Frankie Kazarian talks about his decision to leave AEW.
After being one of the Superstars on the ground floor for the creation of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, Frankie Kazarian returned to IMPACT Wrestling full-time at IMPACT Hard to Kill 2023.
He had previously revealed that he still had two years left on his deal with AEW when he made the decision to leave the company, but now, he has elaborated more on why he chose to leave the company.
Speaking to Kurt Angle and Paul Bromwell on the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show podcast, Kazarian says that he realized what he enjoys about professional wrestling and what AEW presented are two different things and that he feels he should have taken a chance on himself sooner.
"Pretty early on," Kazarian said when asked when he knew his time with AEW was ending. "When I left last year, I still had two years left on my contract. 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 them. In these rooms with Cody, The Bucks, and [Hangman] Page, and [Scorpio Sky and Christopher Daniels]," Kazarian continued.
Continuing, Kazarian explained that over time, it became apparent that his philosophies regarding wrestling did not mesh with what AEW was presenting.
"So again, I was committed. I was like, '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 that I like it presented, was not happening at AEW. That's not an indictment on them. It's just, what they perceive as good television wrestling, are different things and just the business model, everything. Again, it was one of those things, and still, to this day, I feel that I have so much more to offer than what I was being utilized for at AEW," Frankie said. "So, I bet on myself and made the decision to walk away, and I am very thankful that I did. It is, by far, the best decision I could have made [for] where I am at right now. So yeah, if I had to give a straight answer to [when he knew his time was coming to an end in AEW], it would probably be late 2021, when I re-signed, and I realized I probably should have just rolled the dice then."
Frankie Kazarian continues to be a featured wrestler on IMPACT's roster and says that part of his decision to stay with IMPACT for the foreseeable future has to do with his legacy within the promotion.
"I mean, you can't tell the story of Frankie Kazarian without IMPACT Wrestling. It's a large part of my history; my catalog, everything is there. That's important to me," he said. "I'm 25 years in. So, you know, you start thinking about legacy stuff, what I'm gonna leave behind, and what I want to do going forward, so it was really cool. Very happy, no ill-will [toward AEW]. I was glad I was able to walk away, and it's the best thing best decision I could have made."
At this link, fans can read more about Frankie's decision to leave and his discussions with WWE before staying with IMPACT.
Fans can keep up with Frankie Kazarian every Thursday on IMPACT on AXS. Fightful has live coverage every week.
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