Chris Jericho Talks AEW Hiring Friends Of The EVPs

AEW star and producer QT Marshall was on a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho where he talked about his early start in AEW. He also discussed his relationship with AEW EVP Cody Rhodes and how that eventually grew with them opening up the Nightmare Factory Wrestling School. He said he first started working with Rhodes at All In when they needed a help to produce the show.

"I went to All In because a student of mine sang the national anthem. Shalandra, her name was," Marshall said. "She did the national anthem, and so I drove her to All In... So I was like, yeah, I'll bring you there, and my wife and I went as fans. And then they needed someone to produce the show.

"And luckily, I was there, and I guess, unbeknownst to myself, Cody had told his agent, 'That guy's coming with me wherever I go.' I had thought, because I was training Brandi at the time, too, I had thought that he was just going to go back to WWE and I'd never see him again. Because I'm like, there's no way Ring of Honor is going to pay this crazy amount of money that they deserve, and I'll never see him again. And maybe we'll be friends, but I know I can't get a job there. I don't have the respect from the wrestling community to be an agent somewhere."

Marshall said Rhodes later called him to help film the AEW rally in Jacksonville for BTE. He noted that he also had a class to teach and would have made good money off of that, but he went to the rally and was offered a job as Rhodes' assistant. However, Marshall said he wanted more and wanted to be involved with wrestling in some type of way.

"When AEW started, he was like, 'Hey, do you want to come to Jacksonville and film BTE for the rally?' And I was like, 'Sure,'" Marshall recalled. "It was my first day of a beginner class. So beginner class, at the time, was $1500, and there were six people signed up. So I was like, ma,, I'm going to make money finally. The first day, I had to leave. The students loved it.

"They're like, 'Oh my God, you're going to AEW!' They loved it. I hated it, but then when I got here, they were like, 'Yeah, we'll offer you this job as an assistant,' but I also knew that it's a new company and they don't have everything in place. And as much as everyone thinks that they're going to do stuff, they might not be able to get to it or whatever it was. And it was in Vegas when I realized not everyone had the music licenses done and all this stuff. And I was up until 5:00 a.m the night before, and then we had a meeting the next day. And I was just supposed to sit there and be quiet, and Cody calls it 'the Jerry Maguire moment' because I didn't flip out. But I guess I did.

"But it was more along the lines of, 'Hey guys, just to let you know, I can do other stuff. I don't have to just get coffee. I don't have to just bring people from the lobby to the room. I can do a lot of stuff. I can coach matches. I can help with promos.' I just wanted to let it be known that it was there, and Cody finally was just like, 'Dude, you can't. Are you gonna jump out of this window? Just tell me what you want.' I was like, 'I don't want a job in wrestling without being involved in wrestling.' I could be a secretary anywhere. If you're going to do that to me in wrestling and be like, 'Oh, but you can't be a part of wrestling,' that's going to really hurt me more than anything."

Marshall recalled asking about an in-ring role, but that was not met well. He noted that Rhodes never wanted him to wrestle and only envisioned him as his assistant.

"So they were like, 'Yeah, we'll give you this gig.' And then I mentioned wrestling once and that was not well received," Marshall noted. "And I was like, okay. So, I kind of let that be. I didn't do it. And then one day, we're on a call, and Tony was like, 'Hey, I think we'll put QT in this Dark match.' I was like [QT gasps]. Cody's texting me on the side during the call. 'Well, there you go. You got it.' It's crazy that all the nepotism– it was never Cody that pushed for me to wrestle. He always wanted me to be his assistant because I was really good at that, but I told him, I'll be good at anything because I have the drive to do it."

Jericho has discussed on his podcast before the idea of Luther being signed because Luther is one of his close friends. He reiterated that guys like Luther and others who are close friends with the EVPs are not there because they are on a "friendship plan", but they are there because of the work they put in.

"You have that, Luther has it to an extent. [Michael] Nakazawa and even Brandon Cutler, because you're friends with one of the top guys," Jericho pointed out. "You almost have to work harder to prove that. That's what I like to see. 'Luther is actually pretty good. QT's pretty good.' Yeah, that's why you're here! You're not here on a friendship plan! You're here because you f–king do a lot of work, and you deserve to be here."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.