Frankie Kazarian talks about the 20th anniversary of Ultimate X falling on the same day as IMPACT x NJPW Multiverse United 2: For Whom the Bell Tolls.
It's been twenty years since Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin, and Michael Shane took part in the first-ever Ultimate X match in TNA Wrestling. The 20th anniversary of the high-wire spectacular falls on August 20, the same day as the upcoming IMPACT x NJPW Multiverse United 2 event in the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia.
Speaking with AdFree Shows' Dominic DeAngelo, Kazarian says he was aware of the upcoming anniversary and tossed out the idea of potentially honoring the special date on the upcoming show. The X-Division pioneer also noted that he thinks he might have one more of those matches left in him and believes this would have been a good time to take part in one more Ultimate X to pay homage to the groundwork he and so many other TNA Originals laid.
"So a couple of months ago, I knew the 20-year anniversary was coming up. So I looked into when the actual date was. Then I was on my schedule, and I saw that's Multiverse United," he began. "I did go up to a couple of creative minds in IMPACT, and I went up to Scott [D'Amore] himself and just said — not for nothing, maybe I've got one more Ultimate X Match in me, but I said, 'I can't think of a better day to maybe do one than on August 20, twenty years to the day.' They were kind of like, 'Wow, that's a really good idea. It was all kind of tongue-in-cheek. Maybe if this were an IMPACT Standalone show, that might have been something that was feasible. Even sometimes, Ultimate X matches can only work in certain buildings. I don't know the logistics of that."
Kazarian says the match type will always hold a special place in his heart but did feel there was a time when they were doing too many of them in the early days.
"The one they did at Slammiversary, that was an incredible match. I think my only criticism is,early on, we started doing too many of them. That kind of takes the lore away, but in the last several years, they've been very, very good about making that match mean something and making it special, because it should be."
Kazarian will take part in an 8-man scramble match at IMPACT x NJPW Multiverse United.
Fans can check out the full card here.
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