Marko Stunt On What Lead To His AEW Release “There Is A Piece Of My Spine Just Floating In There Somewhere”

There can be no doubt that in the world of professional wrestling, taking bumps is a very painful, but very necessary part of the profession. For Marko Stunt, those bumps, both inside and outside of the AEW ring, would eventually lead to his contract not being renewed by the promotion.

“I didn’t think I was done at all. I am not one to let things drown out. I wrestled on the independents for quite a while and I ended up getting hurt pretty bad. There was one match for GCW and I did a missile drop kick off the top rope, I didn’t have my contacts in because they got ripped out the night before. I had my glasses, but I can’t wrestle with them on. So I couldn’t see very well, my depth perception wasn’t right. So I jumped off the top rope for a missile drop kick and I ended up almost standing on top of the dude and I kicked off, went backwards and landed on the back of my head on the mat, knocking myself out. I don’t remember it, I remember seeing the video of it. It was pretty dumb, I ended up finishing the match. The finish of the match was me taking a brain buster of all things, that’s kind of what lead to me being gone from AEW. We were going to be on the Jericho Cruise the next week, I wasn’t going to lie to them (AEW). The medical team wouldn’t allow me to wrestle, I had just gotten a few concussions prior to that. They ended up sitting me out for a few months, which caused my contract to expire. I got told they were not going to renew my contract or anything, it sucked, I was pretty devastated. That first instant, you kind of want to give up, but I tried not to (give up). I ended up going back to wrestling on the independents and everything for GCW, I had a blast with that and I always have a love for GCW.

They allowed me to have that publicity to get to AEW, so I went back with them and wrestled for a while. My back was really, really messed up and I didn’t know what was going on. My hips were bothering me, so I went to the doctor and got an X-Ray because I did a match for a show that me and my buddy put together. I did this stupid bump, I did a run-in and I went to the top rope and somebody came up and shoved me,” Stunt said on Busted Open Radio. “I did a front flip to the apron, but there was no padding on the apron, so I just hit the metal bar that was there. I ended up going to the doctor the next day because I could barely walk, they did the X-Rays and stuff and I actually broken my back. My L5 was cracked and had a chip in it, there is a piece of my spine just floating in there somewhere.

“They told me that my right hip was rotating forward and pulling my tailbone to the side, it just caused a whole bunch of pain. You got get so used to it, it is just a part of my life now, I’m just going to hurt for awhile now. They advised me to hang up the boots and I did, reluctantly. I have been going through life without wrestling recently, it’s been a year now since I retired. I had to figure out what I was going to do financially, I got a family now, I got a 16-month-old daughter. I got to take care of her, I want to play with her as she is growing up, throw her around and pick her up and play with her. I can’t do that if I go out there and get paralyzed or something, which is what they said if I bump wrong.”

Stunt, who was an original member of the AEW roster, did notice that the locker room started to change before he exited the promotion in 2022.

“I do, I do believe that (free agent signings changed the AEW locker room). I couldn’t pinpoint when it started shifting, but it definitely did change a lot. We started bringing in more people from the WWE or big names from the independents or from NJPW, which I thought was great. I think it is always good to get the best talent you can, they (AEW) always claim to be the company where the best wrestle, I don’t think their lying about that at all. You could argue the same for the WWE though, they got some incredible talent there. I’ve never been a part of that locker room obviously, so I don’t know how that is there, but just watching them, they got incredible talent as well. The way that AEW started shifting as they brought in more people, it definitely…it definitely has to change,” says Stunt. “You’ve got to rewrite certain stories, you’ve got to rewrite how you’re going to use certain people, trying to keep your core people involved with your new people coming in. It changes things and the headspace kinda drifts off with that because there is a lot more going on. You started out with the core group that were signed initially with us…with MJF, Sammy, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and all of that. You had a set place where you think they were going with it and other opportunities, that’s how life works and I’m dealing with that right now. New doors are open and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to step through that door and move up.”

The former AEW star recently went viral after appearing in a commercial for Homer Skelton Ford, but it was the last thing he expected after filming the commercial.

“I was never actually planning on using X or whatever to promote my car sales gig. What happened was I filmed the video that you guys saw, it was a fun video. I posted it on my TikTok and Facebook. I woke up the next morning and it had slightly blown up, a couple of hours later, my buddy texted me the X link. The news sites picked it up and it kind of started flowing from there, I figured its out there and I mine as well start flowing with it. It’s not something I’m ashamed of at all, I never think to use X to my advantage.  It was not something I was going to do, it happened organically and I just ran with it. It’s gotten crazy over the last couple of days, I’ve gotten hundreds of messages and a lot of text messages from friends in the business. It is kind of cool seeing everybody talking about it, it’s been mostly positive as well, which is rare with wrestling Twitter,” said Stunt.

Outside of becoming a viral sensation, Stunt also became a father since his exit from AEW, as the former wrestling star is a daddy to a 16-month old daughter.

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