Anna Jay has made her name in AEW in pretty quick fashion, and she did it while learning on the fly. Recently, Anna Jay revealed her big break match against Hikaru Shida was only her 7th professional match ever.
She’s been praised for her super star look and having poise that many people with her experience don’t have, and on a recent Talk Is Jericho, her trainer QT Marshall not only praised her for having an “it factor,” but also openly admitted he wasn’t sure she was going to last in the business while he was training her.
“Lee Johnson and all of my students turned into The Dark Order (he laughs). Preston Vance #10, Alan Angels #5, Anna Jay, those are the three and then Lee Johnson was the other one that during the pandemic all got jobs. She (Anna Jay) is actually Glacier’s best friend’s niece. He said, ‘I have this girl. I don’t know how serious she is going to take it because she is beautiful.’ I said ok. She came to the school and I thought I dealt with girls like this at The Monster Factory. She’s not going to last. Right away she got hurt. She needed shoulder surgery and she stuck through it.”
“During that show at the school, she had done a match with Penelope (Ford) that was ok. It was only her sixth match. I was at Cody’s house and he said, ‘What if we do Anna Jay vs Shida?’ because we didn’t have any talent. I said, ‘dude, I’m not going to lie. I’m not sure about putting her on live TV.’ This is her seventh match but she did great. She had a great response from the audience. They came up to me and said they want to sign her. I said, ‘ok, but if she doesn’t do well, she is not my trainee (laughs).’ Of course, I don’t ever want to take away a job from anybody, but at the same time, just know what you’re buying. She’s had seven matches. Because she was a performer before doing recitals, she’s got IT. I used to say IT was just an excuse for hiring bodybuilders who didn’t know how to wrestle. Anna Jay has IT.”
Jay has really blossomed into her own since arriving in AEW, and QT Marshall has been there to see her story from the beginning. It may be cliche to say the best is yet to come, but in the case of Anna, that might literally be true.
h/t to Wrestling News for the quote.
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