-- Q.T. Marshall, AEW's Vice President of Show and Creative Coordination, recently sat down with The Takedown on Sports Illustrated for an interview where one of the topics that he discussed was a potential jump to WWE when he was briefly a free agent in late 2023. Marshall noted that he had one conversation with someone who "doesn't even work there anymore" and got "rubbed the wrong way" and decided that the company wasn't for him:
"I had one conversation with somebody that doesn't even work there anymore. I just got rubbed the wrong way during the conversation. It was like, ‘Hey, yeah, oh yeah, that's great. All right. And I told him, like, yeah, all right, we'll stay in touch’. To me, it was like I'm not staying in touch. "
"I had all that time between November and January, so that on January 1 when that conversation did arise or January 2, whenever it was. It was like I kind of knew plus I had already spoken to Tony before that, so I kind of knew. I think I was just looking for a reason to say no."
-- He also went on to elaborate on his reasons for going back to AEW, despite his close friendship with Cody Rhodes and the fact that the two run "The Nightmare Factory Wrestling School" in Georgia:
"I have so many positives in wrestling when it comes to what I bring to the table. I make too many to the point where no one has a clue what to do with me, which is why I fit in so well at AEW because I don't have just one role. I just do as much stuff as I possibly can. Of course, it dawned on me to think about it. I remember telling Tony a long time ago when Cody first went to WWE, ‘I'm never going to leave AEW to go work in the office at WWE. I just won't do it. That's such a large system’."
"I'm like Tony's right-hand man. So why would I leave to go be number 7,000 in a company, work more hours, more days on the road, just to say I work for WWE? Like 20 years ago, of course, I would have done anything to work for WWE. Now, it's different. If it was just talent related, and I told Tony this as well, ‘If they came to me and we spoke about just being a talent on the main roster, of course. I mean, that's the dream’."
"I don't know if it's affected my relationship with Cody, but we're still pretty close. But again, he has to do what's best for him. I have to do what's best for me. And for me, coming back to AEW as an employee, just working, getting my paycheck, and then being able to wrestle wherever I want with the exception of WWE. I don't wanna say, whatever I want, but I could basically do whatever I want. So why would I leave that?"
