Posted on 1/02/126 by Colin Vassallo
Reigning TNA champion Frankie Kazarian sat down with Chris
Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood,
California to discuss the controversial way he won the World
title, why he left AEW to return to TNA, how close he came
to signing with WWE and why his first run didn’t lead to
more, being a part of the first Ultimate X match, his wife
Traci Brooks possibly returning to wrestling, and more!
You became TNA World Champion at 48 years old. Did you think
at one point it wouldn’t happen?
“Absolutely. I mean, there was a time early on, like 2007-
ish, where I was kind of on the come-up as a singles
babyface, getting some good matches, and had a lot of good
momentum. But just seeing who was above me on the ladder was
like, just don’t think it’s going to happen for me. I will
say, at the time, from an in-ring standpoint, I think I was
a very good wrestler. I don’t think I had developed my
personality and promo skills to what you need to be a World
Champion. Then years went by and kind of became a fleeting
thought, it’s just not going to ever happen. But I always
like to say this, dreams do not have an expiration date. So,
48 years old or 28 years old, doesn’t matter. I got the job
done.”
People hate how you won this championship:
“Good. You know, it’s show business. Sometimes the Joker
beats Batman, sometimes the bad guy wins. What matters to me
is that they’re angry, and that tells me that they care,
tells me that they’re paying attention.”
You picked your moment perfectly:
“From a character standpoint, why would I not go after a
wounded animal when I see one? That’s kind of bad guy 101.
We’re still in the storytelling business, and the business
has evolved and gotten rather complex, but at the end of the
day, it’s still kind of black hat versus white hat. At least
that’s the way I approach it.”
What made you return to TNA?
“So I was with AEW before AEW was a thing, essentially.
There was the group of us from Ring of Honor, we all,
coincidentally enough, had contracts expiring at the end of
that year. The Bucks and Cody, Hangman Page, myself, Scorpio
Sky, and Christopher Daniels, we had been privy to some
information about this guy, Tony Khan, and he’s a huge
wrestling fan, his father’s a billionaire. You know how many
times I’ve heard that story? ‘This guy has money. He’s gonna
start a wrestling company.’ I’m like, Okay, I believe it
when I see it. But ended up meeting Tony and he told us,
kind of his vision and everything, asked if we were
interested, and it’s like, yeah. All of us kind of
collectively are like, we’re doing this. And bam, AEW was
born, it burst onto the scene and exploded. It kind of
changed wrestling for a while, at least. So I was there,
2019.”
You won their first-ever tag team championships?
“First ever there. Yep, me and Scorpio Sky. They switch it
up and put us as the team, we had teamed in Ring of Honor as
well. So another one of my best, dear friends and guy have
amazing chemistry with. One of my best buds, still to this
day. Had that first initial tag run, then that stopped, and
then kind of just bounced around, did a pretty cool
storyline with myself and CD [Christopher Daniels], where he
had a match against The Young Bucks, where I put the
stipulation out where if we don’t win this match, if we
can’t win these titles, we’re done as a tag team and lost
that. That story, if anyone hasn’t seen that story, I
recommend go back and looking, because it’s really good,
some of our best work, and The Young Bucks as well. Then
kind of was starting to do my own singles thing, and then
just kind of being used as a utility player. For example,
when Christian came into the company, who’s another friend
and wonderful wrestler, one of the most underrated dudes on
Earth, I had his first match because he trusted me and he
hadn’t wrestled in seven years. So they put me in there with
him, and we had a great match. When Adam Cole comes, [I’m]
his first match. So I was kind of the guy, I could have
great matches with anybody, but that was it. That was kind
of my role. A lot of times I was kind of relegated to
sitting on the bench, and I don’t do well like that. I’m not
wired like that. I cannot stand complacency. There came a
point where I was thinking to myself, in my opinion, the
most valuable thing you can give me, or that I can give you,
is time, because that’s the one thing we’re all running out
of. Money, possessions, all this stuff, fine, whatever. But
for you to give me some of your time, I appreciate that. And
so I just thought to myself, with the time I have left in
pro wrestling, and this was the end of 2022, I needed to
give that time to somebody that valued it and appreciated
it. I don’t know if I have five years, ten years left, but I
know there’s more years behind me than they’re in front of
me. But with the time I have left, I want to give that time
to somebody that is going to value and appreciate it more so
than I felt it was being valued and appreciated at the end
of AEW.”
