QT Marshall discusses WWE ID.
WWE announced the launch of WWE ID on October 29th, and the developmental program will see the company work with several schools, including The Nightmare Factory, which has been owned and operated by Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall.
Speaking with Steven Muehlhausen for The Takedown on SI, QT Marshall discussed the situation and noted that Tony Khan asked him about it. He said that he did not really know that the Nightmare Factory would be a part of it. Marshall recalled how Rhodes told him that he was doing something related to WWE. He also explained that Rhodes has his own camps, so there has been some separation between them.
"Tony (Khan) called me the day it was announced about other stuff, and he's like, ‘Hey, I just got to bring this up because I'm getting a lot of questions.' I was honest with him. I said, ‘Hey, I'll be honest with you, Tony, I didn't really know about this’. Cody had spoken to me about potentially signing over the intellectual properties and stuff, and he said he was doing something related to WWE but l kind of sworn to secrecy type of thing, and I don't want to know. There's other stuff that's going on with the facility as well. The building that we're in is like two hours from Cody’s house. So maybe six months ago, I put the building up for sale and he was going to open up his own spot by his house that I would probably come by like once a week and train and do the same thing we were doing by me, but he wanted (the gym) to be closer to him because he does all these interviews, and he just wanted his own compound type place. When Cody explained it to me, he was very smart about not putting me in the press releases. He didn't want any kind of drama for me. And I told Tony, Cody has his own camps. It's always been like that where I've been a coach but these are his camps. These are all his kids. They're from scratch. I've always trained people for the most part in a night class with Billy Gunn. Before Billy, it was just myself. But I like more of the experienced guys and girls, whereas Cody likes to get them when they're like brand new. So it was a little weird at first when he went to WWE," Marshall said.
Marshall went on to reiterate that he did not understand what was going on now that WWE was involved. He admitted that he did not look into it, but his students were asking him about the situation. Marshall stated that he did not know what the deal was or what it involved. He also stated that Rhodes was doing his own thing, and he personally would probably not be involved due to the conflict of interest.
"Now, I mean, of course that the WWE is involved, I don't understand what is going on. I didn't look into it as much. The reason I want to look into it is because I have every single student we've ever had has been messaging me, but I don't know the answer. So I don't know what their whole deal is, what that involves. I read the press release as well. But I know when I spoke to Cody like, ‘Hey, you're going to be doing your own thing. Maybe I could run a night class in there if we lose the building here, if we sell the building and stuff. But obviously, with AEW and the conflict of interest, I'm probably not going to be a part of this thing. He's like, ‘Yeah, of course, that makes perfect sense, stinks because you are 50 percent of the Nightmare Factory. More than 50 percent because of the coaching that you bring. But at the end of the day, of course, if it's going to make any kind of difficulty at work, you know, and that's the biggest thing," Marshall said.
Marshall continued by noting that the lack of information in WWE's press release led to a lot of questions about the situation, as he said that some fans have called for AEW to cut ties with him due to the school being affiliated with WWE. He made it clear that he decided months ago that he would be taking a break from coaching. Marshall reiterated that he understood Cody Rhodes' perspective, and they were still friends.
"I just want to relax and figure out what else is there, and maybe find the passion for coaching againIt’s been a wild couple of days. I didn't really know what was going on. I understand from Cody's point of view. He’s sworn a kind of secrecy and stuff because, who knows if maybe it's such a cool thing that they're doing that we would have wanted to jump on it. I don't know. Cody and I, we just have more of a friend relationship than professional at this point," Marshall said.
QT Marshall previously discussed running the Nightmare Factory with Cody Rhodes. Check out his comments here.
During the interview, Marshall discussed why he didn't go to WWE after he briefly left AEW. Click here to see what he had to say.
