QT Marshall recently appeared on on Talk is Jericho and discussed his work with All Elite Wrestling. Marshall looked back on his in-ring career and his extensive responsibilities behind the scene. Here are some highlights:
On the apple he carried to the ring:
Marshall: “Cody kind of told me like, ‘Hey, you’re getting a lot of heat with this apple.’ And I was like, ‘Why? What did I do?’ So the apple thing was like, he was calling Jungle Boy to hire him, they wanted to video it, and I was just standing there holding his phone like a jerk. You know what I mean? Like who’s this pretentious guy that can’t hold his own phone? And who’s this idiot standing next to him?”
“So then the director, Steve, I was eating an apple, and he’s just like, ‘You should do it every video, it’ll be funny, after a while it’ll catch on.’ And I was like whatever. And I was trying to lose weight anyway, so instead of eating candy like I was doing, and then people started like oh, ‘AEW Carlito,’ and then we kept doing it.”
On teaming with Dustin Rhodes:
Marshall: “Being partners with Dustin, there’s a lot of nepotism and stuff that goes along with that and being friends with Cody. And I always feel like I just, I need to prove myself. Even though I’ve been training in wrestling for 16 years, and I don’t really need to prove myself, but like to certain fans, I feel like I always do, right, and I always have to justify why I’m here. So during this [Bunkhouse] match, I thought about it. I said, okay, you know we always talk about like live forever. What could I do that, if I never wrestle again, that would live forever?”
“And the night before, I was just at the building looking over stuff as I do on the production side of things, and I saw a humongous ladder. And I was like, ‘Man, what if I jump off this ladder?’ I was just like, ‘What could I do off this ladder?’ And then I climbed up when no one was here, I just climbed up and I looked down. So I literally yell to one of the production guys, ‘Hide this ladder,’ because this one is way too big. I would have had to jump off maybe the fourth rung down, and then you just look like a wuss….We got a little bit smaller [ladder], and I’m still feeling it.”
On coaching:
Marshall: “Michael Jordan doesn’t need to open a basketball school, he’s not going to. You know what I mean? So that’s why I think, because I don’t have that big name, that I really try to go above and beyond to do everything. And sometimes it backfires and I get so stressed, and you know, like I try not to show it but I also didn’t want anyone to know either. Because the same reason, like Dean Malenko. He’s never heard of me, and he shouldn’t have. So how am I gonna go to Dean and say, ‘Hey Dean, this is what you’re doing.'”
“I always told Cody, even Tony, like, ‘Hey, I don’t want people to, I’d rather be the silent guy that just does a lot of the stuff.’ Don’t say me. As great as it is, the fans might get mad more than anything, like what the f—— is this guy doing here?”
The full episode is available here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3EOd8AvTvD9FGcbxAcRm0O?si=YRZ1BpR_QTy9tOtBd3gUQg
