gymnastics up until high school. As a young adult, Spruill attended Georgia State University where she fell in love with acting and production. In 1999, Spruill saw an ad for an acting role for the wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling and decided to audition for it.

She made it down to the final two actors where both were flown out to Minneapolis, Minnesota for WCW Nitro. Spruill said she was selected for the part of a “psychotic stalker” based on her looks. Spruill was given the name ‘Daffney’ and she was only scheduled to appear in WCW for four weeks. During that time, Spruill fell in love with the wrestling business and asked if she could become a wrestler.

Daffney began training under Nora Greenwald at the WCW Power Plant during the weekends. After Greenwald was released by the company, she trained under Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker and Paul Orndorff. Spruill said that her signature trademark was going to be an evil laugh, but noticed fans became more irritated when she screamed at ringside…so the scream became her thing.

Daffney was paired with Crowbar and David Flair. She said during her time with the company, she was more like one of the boys and got along better with them than the women. She usually travelled with the men and trained with guys like Crowbar, Shannon Moore and Shane Helms.

Daffney defeated Crowbar to become only the second woman to hold the WCW Cruiserweight title in 2000. She held the title for approximately two weeks. She then moved onto a feud with Miss Hancock aka Stacy Keibler over the affections of David Flair. Unfortunately, Daffney was released from the company in 2001 due to budget cutbacks.

Spruill continued her wrestling career and attended Dusty Rhodes’ wrestling school and promotion Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling based in Georgia. When that promotion went under, Spruill began making appearances in Ring of Honor, XPW and TNA wrestling. In 2003, Spruill was signed to a WWE developmental deal and assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

She had her name changed to ‘Lucy’ and based her new character on a ‘Gothic pin up model.’ She started out as a valet/manager to Aaron Stevens (Damien Sandow) but only lasted three months in developmental before she was released.

After a brief retirement, Spruill would resume her wrestling career competing for Shimmer and various independent groups before rejoining TNA full time in 2008. Daffney would wrestle the likes of ODB and Taylor Wilde. She would also manage the careers of Abyss, Raven and Stevie Richards. During her time with TNA, Spruill suffered several injuries including multiple concussions, a severely bruised sternum and a neck injury. In 2011, Daffney was released by TNA after filing for worker’s compensation. Spruill ended up suing the company and received a settlement out of court.

Daffney would work less and less dates on the independents. She worked for Shine promotion and made sporadic appearances for Ring of Honor. Shannon Spruill would retire from active wrestling in 2015. So, the question remains…whatever happened to Daffney?

Sadly, on September 1st, 2021, Shannon Spruill committed suicide with a self inflicted gunshot wound. Spruill had been battling multiple health issues both physical and mental before she ended her life. Spruill was just 46 years old at the time of her death.