Social media might think otherwise, but the live crowds at AEW shows prove QT Marshall is very good at his job.
QT Marshall spoke with Sports Illustrated ahead of AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam, which is set to take place at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. SI’s Dan Gartland noted how the venue lends to a rowdier crowd than most tennis tournaments, and asked what Marshall was expecting for a wrestling show there. Marshall praised the AEW fanbase for being dedicated and traveling to events, then spoke about how some social media circles say he’s got “go-away heat,” but the live crowds say otherwise.
“A lot of the people that come to our shows, they travel. There’s going to be people from all over the Tri-state area. They’re just these rabid, die-hard AEW fans. There’s nothing like it. Pandemic wrestling really kinda, I don’t want to say it hurt us, because we’ve been doing really well no matter what. Tony had great ideas with putting those wrestlers in the crowd. Even that week that we couldn’t put anyone in the crowd, he had people in trailers that were miked up, so they could still make noise and still get the ambiance of wrestling. But there is nothing like being in front of an AEW audience. They’re as loud as they possibly can be. Even with myself out there. The Twitter universe is going to say that I have what we call “go-away heat,” where they don’t want me out there at all,” Marshall noted, “but the live crowd says different. When 16,000 people at the United Center are chanting, “Q.T. sucks!” I think I’m doing something right.”
Marshall also spoke about AEW’s growth, with Gartland noting how Arthur Ashe is the second time within a month that the promotion will host an audience of 20,000-plus fans. Marshall said the pandemic prevented fans from coming out each week, but there’s a lot to look forward to now that they’re getting another chance to experience it.
“That’s the other thing. Fans had no choice but to watch us on TV because they couldn’t come to live shows, and I think the popularity, it’s just like anything, if we were touring, I think our popularity would continue to grow as well, but because people had to watch it on TV for so long without being able to get there, it’s almost like starting over. That first episode of Dynamite [in 2019], we sold that arena, in Washington, D.C., right away. I think it’s sort of the same thing now. We’re gonna have another first round of all these cities that we’re gonna go to where all these fans are gonna be waiting and waiting and salivating to be there. And on top of that, now you have guys like C.M. Punk and Bryan Danielson that, again, C.M. Punk, he could [sell out an arena] on his own. I don’t mean he could wrestle on his own but at the same time,” Marshall explained, “there’s a whole country that has been waiting for C.M. Punk to wrestle in front of them. So that’s just like a bonus now, that I think there’s gonna be a whole year of people waiting to go see C.M. Punk live. It’s very exciting.”
