Ring of Honor star Frankie Kazarian recently spoke with Journey of a Frontman, and below are some interview highlights:
On Christopher Daniels winning the ROH World Championship:
“It means the world to me, man. When Chris won that title, I felt like in a small way that I won a title just because I don’t think anyone’s been closer to Chris Daniels over the course of his career than I have. Seeing the highs and lows, the ups and downs, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and everything that goes in between it. I’ve been with him at his best and at his worst. And he could say the same for me. I know the struggles he’s gone through behind closed doors and how hard he’s worked and how much this means to him. In that brief second after that referee hit three, it all culminated into that. It was just one of those cool moments that I’ll never, ever forget for the rest of my life. It was an awesome weekend in Vegas overall.”
On working with Scott Steiner and other legends in Impact Wrestling:
“Scotty’s always very good to me. I had the privilege to work with him a lot. I remember wrestling him and Samoa Joe in a three-way for the Heavyweight Title after having already wrestled that day in that birdcage match. Unfortunately in that match with Samoa Joe and him, Scott threw me from the top rope to the floor and I braced on my left arm and that’s when I first tore my tricep, so that’s not a good memory. But I wrestled him several times after that and he always really wanted to work hard. He was calling some really incredible offense for me and for him. He wanted to do a lot of stuff cause I think he trusted me. I enjoyed wrestling him. I enjoyed listening to him because let’s be honest, he’s a hoot. Just listening to his promos, he has a very strange way of delivering them. He was always good to me, man, I have nothing bad to say about Scotty. Even on house shows and live events, he wanted to work hard. He was there for himself in some way, shape or form, but it’s a selfish business. We’re all in it for ourselves. I think he genuinely did want to help people out. I’ve [also] always credited Kurt Angle, Christian and the Dudley Boyz as the four guys that really came in there that were established superstars and really helped TNA grow. Those four guys in particular. Can’t get enough credit in the world.”
On Austin Aries having sang in a band several years ago:
“He and I used to talk about music all the time while we were both in TNA. Once in a while, we’d travel together. We had a lot of similar tastes in music. I remember him telling me he fronted a band for a number of years. I don’t know if he said it was a cover band or not, but we both enjoyed similar type of music.”
On his former tag team partner Matt Bentley:
“I haven’t talked to Matt in several years. In fact the last time I saw him, I think he came back to TNA when I was there when they were doing a thing where they were bringing back former X-Division wrestlers for an X-Division tournament style thing. I saw him then and we chatted. Everything was good. You meet a lot of people in this business and you lose touch with a good portion of them. He seemed like he was doing very well the last time I talked to him. I hope that he still is. I have fond memories of him and I teaming and doing our stuff in the early days of TNA. We always got along quite well.”
Kazarian’s band VexTemper just released their debut album this past Friday. It is available on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon now.
Kazarian also spoke with Wrestlezone before Supercard of Honor about the new album and balancing wrestling and Vex Temper commitments:
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
