Despite never joining the WWE, Frankie Kazarian's wrestling career is still considered a successful one. The current ROH star is a former multi-time X-Division champion and ROH Tag Team champion - a title he will be fighting for tonight at Death Before Dishonor with partner Christopher Daniels against The Briscoes.
Kazarian did have a brief stint in the WWE back in 2005, but asked for his release later that year. The ROH star talked to
Sporting News and discussed his time in the company and revealed that he just wasn’t ready at that moment:
"I couldn't do it mentally. I don't think I was mature enough and there's an awful lot you have to take in when you get to the WWE," Kazarian revealed.
"If the move would've come another two or three years later, then absolutely I would've been ready. But you're not just a wrestler when you arrive there. It's run like a huge company and it becomes a place of work and you're like an employee just as much as you're a wrestler. I still wanted to just wrestle for the fun of it and I just feel at that moment that it was too serious for me and I didn't think it was going to work out."
Kazarian recalled the problems that plagued TNA when he was with the company in his final years, stating that people are blaming the wrong person:
"There are a lot of people in wrestling who love to stand up and say that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are to blame for the demise of TNA and that is simply not true.
"It was the management setup that caused so many problems in TNA. The wrestlers had no idea whatsoever who was running things. Was it (TNA President) Dixie Carter? Was it (founder and part-owner) Jeff Jarrett? Was it (writing team member) Vince Russo? Who do you go to if you have a problem? If you have this great creative idea you want to pitch, who do you go and speak to? Nobody knew and that was the big problem and everyone felt the same. Let me ask you this, if you want something in WWE, who do you think you go and ask? It's (Chairman) Vince McMahon. Everybody over there (WWE) knows who's in charge and nobody knew in TNA and that caused so much confusion and unrest."