QT Marshall announced on Monday Evening that he will be leaving AEW, and we have some more details on the departure.
As already reported by Dave Meltzer & Nick Hausman, we also confirmed with people in AEW that Marshall had desires to wrestle more in AEW and be seen as more of an in-ring performer rather than a backstage coach, but this was simply not going to happen.
However, there is some more to it. According to people in AEW, there are mixed opinions and perspectives on how wrestling should be presented amongst some producers and key figures in AEW. QT Marshall himself was seen as one of the key voices championing a more entertainment based approach to wrestling TV. We’re told that Marshall leans on the characters/entertainment approach and feels he can contribute on screen in that regard.
It had been said by sources that Marshall was not a fan of some of the shifts in AEW creative and felt the company wasn’t telling great stories the way they used to. In his view, putting on a bunch of high-end, high workrate matches with no story or build is being like NJPW. There are no imminent plans for AEW to become “like NJPW”, this is just how we are told Marshall felt.
In the early days of AEW Collision, QT Marshall made some appearances on the show in QTV segments. However, QTV’s time on Collision did not last long, and according to people in AEW, CM Punk didn’t want Marshall to be a part of Collision and didn’t see QTV as a productive part of Powerhouse Hobbs’ presentation. Tony Khan took the blame/fall for the removal of QTV segments, which ultimately damaged Khan’s relationship with Marshall. The relationship was fractured and Marshall felt that there was a lack of transparency in terms of the reasons why QTV segments were removed from Collision. He was of the belief that CM Punk removed him from the show, and didn’t believe Tony Khan when he took the fall.
We were also told that QT Marshall was well liked backstage by talent and staff in AEW.
