QT Marshall is happy with how his feud with Paul Wight turned out, despite being on the losing end of the match.
QT Marshall spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor about his recent work in All Elite Wrestling, including his feuds with Cody Rhodes and Paul Wight over the summer. When it comes to the latter, Marshall said that AEW was careful with putting Wight with the right opponent, noting that Wight’s hip surgeries weren’t just for show. Marshall then spoke about some of the reaction to the feud on social media and said that it’s a vocal minority speaking because when it comes down to it, the ratings and live crowds prove people were into it.
“There was a lot that went into that and it’s Paul Wight, man. We signed Paul Wight, he’s an active wrestler, so we can’t not let him wrestle but at the same time, you do have to be a little careful of who wrestles and what kind of guys he’s working with. One, from a trust factor, working with him, because those hip surgeries were real, they were things that actually did happen to him, so he has to trust who he’s working with. And on top of that, the fans have to enjoy what’s going on and I don’t enjoy listening to what people have to say on Twitter. If we do a million views a week, over a million [in viewership] and there’s 17 people who are going to comment on the graphic that pops up saying QT’s on Dynamite,” Marshall noted, “I don’t care about those people because those people aren’t buying a ticket anyway.
“The ones that are in the live arena that are booing and getting into the stuff we did, that’s what I listen to because that’s pro wrestling. At the end of the day, the audience’s reaction is the only thing that matters, from a business perspective, of course the rating matters as well which is, thanks to Paul, the rating was always good. Paul Wight is who he is, he’s a major star in professional wrestling. For the fans that didn’t want to see it or whatever, then sure, don’t watch it, but if you look at the actual numbers, I’m talking about the straight numbers, people watched it.”
Marshall said Wight and Tony Khan already had an idea of their plans, and it was a matter of finding the right guy. Marshall says he wanted to work in a spot that Scott Hall used to do in WCW, and it just happened to work out for him time-wise.
“A lot of it was, ‘Hey this is the idea and this is the route that everyone wants to go’ and I think it was more or less that [Paul] and Tony probably decided what route they kind of needed to make it work and they just needed someone to do it. I had just gotten done with Cody [Rhodes] and I was working on Elevation and I remember asking him, ‘Hey there’s a fun spot that Scott Hall used to do all the time, block the hip toss, chokeslam and then he would mock The Giant. I said [to Paul] do you mind if I [do that] and he said ‘I’ve been waiting for someone to call me out, I’m just sitting here’ and people were just scared.
I was like, ‘I’m going will this into fruition,’ not realizing that there was already something in place, they were just looking for the right person. It worked out in the end, I got a pay-per-view match out of it, not that it’s what it’s about, but my guys got on a pay-per-view, I had students that were part of angles that have never been on TV but got to do stuff, it was fun. Tony Schiavone’s kid got in there, it was just a lot of fun stuff that I think the general audience did enjoy. Like I said, the small minority audience, if they didn’t enjoy it, it is what it is, but at the end of the day, I heard the reaction from the audience and that’s what I go by.”
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