AEW star QT Marshall was the latest guest on Talk Is Jericho to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including how little he was paid while under contract with ROH, and how he worked an NXT tapings without ROH’s permission. Highlights are below.
How ROH was only paying him $150 per match:
When I first started with ROH, they offered me a contract. I did a paid tryout at first, a two-day tryout. At the end of day one; it was Jim Cornette, Delirious, and Kevin Kelly, they were like, ‘as long as you show up tomorrow, you have a job.’ I get up there and I didn’t know any of the politics. I ended up making a joke to someone about….this kid hurt me really bad. It was Jimmy Jacobs’ guy, so he had these friends. He kicked me in the head maybe five times. I gave him an Alabama Slam and kinda hurt him, but I checked on him and called him. The next taping, someone came up, ‘You shouldn’t do the Alabama Slam, you’re hurting people.’ Where was everyone asking me when he kicked me in the head? That spread real quick. Plus, I was cutting promos on the World Champion, behind the scenes, that never aired, but they wanted to see. Third match in, I got hurt on my neck. Then, I broke my nose, Hangman Page broke my nose in 30 seconds. I got fat because I was injured, I had life stuff going on, and I just asked for my release. I hated it that much. I was making $150 a match. When they gave me the contract, I didn’t laugh, but I said, ‘Is this real? $150 a match, we work three times a month, that’s $450. That won’t pay for my car. This isn’t a real job.’ I asked for my release, they wouldn’t give it to me because I guess Shelton Benjamin asked for his release too.
How he worked an NXT taping as an extra while still under ROH contract:
I was in Florida, NXT called, they were just starting to use extras. I was like, ‘I’m under contract. When the episode airs, I won’t be, but I am right now.’ The girl was like, ‘If you don’t care, we don’t care.’ I didn’t care. Right away, I do the match on the taped NXT show, and before I’m out of the ring, my phone is blowing up. Jeff Jones, who working at ROH, he was like, ‘are you doing something you’re not supposed to be doing?’ I was like, ‘You gonna take my $150? Fire me, I asked for my release.’ They understood but Delirious was like, ‘Legally, I have to be mad because you breached your contract, but your contract is up in two weeks. Don’t worry about it, we just won’t re-sign you as a punishment.’ I continued to work with them on and off.
Full interview can be found here. (H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
