Marshall goes in-depth on multiple topics.
Joining Chris Jericho on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho were QTV’s Q.T. Marshall, Harley Cameron and Aaron Solo.
At the second of three AAA Triplemanía XXX events this year, Q.T. was in action against Pentagón Jr. in an Ambulance match and he got the win. He recounted AEW President Tony Khan’s reaction to the proposed angle and feud. Khan felt it would be good for Q.T. to get out there and turn some of the Twitter users that dislike him for putting Marshall on television.
He told Marshall that normally, he would not allow two of his contracted talents to do an angle as such that he knows could do a big number for AEW.
Konnan called me and he kind of had this idea and we ran it by Tony (Khan) and Tony is a firm believer when it comes to me, that it’s good for me to go out and wrestle in other places because I can maybe help possibly turn the Twitter fans into seeing a different side of me and stuff like that. The Twitter fans that give Tony a lot of crap for putting me on TV. Yeah, but it’s a different type of hate (that Chris Jericho gets)… For some reason, they really, really hate me and this is what he specifically said, ‘I would never let two of my contracted talents go to another company and do an angle like this that could lead to something even bigger that I know would do a great rating for my show. But I believe in you and I do believe this would help you and it’ll help your career overall’ so thank goodness they were able to tell a good story for the past couple of months. We’re doing vignettes for the past couple of months and stuff like that and then they built up to this first-ever Ambulance match in Mexico which I’ve never done before and we could see as we went there, they definitely have never done it before. So it was wild and we had weapons and all this stuff and out of nowhere, I just see Pentagón grab these light tubes… and I just wished for the best and put my head down and my mom and dad both watched it. I bought them each a FITE TV order so they could watch it and they were not too happy, but they’re happy that I was okay so…
The formation of Q.T.V. was discussed and Marshall explained how it came about. It spawned from Marshall being in the main event of one of the lowest-drawing episodes of Rampage. Marshall added that the number for the match he was in did well, but Tony Khan felt he was not presented as a star and was not leading stars in his group.
The concept of Q.T.V. came from Tony seeing the movie ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’, which came out in 2016 and stars Andy Samberg. Marshall said the original plan was for Q.T.V. to bury everyone except Powerhouse Hobbs and that would lead to the reveal that they’re working with Hobbs. Things were sped up with Hobbs having a TNT Title match in his home-state of California.
We did an episode of Rampage that was the lowest-drawing Rampage of all-time. I was (in the main event). I will say this, the main event did really well, but it was just overall, a very poorly-rated Rampage and Tony (Khan) called me. He said, ‘Hey, I think you’re not presented as a huge star and then you’re not leading a bunch of stars so maybe it’s time to disband. Let’s come up with a new idea’ and someone pitched ‘Just Joe’, from WWE, you know? So I was like, ah man, I don’t wanna be another joke. I wanna do something fun. I just said, ‘What can we come up with?’ And then Tony said, ‘Have you ever seen the movie Popstar?’ And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well if you look at it, they make fun of TMZ…’ So he showed me the clip and he loved the clip and I said, ‘Okay’ and this was all supposed to be, at the end, the payoff was going to be that it was all good stuff about Will Hobbs. We bury everybody else and it would end up that I was with Powerhouse Hobbs. That’s what was supposed to start. But then when the Wardlow match happened, everything just kind of got… It was Hobbs versus Wardlow in Hobbs’ hometown, in San Francisco so it was like, ‘What do we do?’ And then it was kind of, ‘Q.T! We’re gonna put you with him now.’ I was like, ‘Okay. Yeah, let’s do it,’ you know? So then we had to kind of go backwards and (Aaron) Solo’s always been Solo so he’s someone I can count on, he’s professional, and when we originally thought about using the other guys, it was like, ‘We need a female. Who can we get?’ And a couple names came up and I spoke to a couple different people and I just remembered Harley (Cameron) from doing Dark and the music stuff and I was like, man, she just seems like a lot of personality. So I talked to Tony and Tony was like, ‘Yeah, let’s give it a shot’ so we were gonna film a bunch of vignettes and just without any contracts or anything like that and then all of a sudden, this thing just happened so it was like, ‘Hey, you start on TV next week.’
Later in the conversation, Marshall looked back at when he started in AEW. He said he was making less than minimum wage because he was Cody Rhodes’ assistant and it was once-a-week gig.
My wife hates me for it but I’m on my phone 24/7 because everyone contacts me because I’m the one that answers everybody, right? And I answer fast because — you know why? Because I’m not somebody that should be where I am, right? When I started, I was Cody Rhodes’ assistant making less than minimum wage really because it was only supposed to be once a week and all this stuff so it was like, alright, I don’t want this for myself. At the end of the day, I wanna be whatever I can be…
Marshall is scheduled for Triplemanía XXX in August. He’ll be in a four-way for the vacant Latin American Championship with Pentagón Jr., Brian Cage and Dralístico.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
