Busted Open Radio sent out the following:
ROH Wrestler Frankie Kazarian joined Doug Mortman and Dave Lagreca on Busted Open. You can hear Busted Open on SiriusXM 92 and on the SiriusXM app. Also go to Busted OpenNation.com for all the details.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On ROH’s PPV “Best In The World” & Bad Influence getting back together: “I’m so excited for the PPV. Ring Of Honor arguably has the best roster of just pure raw talented wrestlers. From top to bottom in singles, tag teams, heavyweights and lightweights. They’re presenting a really good product right now and throwing Chris and myself in there I think is gonna add a little extra to the product, and I’m really excited for it.”
On what influenced him to jump to Ring Of Honor: “It’s just a matter of wanting new challenges. 16 years in the business there is not a lot of things you can do that is fresh or for the first time. Knowing that Chris and I haven’t scratched the surface on what we can do as a tag team both in and out of the ring. Looking at Ring Of Honor and looking at the group of guys they got, everyone including the guys behind the scenes working so hard to make the best product possible. It was almost a no brainer for us to move on to that phase of our career.”
On if there’s anything left he wants to accomplish in his 16 year career: “I want to be the world champion. Whatever company I’m with I want to eventually be the world champion. Obviously the first goal in Ring Of Honor is to win the tag team titles. Being world champion is why you get in the wrestling business. It’s the top of the mountain. Set your goals as high as you can and work your way to achieve them. Wherever I am I want to be at the top. So yeah, there are things I want to accomplish in the business, but I’ve accomplished more than I ever thought I would. When you stop setting goals, working to achieve things and are just working for a paycheck because it’s your job, that’s when you probably should move on.”
On whether Ring Of Honor could be the #2 wrestling company behind WWE: “That all depends on things like the TV distributions, but that’s not in the hands of the wrestlers. In a perfect scenario, if the distribution were to grow for Ring Of Honor and if it were available in more regions, who knows? The wrestling and the product can hold it’s own. A lot of things factor in to that that I thankfully have no control over. I’m happy being a wrestler. That’s up to the powers that be and with the buzz that Ring Of Honor has right now, that could happen.”
His thoughts on TNA going cold on Bad Influence quickly: “I mean at first, yes I was surprised just because I feel like we weren’t having bad matches and bad segments and we were never told we were doing otherwise. We were just told ‘You guys are doing great, but we’re going with this team and this direction.’ OK that was fine. It didn’t make us work less hard, but eventually after a while we thought that they weren’t going to come back to us. I understand you need to cycle everyone through and you have a large roster of guys and teams, but every once in a while some guys need to come up from the water to catch some air. I didn’t get it. I was never going question our abilities, because I knew we were good. You just wonder what you did wrong and when you don’t get the answers to the questions you ask, sometimes you just shrug and put your hands up. To find out why, I guess you just need to ask them, because I don’t know.”
On TNA not getting out of the funk they are in: “I put a lot of myself into TNA and I enjoyed my time there. There will always be a part of me in that company. It’ll always be home for me. They just decided to go in a different direction and got rid of a lot of guys that were famous for that company. I’m sure they have a plan and know what direction they are going in, and I hope it plans out well for them. It’s just a direction that doesn’t involve us and I’m cool with that. Honestly, I want them to do good. I don’t want any wrestling company to go on a downward spiral.”
On other alternatives and companies to work for as a wrestler: “WWE is always going to be #1, at least in my life time. That’s just the way it is unless there is something drastic that happens. There are many alternatives and there are places putting on great shows. Jeff Jarrett and his new promotion is great. Anything Jarrett puts his name on I think will be great for the business. It’s a fun time to be a wrestler and a wrestling fan. The indy scene is loaded with talented guys and I think it’s been the most loaded it’s been in the last 10-12 years.”
His thoughts on Bully & D-Von getting into the TNA Hall Of Fame and whether he would like to be inducted as well: “I didn’t know about that, so congrats to Bubba & D-Von. They deserve it. When I think of Hall Of Fame I always think of old, retired football players. It’s hard to even fathom that a guy my age in his mid 30’s could be inducted. You look at who’s in TNAs Hall Of Fame and there are some guys there that have done some amazing things in their careers. You got the icon Sting, Kurt Angle who’s arguably the best wrestler in the world and now Team 3D, one of the best tag teams of all time. Hopefully they continue to put guys in that made TNA what it is today.”
