8 AEW Teases Hidden In Plain Sight

1. Lee Johnson Caused The QT Heel Turn

Hangman Page Lawnmower
AEW.com

Lee Johnson made his AEW debut back on the 1 April 2020 episode of AEW Dark, yet it was only this February that the impressive 23-year-old officially became #AllElite.

Delving into Johnson's win and loss record, while he picked up sporadic victories on AEW Dark, it wasn't until this 4 February that Big Shotty finally nabbed his first Dynamite win. That win found Johnson teaming with Nightmare Family cohort Cody Rhodes to best Peter Avalon and Cezar Bononi.

It was that tag victory, though, which first teased the QT Marshall heel turn we now find ourselves in the early midst of.

Post-match, Johnson cut a promo to celebrate his first ever TV win. There, he gave heartfelt thanks to Cody, to Dustin Rhodes, to Arn Anderson and even to Brandi Rhodes. The one person he made no mention of, was the onlooking QT Marshall.

This was an easy one to miss, for neither the commentary team or the talent made a big deal of it. For QT - Johnson's very real trainer - there was a brief glimpse of confusion, but he perfectly underplayed the moment. Jump ahead a couple of weeks, of course, and Marshall would skip out on his partner Dustin, before then leaving Johnson to take a beating at the hands of Ethan Page.

Oh, and who was Lee Johnson's first ever AEW match against? Why, that AEW Dark debut saw Shotty Lee come up short against none other than QT Marshall.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.