One of the first wrestlers to become All Elite has explained why he left the company.
Frankie Kazarian signed with AEW when it began in 2019 and was one-half of the promotion’s first-ever tag Team Champions alongside Scorpio Sky. However, towards the end of his tenure, he mainly featured on the company’s YouTube shows, Dark and Dark: Elevation.
In January 2023, he left the company and made his shock return to IMPACT Wrestling, where he is now under a long-term deal.
Frankie Kazarian had a different wrestling philosophy to AEW
During a recent appearance on The Kurt Angle Show, Kazarian revealed that he knew he would be leaving the company soon after re-signing with them in 2021.
“Pretty early on. 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 [Rhodes], The Bucks, and [Hangman] Page, and [Scorpio Sky and Christopher Daniels].”
While he wanted to “ride it out”, the differences in the way he likes wrestling to be presented and how it’s done in the company proved to be too great.
“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.
He added that he felt he had more to offer than what he was getting in AEW, so decided to “bet on himself” rather than stay.
“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.
“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.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.