Frankie Kazarian: What I like about wrestling ‘wasn’t happening in AEW’

Frankie Kazarian has commented on his decision to leave AEW earlier this year. 

Kazarian left the promotion in January and has since signed a multi-year deal with Impact Wrestling. 

The 45-year-old appeared on The Kurt Angle Show recently and said that AEW doesn't present wrestling the way he likes it to be, and this factored into his decision to leave. 

Kazarian said:

I still had two years left on my contract when I left. I made the decision to leave. I still had two years left, I probably could have been there much longer. I re-signed at the end of 2021 and hindsight being what it is, I probably shouldn't have but again, AEW, I was there since before day one. I was there when this was a germ of an idea. I was there discussing this company when they didn't even have initials attached to it. In these rooms with Cody and the Bucks and Page and Sky and CD.

So again, I was committed, I want to try to ride this thing out. 

It just became apparent to me that what I like and what I appreciate about pro wrestling and the way I like it presented was not happening at AEW and that's not an indictment at them. It's just what they perceive as good television wrestling and what I do are different things. And just the business model, everything. Again, it was one of those things, I feel that I have so much more to offer than what I was being utilized for at AEW. So I bet on myself and I made the decision to walk away and I'm very thankful I did. It's by far the best decision I could have made. 

Kazarian along with Scorpio Sky was an inaugural holder of the AEW Tag Team Championships. They defeated The Lucha Bros in the finals of an eight-team tournament to win the belts. In Impact, Kazarian is a five-time X-Division Champion and three-time Impact Tag Team Champion (twice with Christopher Daniels and once with Eric Young). Additionally, in 2012 his team with Daniels was voted Tag Team of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards. Kazarian is also a two-time PWG World Champion, three-time ROH Tag Team Champion (twice with Daniels, once with Sky) and a one-time ROH Six Man Tag Team Champion as part of SCU.