Frankie Kazarian Discusses His Decision To Sign With IMPACT Wrestling

Frankie Kazarian wanted to bet on himself by leaving AEW and signing with IMPACT Wrestling.

Kazarian had been signed with AEW since 2019. He and Scorpio Sky were the company’s inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champions. He hadn’t wrestled for the company since December 26 before he appeared at IMPACT Hard To Kill on January 13 and announced that he had signed a long-term contract with IMPACT. In doing so, he returned to the company where has won the X-Division Championship five times.

Speaking with Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Kazarian discussed his decision to leave AEW. He described how the company had a contract option, and he asked them not to renew it. Kazarian detailed these discussions and noted that he wanted to leave AEW on good terms, and he appreciates the way the company wanted to do right by him.

“So I believe the match against Josh Alexander was November 18th. I still have two years left on my contract, two years to get rolled over. AEW management had contacted me early December, which was only a few weeks after this match. So it’s just kind of a coincidence timing wise. But they contacted me 30 days out, which is what they’re supposed to do, and they had basically talked about rolling me over and said you wanted to get the process going on that, and I mean, I basically said simply kind of, you know, thanks, but no thanks. i had kind of voiced, you know, concerns and frustrations and goals and aspirations, and had a really good talk with management and kind of left it there for a while. I still was going to TVs and the last television I was at was in San Antonio, Texas.

“I sat down with Megha who, if people don’t know, that’s the head legal in AEW, a very, very bright, brilliant woman, very nice, and had a long conversation in person and gave her the list of the reasons why I wanted to, you know, kind of move on bet on myself. That’s kind of the recurring theme here and that now was the time to do it. I wanted to do it so we could…I’ve always done business the right way. I wanted to be amicable about it. I wanted to get out before there was feelings of resistance or bitterness or any of that. So, that message was relayed and they wanted to do right by me, which I respect the hell out of and the deal was done. So, as of January 1st of this year, I was, quote unquote free agent.”

Kazarian also opened up about his decision to sign with IMPACT. He noted that he had “great talks” with WWE, and they couldn’t have gone better, but he felt like IMPACT was the best fit for him.

“I had several great talks with people at WWE and I want to say those talks could not have been better, more positive, more professional,” Kazarian said. “I have nothing but great things to say about everybody in that organization, especially all the people I spoke to and texted with, but ultimately this was just the best fit for me at this stage of my career, at this point in my life, at this time. I have a great relationship with Scott D’Amore. I’ve known him for over two decades. Obviously, I have history there. A lot of my legacy is there. Some of Frankie Kazarian’s greatest moments happened at Impact Wrestling, and at this state of the game, I just think I was the best fit for Impact and Impact was the best fit for me for a variety of reasons.

” I look at the locker room and, and I’m amazed at the amount of talent. Um, I have the utmost confidence in the management there. I have the utmost confidence in the, in the creative team there. And, um, I want to help this company grow. Uh, I want to help the brand of Frankie Kazarian grow, and I’m probably more motivated than I’ve ever been in my career at this point.”

Eric Bischoff recently shared his thoughts on Kazarian’s jump to IMPACT Wrestling. Check out his comments here.