Marko Stunt on Reason for His AEW Departure, Him Feeling He Could Have Handled End of His AEW Run Better, Favorite Moments From His AEW Career, & His Current Car Salesman Job

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured former AEW and indies wrestler Marko Stunt as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Stunt’s thoughts about the process that led to his AEW contract not being renewed and his departure from the company in June of 2022.

“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. 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 also gave his thoughts about how the locker room started to change before he exited the promotion.

“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. 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.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about his recent viral promotional ad video for his car salesman job at Homer Skeltor Ford.

“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.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about how he felt he could have handled the end of his time in AEW better and more maturely.

“I think there’s a few things that went into it. I’ve grown up a lot since then. I’m almost 30 now. I was in my early 20’s when all of that first started, I was young, dumb, and excited to be living my dream. I made some decisions that didn’t go over too well a couple of times. I kind of treated it like ‘I’m here, I’m good.’ A terrible mindset to have to be real honest with you. I absolutely loved being there, I’ve got friends for life from there now. Obviously with Jack (Perry) and Luchasaurus, Sammy Guevara, and all the VLOG crew we were a part of.

Plans started to change, more people started to come in, new toys are more fun than the toys you got a few years ago. I’m not bitter at all, I’m very fortunate to have lived my dream, I’m very fortunate to have the friends I have. I’m very fortunate to be able to walk around and know that…I still got people coming up to me every week or so, I’ll go to Walmart or a gas station and people still come up to me this day. They say they used to watch me, I still think that’s crazy. I was Marko Stunt forever and I’m still Marko Stunt, I’m just Noah now, I just working day to day. To go back to your question, I do think there was somethings I could’ve done different to preserve my spot a little better, I don’t think I handled it as maturely as I should have. I feel like I have to blame it on myself, I wanna say I go too comfortable to be honest with you. I didn’t feel untouchable or anything, that was never in my headspace, I did feel too comfortable there.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about AEW’s original locker room and his belief that there is still something special about that time in the company’s early days.

“I agree (that there was something special about the original AEW locker room). When AEW first started, everybody, I mean 99% of the locker room were buddies. We were all hanging out after the shows, we were hanging out backstage, there was no discourse at all. Just the atmosphere was so cool to be a part of, Tony (Khan) was great man, he treated me amazingly.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about his grandfather passing away during AEW’s initial pandemic era tapings at the Nightmare Factory in Atlanta, Georgia and how AEW CEO Tony Khan was helpful towards him over it.

“We did that first pandemic taping at the Nightmare Factory. My grandma had actually passed away the day before I went out there, Tony helped me out with a bunch of stuff while I was there. He was very caring, he got me in and out so I could be with my family during the funeral.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about his favorite moments of his AEW career.

“There are a few actually (favorite AEW matches/moments). One of them was getting to wrestle Brodie Lee, that was super cool. He kind of requested that to Tony for me to be one of his first opponents there in AEW, he beat the hell out of me and that was great. That kind of put me and Brodie on a friendship level, we texted and stuff after the fact…continuously. We would hang out backstage, it was never like we were best friends, going out to eat all the time. The camaraderie we gained by working out together was great, I loved being with Jurassic Express and tagging with them. Some of my favorites were when we wrestled The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) because we were constantly learning, they are so good at their craft, they know what they were doing. They know how to get the crowd involved and everything, that is something I am huge on…crowd involvement. If you don’t have the fans behind you, you don’t have nothing in my opinion. I got to be in Tully Blanchard’s last match, that was cool to me.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about the process that led to his current job as a car salesman.

“I wasn’t going to (become a car salesman), I was just working little jobs to be honest with you. I was waiting tables just to get by and everything, but that wasn’t going to cut it for me. I was driving down the road and I didn’t know of they were hiring or anything (the car dealership), I went and talked with the general manager, he cam from a restaurant background and succeeded and everything. They knew about me being from AEW at one point, they saw how I deal with people and interact with them, they took a chance with me. I’m pretty new and everything, selling cars on the floor. I was number three for the month last month, which was my first month.”

Stunt also gave his thoughts about how his co-workers and customers still remember him from his days as a professional wrestler.

“It happens a couple times a week actually. Even if they are not working with me in particular, they notice me and they come up and I’ve taken a few pictures with them. I’ve worked with quite a few people that knew me and they say ‘you look so familiar, were you ever on TV? I knew it.’ I have wrestling figures at my desk anyways, just to decorate my desk and everything. That happens all the time, more than I think it would. It is super cool to me.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3