So your contract came to an end?
“No, I just re-signed the year before. I just re-signed for
another three years. And then December of 2022, I get a call
from a representative in the office, and they’re like, ‘Hey,
just wanna let you know we’re gonna roll you over and we’ll
just see.’ I go, ‘Whoa, wait about that. I don’t want that
to happen.’ They’re kind of taken aback, and had a long
conversation. I said, ‘Look, honestly, I would like you if I
could just get my release.’ Everything I just explained to
you, I explained to the people at AEW. They were, I don’t
want to say shocked, because it’s not like I’m such a giant
star, but they were like, just taken aback, because nobody
had left AEW at this point. Cody did. Cody had left a few
months before. So it was like, wow. ‘Well, what if we do
like a per-show? What if we do this?’ I go, thank you, but I
need to bet on myself. I need to just sever ties and go. A
little bit of back and forth, and eventually the message
came down to go, ‘Okay, well TK respects you as a man and as
a wrestler, and if this is what you want, we can do your
release.’ I said, ‘Can you please have it to me in writing
by today?’ Because I hadn’t talked to anybody, WWE, TNA, I
just needed out. I needed that safety net pulled away.”
Why do you think they let you go?
“Obviously, they probably didn’t see anything long-term in
me, you know, which was astonishing, because I was like, why
would you re-sign me for very good money, for another three
years, if they didn’t see anything? I get it, of course,
that’s how it is. I could probably still be there today
doing what I was doing, but I’m much, much, much happier
where I am now.”
Do you remember how they pitched Ultimate X to you?
“They pulled us aside, us being myself, Chris Sabin and
Michael Shane, and said, ‘We have this idea for a match,
like a ladder match without ladders.’ So the original
concept was chains going in the form of an X, and the belt
is going to hang in the center, and it’s just like this new,
innovative match. We’re like, okay. So they’re like, we’re
going to fly you in a day early so you can see the structure
and kind of get used to it, because they had never been
done. So we all got flown into Nashville, and we go down The
Asylum, the National Fairgrounds, and they’re still figuring
out how to even build it. The original concept they had
steel poles inside the ring posts. And they nixed the chain
idea, and it was just cable. They finally got it to where,
structurally, it looked good. It’s getting late at night
now, and they’re like, ‘Alright, who wants to try it?’ I go,
‘I do, I’ll try it.’ I just jump up, grab and start
shimmying. I start shimmying, and all four of the posts just
go, then all of a sudden, I’m standing on the ground. So now
you got a bunch of these engineers, construction guys,
scratching their head like crap, and the pay-per-view is the
next day. So, you know, uh oh. So they try to do something
else. It doesn’t work. Now it’s like, midnight, one o’clock.
So it’s like guys, we’ll figure it out. So we get there the
next day. Still don’t really have it figured out. Eventually
they did the lighting trusses, the four lighting trusses on
the corners and that could support the weight and the cable
and all that. But they didn’t have it set up until 10
minutes before doors opened. So we had all these ideas, but
had no clue if we could pull them off. We did not get to
practice, rehearse, nothing, all that stuff that happened
was just in our head.”
So you didn’t get a chance to climb up?
“Nothing. So we went out there on a live pay-per-view, we
knew it would support our weight, and that’s all we knew.
But we had these ideas, and it’s not a regular match. You
have ideas. One guy’s climbing, the other guy power bombs
him, or this guy spears him. Thank God I was in there with
two guys that were very, very capable wrestlers, Chris Sabin
and Michael Shane. But we somehow pulled it off, man. It’s
become an iconic novelty match in TNA, and in wrestling
really.”