Frankie Kazarian: 'Plain and Simple, I Wasn't Happy Just Sitting Around Collecting a Paycheck' in AEW

Referee Brian Hebner welcomed Frankie Kazarian as his guest on the "Refin' It Up" podcast. Kazarian talked about his previous TNA run, his current run with Impact Wrestling, talks with WWE, AEW and more.

Frankie Kazarian on why he didn’t want to do the Suicide character in TNA in 2008:

"Suicide was certainly the low point (in TNA). I enjoyed my time there so much, especially in my first run. Yes, there were management changes and ups and downs, a locker room full of good morale and a locker room full of bad morale. At that time in 2008, I had just really kind of stepped and started having really good matches with guys Kurt Angle and Christian and Bobby Roode and AJ. I kind of broke away from just being an X-Division wrestler, quote, unquote and was starting to, I thought, make waves in the heavyweight division. I was really coming into my own and all of a sudden, I felt like my legs were cut off. They said 'We're going to do have you do this losing streak', which is fine, 'and then we're gonna have you quit the company because you can't win a match', which I was like, okay, well that's incredibly stupid, but whatever, 'and you're gonna come back as this character.'"

"This is how misinformed they were at the time, management. They thought I had a lot to do with the video game, like the CGI and the stories, but I had nothing to do with it. I knew nothing about the video game. They said, 'We're gonna bring him in as this character called Suicide', I was like, oh, great name. Good luck marketing that. I just kept asking why? I remember asking Dixie. I remember asking Jeff. I remember asking Vince Russo. 'Why me?' They all said, 'We need somebody we can trust as this character.' I said, 'I know what you're looking for out of this character. You want him to wrestle like a video game character. That is not my strong suit.'"

"I remember recommending several guys at the time. I remember recommending Pac, who hadn't broken out, certainly not on the scene here in the US. I remember recommending TJP. I remember recommending a couple of people. I go,'These are guys that can do the things you want this character to do. I'm not', and they kept saying, 'Nope, we need someone that we can trust. It has to be you.' I'm like, 'I've been a character on your television show for six years at that point. I have a certain way I walk, a certain way I move, a certain way I hit the ropes. It's recognizable to our audience. If you put this suit on me, and have me go away, and come back as this character, people are just gonna go, it's Frankie Kazarian in a suit, and it's gonna do no favors for this character that you're trying to present and get over.' They would have none of it. Ultimately, I think one person in particular, in creative, didn't think I had 'It' to go to the next level so they decided to do this."

"It sucked, man, but you know, I tried to put my heart and soul into it. Just the way I moved. I changed my mindset. Everything. I tried. I really did. I had to learn a damn stunt. I had to learn to self-propel to get to the ring. I had to go to stunt school. I put a lot into that character and ultimately when I saw where it was going which was nowhere, it was just really, really a bad time. That was the first time where I didn't enjoy going to work. I would just go there and basically punch a time card. In the ring, I would still give my best effort because I still took pride in what I did, but creatively it was very unfulfilling. I was even pitching ideas about the character and really cool, kind of out of the box ideas. Those fell on deaf ears. That's the dirty underbelly of wrestling that I hadn't really experienced a whole lot until then."

On why he left AEW:

"Plain and simple, I wasn't happy just sitting around collecting a paycheck. I'm not wired to sit on the sidelines. especially when I know that I should and could be in the starting lineup. That's just not how I'm wired. I believe in myself as a wrestler that I think, and I'm positive, that I can help any company that I'm a part of from an in-ring perspective, in my opinion, was not being utilized like I should, and looking at the writing on the wall, it didn't look like that was going to change, and that's fine. That's 100% fine. That's no indictment on AEW at all. Not at all. If anything, that's an indictment on me. Maybe for once in my life, for once in my career, I got selfish. I was never selfish. I've always been very giving, but you know what? It's time for me to think about me and my legacy of what I'm doing and what I want to do. I had the opportunity to say, 'Hey, I'm ready to go elsewhere if this is the way things are going here' I'm so thankful I was able to because I am having so much fun and I love being in the Impact Wrestling locker room. I'm so happy I had the balls to bet on myself."

On having talks with WWE before signing with Impact Wrestling:

"There was a span of 11 days where I had some very, very productive talks with people in WWE and I cannot say how gracious and genuine and how amazingly cool everybody there was to deal with, but talking to Scott D'Amour and about what I want to do going forward and what he saw for me and what's going on with the company going forward from a managerial standpoint, from an in-ring standpoint, from a television partner standpoint, everything just lined up that this was the place for me. I have a decade plus of, my history is there and my catalog is there. It seemed like a no brainer, man. It's worked swimmingly and everything is falling into place better than I could have possibly imagined."

"Scott D'Amore is the one guy that said, 'The important thing is that you're taken care of and Traci and Rebel are taken care of, my wife and my son.' He said. 'Above and beyond that, we'll see what happens.' This is the only guy that's mentioned my wife and my kid in these conversations. Scott's a friend. He knows how important my family is to me. One conversation and everything clicked. I was like, dude, this is the place for me. Since I've been back, there hasn't been a moment where I was like, eh. It's been wow, this is great, man. This is where I belong. I'm so glad I ended up where I did."

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Refin' It Up with Brian Hebner with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.