Frankie Kazarian Reveals Feeling Valued Was A Major Factor In Him Signing With IMPACT Wrestling

IMPACT Hard to Kill on January 13 saw Frankie Kazarian officially re-sign with IMPACT Wrestling, with the former X-Division Champion returning to IMPACT on a full-time basis after multiple years working for AEW.

Kazarian returned to IMPACT as a guest in 2022 before his full-time return this month, and during a conversation on IMPACT Press Pass with Tom Hannifan, Kazarian revealed why he returned to IMPACT:

“My contract was coming up to get rolled over, I still had two years left on my existing AEW contract,” Kazarian said. “A call was made to me in early December to discuss rolling me over, and the office had said that they wanted to roll me over. This was my opportunity to say, ‘That’s not really something I’m looking at right now. I have other goals and other aspirations and other things I’d like to do.’ So we had a conversation on the phone and then met in person at a live Dynamite taping towards the end of last year. I basically kind of voiced my concerns, my aspirations, my frustrations.

“We had very long talks and said this is, kind of like what I said on IMPACT, I want to bet on myself. I’m not a guy that’s wired to sit on the sidelines, I’m not a guy that can only be half-in. I wanna be all in. I want to be doing this at the highest level and as long as I possibly can. The time, this is my window, and I said, ‘If the trajectory that I’m going on now is gonna continue, I would like to go elsewhere.’ They said they want to do right by me, which I appreciate. So as of December 31, I was let out of my contract, and I was free to go wherever I wanted to go, and that just happened to be IMPACT Wrestling.”

Kazarian wrestled for IMPACT from Bound for Glory 2022 to Overdrive, and it’s this period back in the company that helped sway his decision:

“IMPACT gave me the opportunity to prove that I can still go against the best in the game. When you’re talking about guys like Mike Bailey and you’re talking about guys like Josh Alexander, those are the best in the game. All I ever wanted my entire career was an opportunity to be in there with the guys that are the best because I consider myself one of the best. So having that opportunity, being around this version of the IMPACT locker room, which I fell in love with immediately, it was just the energy and the passion and the positivity that the locker room has, all of it kind of just really got me thinking that if there’s an opportunity to be here, not as a guy coming in as a visitor, but as a full-time guy, I would really like to perhaps try that.

“Obviously when you have a match the calibre of the one I did with Mike or Josh, it does a lot for your confidence. It proved that I can still go. Like I’ve said, the thing I can offer to anybody that’s most valuable is my time. Who I give my time to, I want them to value it. I feel that it is valued here with Scott D’Amore and with everybody in IMPACT Wrestling. That was a huge determining factor in me making this decision,” said Kazarian.

H/T: WrestleZone