Top AEW Star and one-half of the former AEW World Tag Team Champions Frankie Kazarian of SCU recently appeared as a guest on AEW’s Unrestricted podcast with AEW referee Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone.
During the podcast, Kazarian talked about a variety of topics, including speaking with the WWE before signing with AEW, his thoughts on Christian Cage, and wrestling him as well as being called one of the most underrated wrestlers. Kazarian also talked about the way AEW CEO Tony Khan has treated talent.
Below are the highlights:
On speaking with the WWE before signing with AEW:
“The minute the concept of AEW itself was pitched, I was on board.” “We still have a real tight bond, SCU and The Bucks, and Cody and [Hangman] Page. We were all together all the time, and we were kind of on the ground floor of this. It was just one of those things that comes along, and you can’t turn down. At the time, I was coming up at the end of my contract, and there was some mild talks. And those came about because I have several friends up there.”
“One of them reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, somebody would like to give you a phone call,’ and I said, ‘Certainly, I’ll take a phone call’ and talked. And at the time, I really couldn’t say much because again, AEW wasn’t a thing, so I really couldn’t say much. I was just like, ‘Oh, there’s some other things going on,’ and they probably, at the time, thought I was going to stay with Ring of Honor or who knows what I was going to do. I kind of danced around it, and I didn’t really let the talks get serious because my mind was kind of made up, but there were certainly talks.”
“I’m a businessman, and I’ve been around long enough to know that you don’t not take phone calls. So there was mild talks, and like I said, I’m have a lot of friends up there. I grew up watching WWE, so if it wasn’t for WWE, I don’t know if I would be the fan I am, but AEW, for me, I could not pass it up. I could not imagine my life now if this wasn’t around. I don’t know what I’d be doing. It’d be weird.”
On his thoughts on Christian Cage and wrestling him:
“Christian is a guy that has maybe the highest wrestling IQ that I’ve ever been in the ring with, and when I say that I mean just having mastered professional wrestling and knowing what works and what doesn’t.”
On being called one of the most underrated wrestlers:
“He’s [Christian Cage] often been called one of the most underrated wrestlers, and people have put that tag on me, and I wear that as a badge of honor. If you’re going to call me underrated, that’s fine because you’ve called a lot of my heroes underrated.”
On the way AEW President and CEO Tony Khan has treated talent:
“We say this all the time, and I say this to the younger guys and Tony, you can attest to this. It’s not like this in other wrestling companies.” “The camaraderie we have, the closeness, the way we’re taken care of, Tony Khan treats us all so well. We’re treated like athletes, and we are fed and we are taking care of. I can’t say enough good things. I’ve never felt more respected as a talent in any other wrestling company, and that’s no disrespect to the other companies I’ve for, but this is just on another level.”
You can check out Frankie Kazarian’s comments in the embedded audio player below:
