Mark Henry discusses his time in AEW; QT Marshall rumor, producers being handcuffed & marketing

Mark Henry discusses his time in aw cue Marshall rumor producers being handcuffed and marketing strategy Henry further speaks about his time with aw at aw double or nothing 2021 it was revealed that Mark Henry would be joining the company he joined the Rampage commentary team in addition to having a behindthescenes role and working with aw's community outreach program do Henry's time with the company came to an end in May 2024 as his contract expired he dove into his time there and exit while chatting with Donnie D Silva and Jimmy cordas on their huge pop podcast Henry said he realized he was not at aw to tighten the screws but was there for recognition and visibility he went on to shut down a comment from dvia who interpreted that Mark was saying there's a maturity issue at aw Henry said it is Tony Khan's company and he can do as he pleases he feels the difference is that with Paul Triple H Levesque he leans on the experienced Minds around him Henry believes aw's ratings are a byproduct of people being checked out he stated that the last time there was competition there was CM Punk versus mjf and Cody rhods versus Dustin rhods Henry expressed that if people were not afraid of losing their jobs and or not getting paid they would agree with him he shared that he took a pay cut to work at aw on the topic of working with talents and providing advice he enjoyed doing it but said there were some bad apples tightening the screws requires you to be able to break your toolkit out no aw did not give me a screwdriver to work with so there was a point where I realized that I wasn't there to tighten the screws I was there for name recognition and visibility and that's a horrible place to feel if you're a creative and there's people that do a good job that I like their thinking and their thought processes but even them they don't get to do all the things that they want to do because it's not their action figures being played with so you have to do what you're told if I own a company you best believe you better do what I ask you to do or you won't work for me so I get it go and get your check and go home do what you're asked to do handle your creative and you make a suggestion don't get the boo boo face when you get told no nah that's what you said Henry responded when the co-host said Henry was insinuating there's a maturity issue in aw yeah you're wrong because it's Tony's company and Tony gets to do whatever he wants to do you can make all the suggestions in the world but if he don't want to do that he's not going to do that the same thing with Triple H running WWE he's the boss but the difference is Triple H leans on the fact that he has Brilliant Minds around him and he'll go you know what I think it would go better this way but we're going to do it your way to see and when it works Sim man good job that was a good call that's that's a good call when he messes up uh we should have did in my way or I'm going to let somebody else get a shot next time I'm making a call you're still handing the pie different directions you got to do things on a timely manner too I like rehearsal at noon 1:00 I don't want to be under the gun at 3:00 4:00 cl to put a show together because now people are pressing in their ah some people they don't Thrive well under pressure so there's a a lot of things that can be fixed but you look at the ratings that's not good and that's a byproduct of the fact that there's some people that have already mentally checked out they took their ball and they went home they surrendered hey whatever you want to do ah I don't care and when you get the I don't care I'll do whatever you tell me to do it's not good you can't win now there's no contest pro wrestling is based on the fact that it's art imitating life we're imitating competition we're putting on a show but we want you to feel a competition is going on tell me when the last time you saw competition I'll tell you the last time you saw competition was CM Punk and mjf and before that it was Cody rhods and Dustin rhs brother versus brother those were the competition the competitive nature in the matches and you can name two or three matches that are in that vein but they they don't stand above those two matches and you have the people that were in those matches and I don't know I don't want to come across I'm not whining and I'm not complaining I'm stating the facts if people wasn't worried about losing their jobs or getting fired or not getting paid they would be like yeah you're right but right now everybody going to be like nah Mark Henry just mad and bitter I'm not mad and bitter I took a pay cut to go work at aw don't get it twisted I went there because I wanted to get experience being an executive and I wanted to help that company flourish and help those people that were over there be better than they were and you asked the talent did Mark Henry try to help you hell yes all the time he would come and tell me this and I would try it and they would come and man that was good thank you that's what I was working for I was working for those high fives from guys and girls coming back and then there's some bad apples and the the bad apples have to be disciplined oh they're disciplining people now but nobody wasn't getting suspended or disciplined when I was there I don't remember as the conversation moved along Henry shared that he heard from a reliable source that aw vice president QT Marshall called him stupid Henry never brought it up to Marshall he does not believe Marshall said it and if he did it was in a joking manner speaking about the match producers Henry feels their handcuffed he reiterated that they will not admit it but one day it'll come to the light he circled back to his comment about taking a pay cut he added that he did have corporate insurance from aw when it comes to the company's marketing for shows he feels there's a hole in that department closing out his comments Henry said as long as nothing negative is said about him via aw he won't tell all about his time there he wants aw to succeed because it gives leverage to the wrestlers referees and production crew he mentioned that there are some people in office roles that should not be there I love Sony do Pat Buck QT Marshall I heard from a reliable source that qti called me stupid and guess what I looked him in the face every day and smiled and said what's going on man how you doing you know how I can do that because one I know it's not true and two if he said it he probably said it in justest Mark Henry is probably stupid for coming over here and taking a mitigated role I'm sure that there was some extra before or some extra afterwards I'm not assassinating anybody and when I say a reliable source I mean I know that this person would take a bullet for me those guys have worked their rear ends off to be in the positions that they are and they're very good at what they do and they work for the best company in the world in production they understand what they're doing what their role is but they are handcuffed by doing what they're told and they won't admit to that because they got a good job they got a good getg going but one day the story is going to be told and I'm not going to look so angry