QT Marshall recalls Shaq kayfabing him.
Shaquille O'Neal making his all elite wrestling debut was one of the promotion’s highlights in its short existence. Shaquille O'Neal has always been a wrestling fan and was always rumored to be building towards a match with Paul Wight, Big Show, while Big Show was with WWE.
Behind the scenes, QT Marshall, who also had Paul Wight’s first match in AEW, was helping Shaq train for his official wrestling debut and speaking with Robbie Fox on My Mom's Basement, QT explains how Shaq quickly gravitated towards professional wrestling and even details a moment where Shaquille O'Neal, due to his height, powerbombed him on his head.
"I was like, I could teach you how to do this in 10 days. For what I think we're looking to do, 100%.' He got in there and I suplexed him, right, with a crash pad. Then he was like, 'Alright, let's move the crash pads' and I suplexed him again. He was saying, 'That's not too bad.' He's like, 'It hurts, but it's not that bad.' I said, 'When the adrenaline's going, you don't feel anything.'"
Marshall continued, "We were trying to hold off as long as we could, because of, you know, the pandemic, and the crowd, all that stuff. But then one thing led to another, but like I said, he was there all the time and really paying attention to what I was saying. I mean, he powerbombed by me the first time and he dropped me right in my head. I was like, 'Hey, you're really tall. So if you don't squat down with this, you're gonna dump everyone on their head, and you can't do that to Cody.' So, yeah, he was really dedicated. Also, he was having fun."
Funnily enough, QT Marshall says that while Shaquille O'Neal totally understood what he was supposed to do the first time he was body slammed when it was time to film for his reality show, Shaq Life, the basketball player wasn't making it so easy for QT Marshall to slam him.
"So then when they were filming Shaq Life — the thing is when I body slammed him while practicing, he did it all the right way. On the show, He didn't post, he didn't jump. So it was like, you know — that's what we were joking about it last night. They were like, 'Man, you could slam anyone. I was like, 'No, I can't that hurt.' Yeah. So yeah, it was really cool. it was unexpected to you know, I got a lot of tweets and stuff. They put a lower third for me, it was really cool. I got a lot of exposure out of that. So, you know, I don't know what that means. At the end of the day, but, you know, I'm here."
Shaquille O'Neal hasn't returned to all elite wrestling since his first match but he did disappear from the ambulance he was carted away in after being slammed through tables by Cody Rhodes.
In a past interview, QT Marshall explains how he lied to Shaquille O'Neal about putting a crash pad underneath the tables. Read more here.
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