When CM Punk made his surprise return to WWE after nearly a decade away following his firing with cause from AEW, it effectively changed the professional wrestling landscape forever.

Suddenly, the promotion that positioned itself as the cool alternative to WWE had lost three of its top stars, Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Jade Cargill, and the old guard and are now scrambling to figure out what to do next ahead of what could be the most consequential episode of Dynamite in a very, very, very long time.

Will AEW recover? Will they lose even more stars to WWE now that they are fimly the coolest promotion in professional wrestling right now? And what about the future? Will AEW now be negotiating from a position of weakness at the media rights table?

While much of that is very much to be determined, another question Tony Khan will have to answer is who will be formatting the shows moving forward, as QT Marshall, the AEW VP/Manager of Talent Relations/weekly programmer, has officially resigned from the promotion and will presumably be taking his talents elsewhere – read: (probably) WWE – in 2024.

“Thank you AEW. Thank you Tony Khan. I've had the privilege of being here since day 1, and I've written over 750 formats for All Elite Wrestling, always with pride. As much as I've enjoyed being a VP, Manager of Talent Relations, and wearing a myriad of hats, the company has changed a lot since 2019, and I feel that it's best I do the same as we only get one chance to go All In! I have officially resigned from AEW and will have fulfilled all obligations by the end of 2023,” QT Marshall wrote on social media.

“Thank you to everyone from the front office to the production truck to some of the hardest-working talent in this sport! Most importantly, thank you to those who booed, cheered, and took part in this season of my life.”

Now, for fans out of the know, Marshall has actually been working without a long-term contract with AEW for the past few weeks, as he had agreed to a short-term deal to remain in his current role while he figured out his future. Over that period, Marshall had his greatest in-ring success in years, winning the Lucha Libre AAA Latin American Title in August and successfully defending it seven times before dropping it to Octogon Jr. at Guerra De Titanes 2023 in November. Could Marshall opt to take his talents to Mexico full-time, where he is incredibly over? Maybe yes, maybe no, but in the grand scheme of things, it's hard to imagine any world where Marshall doesn't follow Rhodes to WWE as a backstage producer, likely in NXT, where he can use his expertise from the Nightmare Factory to become a top trainer of future talent.

Konnan kept asking AEW to book QT Marshall in Lucha Libre AAA.

Speaking of Konnan, the former Filthy Animal actually discussed working with QT Marshall in AAA, where the long-time journeyman found himself a shockingly popular heel for his work opposite titans of the style like Pentagon Jr., Dralistico, and Daga.

“‘Oh, you took the belts off Fenix,' the guy didn't defend them for a year. Should I leave them on him forever to when him and Tony [Tony Khan] decide…I had to take it off of him. That's a dumb remark,” Konnan said on his podcast via Fightful.

“I thought the QT match was really good, and I'll tell you why. It's very rare that my boss comes up to me and says ‘Hey, I want that guy back.' He came back right after the match and he goes, ‘Can we have QT back?' He looked really good. [People] go, ‘Oh, he's a jobber.' He's not a jobber here. If you're a jobber there, you have to be a jobber here? Do you know how many people know who QT Marshall is in Mexico? Only the hardcore fans. Right now, every casual fan is like, ‘this is the guy who just won the Latin American Title and beat Pentagon, and he got heat on his first match.'”

Wait, not only did fans like Marshall, but the higher-ups in AAA liked him so much that they repeatedly asked TK for his services as a wrestler? Well, it's safe to say that's one of the few times that has happened in his professional wrestling career. Would Marshall actually pass up on being wanted as a professional wrestler for a backstage role where he would almost certainly never wrestle a match? If the price is right, even a top star like Nick Aldis will hang up his boots in the short term, so why wouldn't Marshall?