AEW Star “Rubbed The Wrong Way” During WWE Talks

An AEW star had no desire to join WWE during a hiatus.

Back in November 2023, QT Marshall announced he was leaving AEW amid speculation that he’d become increasingly unhappy with the promotion’s creative direction. As well as being a regular on-screen presence, Marshall held several positions backstage and worked closely with Tony Khan.

However, come February, Marshall was back with the company as a Vice President, but not as an in-ring talent. Although he remained free to wrestle elsewhere, except WWE.

Shortly after his return to AEW, it was revealed that Marshall had held talks with WWE, but those talks didn’t go anywhere.

During a new interview with Steven Muehlhausen of The Takedown on SI, Marshall commented on the links to WWE given his close relationship with Cody Rhodes.

“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,'”

QT Marshall Lifts Lid On WWE Talks

Marshall went on to discuss his talks with WWE in early 2024, revealing the experience was less than positive. The star added that by that stage, he’d already indicated to Tony Khan that he was looking to return.

“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. 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,”

QT Marshall will be back in action on the AEW Full Gear pre-show when he takes on Costco Guy AJ.