AEW star QT Marshall was the latest guest on the Wrestling Perspective podcast to discuss a number of different subjects, including how he had a grudge against WWE for not hiring him as a coach, and how that led to him opening up his own wrestling school. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he told Tony Khan he wants to remain at AEW for a long time:
Behind the scenes, I don’t ever wanna stop. If there’s something attainable, I want it. In ten years from now, I hope it’s myself and Tony [Khan], you know? And Cody [Rhodes] is off in Hollywood or doing what he’s doing and The Bucks and Kenny [Omega] are doing whatever they’re doing and I’m still there. I told Tony the other day when I got promoted to this Director of Creative Coordination, I told him, he was like, ‘Hey congrats,’ yada, yada and I just told him like, ‘Hey, I’ll sign a contract for the next 100 years. As long as the pay continues to go up, I never wanna leave. I don’t wanna go anywhere.’ This is what I love. I love the passion that Tony has for this industry, especially somebody — I always look at that, right? Somebody that doesn’t need the financial gain, right? Students too like Jade Cargill. She doesn’t need the money and she’s there, beautiful woman, busting her ass, getting kicked in the face and all this stuff. She doesn’t need the money so she must love it, you know what I mean? Or she must have the passion for it so when I see someone like Tony, that’s a guy that I’m like, ‘You know what? I will believe –’ kinda like what they used to say about Paul Heyman. I’ll believe what he’s selling me because he doesn’t need it, so if he’s telling me why he’s doing this, I believe that because he has no reason to try to carny me into believing anything else.
On having a grudge with WWE for not hiring him as a coach and how it led to him opening his own wrestling school:
Because even before AEW started, I opened a school and I had a chip on my shoulder when I wasn’t offered a job — not a job, a tryout as a coach down in developmental at NXT. I had this chip on my shoulder. Well I’m just gonna open my own school then. I’m gonna open my own schools and I’m gonna make it the greatest school in the world and it’s gonna be better than the Performance Center so I’ve kind of made it my mission to do that so that’s why if you see our student showcase, it’s got lights, everything. I want it to be the greatest show in the world for these kids that pay their money to learn from us.
How WWE doesn’t recognize talent until it’s too late, including the Factory’s Nick Comoroto:
But at the end of the day too, I think [I’ve] already [won], right? I’ve already won because I think the point has come across now that QT is someone you don’t wanna mess with and he’s got The Factory and it’s highlighting three younger talents that all have tremendous, tremendous potential. I mean Anthony Ogogo, an Olympic boxer who I’ve trained since day one and I wasn’t there when Kurt Angle trained but I was there when Matt Riddle trained and he kind of gives me those vibes. He’s just a natural, he loves wrestling and he’s an athlete. You put those two together and you’re gonna make magic. [Nick] Comoroto, another one. He was in NXT, they let him go because they’re stupid and they didn’t know what they had which they never do anyway so their loss is our gain and then you have Aaron Solow, another guy who has been traveling all over the world for the past ten years and I kind of talked to them and we spoke and they realized, ‘Hey, okay, we’re willing to do this. Let’s make it happen so.