You may not be too keen on QT Marshall, but he doesn't care. The man's a draw, and he's got the receipts to prove it ... well, kinda.
During a recent chat with our friends over at WrestleZone, QT addressed his recent feud with Paul Wight and claimed that despite negative reviews from a vocal minority on social media, the angle was a success.
"If we do a million views a week, over a million [views] and there’s 17 people who are going to comment on the graphic that pops up saying QT’s on Dynamite -- I don’t care about those people because those people aren’t buying a ticket anyway," Marshall said.
Marshall believes that he must be doing something right if wrestling fans are jeering him week in week out. Marshall has been a heel since March when he turned on Cody Rhodes and The Nightmare Family to form a breakaway faction called The Factory. Aaron Solow, Nick Comoroto, and Olympian Anthony Ogogo sided with Marshall, while the other Nightmare Family members stayed loyal to Cody.
Since then, Marshall has and his Factory cronies have committed numerous dastardly acts (like bullying Tony Schiavone) which have earned them the ire of the AEW crowds. Marshall's appearances always generate boos and jeers, which is exactly what he wants.
“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," Marshall said in the aforementioned WrestleZone interview. Marshall added that viewership is also important, and even by that metric, he's doing a good job. "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,” he said.
Marshall's feud with Paul Wight culminated in a glorified squash match at All Out, which Wight won.