Exclusive: QT Marshall On Staying With AEW, His Relationship With Cody Rhodes, WWE ID

QT Marshall talks about a variety of topics including the WWE Undisputed Champion, Cody Rhodes.

AEW Executive and Wrestler QT Marshall is in action. / All Elite Wrestling

Friendships in pro wrestling used to be hard to come by. Wrestlers would see each other on the road more than their families and they'd need time away from them to be with the ones they love. Now, the road schedule is different to the point where wrestlers now hangout more often and form those personal relationships that aren't just based on the professional wrestling business.

Case in point would be the relationship with AEW Executive and sometimes wrestler QT Marshall and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.

At one point in time, Marshall was Rhodes' assistant. Now, Marshall helps run The Nightmare Factory Wrestling School alongside Rhodes in Georgia. Marshall is also the godfather to Rhodes' daughter, Liberty.

Ricky Starks, Dustin Rhodes, Brodie Lee's family, QT Marshall were all backstage to support Cody Rhodes last night. pic.twitter.com/FXRqQsVDyP

— Humble Wrestling (@WrestlingHumble) April 8, 2024

After signing a short term contact in August of 2023, Marshall revealed in November, he would be leaving AEW. Speculation was he'd go to WWE and be reunited with Rhodes. In February, Marshall decided to head back to AEW in the same role he had as Vice President of Creative Coordination.

Was there any consideration by Marshall to head to WWE? Marshall knew he had too much invested into AEW to where the organization is his home.

"I have so many positives in wrestling when it comes to what I bring to the table," Marshall told The Takedown. "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’.

At the end of the short term contract extension he had with AEW, Marshall did have a conversation with WWE in the beginning of 2024. But Marshall knew rather quickly, that's not where he wanted to be.

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"I had one conversation with somebody that doesn't even work there anymore," Marshall admits. "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."

The assumption would be just because one friend didn't go join his friend at their place of employment that friction would be there. Marshall doesn't think that's the case as ultimately he decided to do what's best for him and his family to remain in All Elite Wrestling and Rhodes decided to do what was best for him and his family when he signed with WWE in early 2022.

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"I don't know if it's affected my relationship with Cody, but we're still pretty close," Marshall said. "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?

"I remember that when I spoke to Cody after I told him I was going to go back, and he was like, ‘Dude, I'm happy for you. Carry that flag, you know what I mean, and show people and own it then’.  I said, ‘Ok I will’."

Last week, WWE put out a press release announcing WWE ID. One of the gyms that will be part of the program is The Nightmare Factory. On the surface, it would put Marshall and Rhodes in a pickle due to them being in different companies.

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"Tony (Khan) called me the day it was announced about other stuff, and he's like, ‘Hey, I just got to bring this up because I'm getting a lot of questions’," Marshall said. And I was honest with him. I said, ‘Hey, I'll be honest with you, Tony, I didn't really know about this’. 

"Cody had spoken to me about potentially signing over the intellectual properties and stuff, and he said he was doing something related to WWE but l kind of sworn to secrecy type of thing, and I don't want to know. There's other stuff that's going on with the facility as well. The building that we're in is like two hours from Cody’s house. So maybe six months ago, I put the building up for sale and he was going to open up his own spot by his house that I would probably come by like once a week and train and do the same thing we were doing by me, but he wanted (the gym) to be closer to him because he does all these interviews, and he just wanted his own compound type place."

"When Cody explained it to me, he was very smart about not putting me in the press releases. He didn't want any kind of drama for me. And I told Tony, Cody has his own camps. It's always been like that where I've been a coach but these are his camps. These are all his kids. They're from scratch. I've always trained people for the most part in a night class with Billy Gunn. And before Billy, it was just myself. But I like more of the experienced guys and girls, whereas Cody likes to get them when they're like brand new. So it was a little weird at first when he went to WWE."

"Now, I mean, of course that the WWE is involved, I don't understand what is going on. I didn't look into it as much. The reason I want to look into it is because I have every single student we've ever had has been messaging me, but I don't know the answer. So I don't know what their whole deal is, what that involves. I read the press release as well."

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"But I know when I spoke to Cody like, ‘Hey, you're going to be doing your own thing. Maybe I could run a night class in there if we lose the building here, if we sell the building and stuff. But obviously, with AEW and the conflict of interest, I'm probably not going to be a part of this thing. He's like, ‘Yeah, of course, that makes perfect sense, stinks because you are 50 percent of the Nightmare Factory. More than 50 percent because of the coaching that you bring. But at the end of the day, of course, if it's going to make any kind of difficulty at work, you know, and that's the biggest thing’.

Marshall will be taking a break from coaching due to his schedule, as he's running around the country every week. He had made the decision three months ago before the WWE ID deal was announced, so it has nothing to do with that. Regardless of it all, Marshall knows where he stands with Rhodes, and it is slightly different than it used to be, but it's still on a really strong footing.

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"I go to TV on Tuesday, I come home. Thursday, I go right to the school. Then over the weekend, we have Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, where I'm wrestling for somebody else. And then we start on Monday, I have another day at the school, and then I travel again. So I just would like to try to enjoy my life a little bit while I still can. There was a lot that went into it. It was just all this timing, all at once. It was how it all happened. I know people have been tagging me on Twitter saying that AEW should release me from all ties because the school is affiliated with WWE. And I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, that's good but I don't think that's beneficial to anybody'. I understand because there's not enough information out there. That's the biggest thing. Because Cody put my name in his tweet. He said, ‘Did that harm you more than help you’? I said, ‘I'm fine. It doesn't do anything. I think the lack of information that press release kind of gives, no one understands it. I don't know what it means. 

"I just want to relax and figure out what else is there, and maybe find the passion for coaching againIt’s been a wild couple of days," Marshall said. "I didn't really know what was going on. And I understand from Cody's point of view. He’s sworn a kind of secrecy and stuff because, who knows if maybe it's such a cool thing that they're doing that we would have wanted to jump on it. I don't know. Cody and I, we just have more of a friend relationship than professional at this point." 

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