EXCLUSIVE: QT Marshall Believes Nerd Culture Has "Kind Of Taken Over Professional Wrestling"

From video game-related fan signs regularly appearing on AEW programming to wrestlers cosplaying as their favourite superheroes, professional wrestling and geek culture have very much become entwined in recent years. 

This is something QT Marshall has noticed and the Nightmare Factory coach and AEW talent argued nerd culture has "kind of taken over professional wrestling" while speaking to Cultaholic Wrestling's Tom Campbell on Desert Island Graps. 

"It's a lot harder to get the bigger-type of people to come into wrestling now. Cody [Rhodes] taught me this, the culture's changed. It's more nerd culture that has kind of taken over professional wrestling. The other day at TV, Nyla Rose was dressed up and I said, 'What is that paint?' And she said, 'Oh, I'm Venom.' And I remember joking with her about it, like why would you choose one of the biggest matches of your career to dress up like somebody else? And then I realised like okay, there's action figures out of it. There's other reasons," QT began.

"I remember when I first started, we were taught, 'Hey pick five of your favourite wrestlers and take a little bit from each of them' and that's kind of how you shape who you're gonna be. Nowadays everyone I ask, 'Hey, what's your character? What are you thinking?' it's always some kind of anime or some DC or Marvel character so I'm like, 'I have no clue what you're talking about. Can you explain it more in detail?'"

While Marshall doesn't take issue with nerd culture becoming more entwined with professional wrestling, he believes wrestlers that use nerd culture as inspiration are just "hitting the same fan base that we already have."

"Also, you are really really hitting such a small market, and I shouldn't say that but the market of comics is obviously humungous, but at the same time you are hitting the same fan base that we already have. I'm a firm believer in trying to get more eyes on wrestling and I think the best way to do that - as much as no one is going to like me saying it now - is to kind of go towards the casual fan, the everyday person that when they see it they can understand," Marshall added.

QT also touched on Satnam Singh's recent AEW debut, Cody Rhodes' decision to rejoin WWE and more. Check out his full appearance on Desert Island Graps here.