Two interviews with recently departed TNA stars

[JDavis]

Interview with Daniels-

 

 

On whether Frankie Kazarian will be departing TNA soon: "I can't really confirm 100% but I can tell you that the odds are very good that rather soon the both of us will be doing what we want to do in the world of professional wrestling."

On why he was released by TNA: "I'm not sure what their reasoning was. It wasn't money, we never even got to (talking about) money. Part of me takes it personally. Anybody that is in some sort of entertainment field where they are their own product, when you're told "No, we don't want you", of course a little bit of you takes it personally."

On rumors that Vince Russo is back in the TNA fold: "I never saw Vince, and the creative team never said one way or the other. They're denying it now, but when I was backstage, Frankie and I never saw any hint that Vince was there."

On the likelihood of working with Jeff Jarrett's new promotion: "I'm certainly hoping to work with Jeff Jarrett, I think he's a great mind. I think that if someone could take something and make it out of nothing, I think it's Jeff Jarrett."

On breaking kayfabe: "I definitely respect the business enough to try and protect it as much as possible. When I came up, kayfabe was solid, but now I've seen the change in the mentality. The curtain has been pulled back and it's hard to unring that bell now the word is out. It's one thing for everybody to be in on the gag, but you don't want to make people aware of it while they're watching the product. Like, people know there's a gimmick to magic, but they never really know what the gimmick is. You want them guessing what they're watching." http://v2wrestling.com/5/post/2014/05/v2-wrestling-exclusive-with-christopher-daniels.html

 

 

Kazarian interview

 

What led to his departure from TNA:

"My contract with TNA is up in early June. To be honest, I saw this coming a long time ago, just the way the company is going and the direction they’re going. Chris Daniels, his contract was up before mine and he had a talk when we went to do a One Night Only taping and they basically told him that they're going in a different direction. At that point I saw the writing on the wall. I went for the tapings two weeks in a row, and after the first week John Gaburick pulled me aside and said 'Hey, I want to talk next week.' So I got to the next week and we sat down and talked. I explained my side of the story and they explained theirs. They said 'We wish we could afford to keep you but we can't' which I understand from a business line to go forward and wanting to be cost efficient. I told them that TNA is my home, but I made up my mind about this for a long time. The door's always open; I never want to end any type of business on bad terms. But I've prepared myself for this, mentally, for 4-5 months. Right now I think it’s really for the best."

If he would have stayed in TNA without Christopher Daniels:
"I don't think so and here's why. I know that they can never match the deal we’re making now, and I’m not saying that I’m making ridiculous money. The last contract I signed, I knew that they weren't going to offer me that, just from talking to friends and talking to AJ Styles and stuff like that. I invested a lot of myself into TNA, but I also invested a lot of myself into the tag team with Chris Daniels – there’s so much chemistry and there's so much that we haven’t done yet. I just think that's the better option right now than sticking around in TNA. Even if the offer was there, it would have taken some convincing for me to stay."

His last few months with TNA and being lost in the shuffle:
"I understand wanting to cut costs, but if you want cheap wrestlers, expect cheap wrestling matches. Honestly, since after Bound For Glory, there just wasn't any direction for Bad Influence as a tag team. We continued to ask questions, we continued to pitch ideas and it was just like 'Okay, we're thinking of this or that' but we never got a straight answer and we were just kind of floating. It kind of bothered us because, honestly, we're too good for this. We should really be involved in something. When Davey (Richards) and Eddie (Edwards) came in, we were kind of licking our chops. Sweet! This could be six months, a year. A lot of folks on the internet and within the wrestling community were excited for the potential match-up of us and The Wolves. So were we and so were they when they came in. So we thought we were going to get back in the fold and it never happened and we never got a straight answer other than we're going with other teams. What can you say other than okay? After the UK, we did Lockdown with Muta and Sanada. That was great and after that we were left off television. Right then it was like okay, they literally have nothing going on for us. And here we are now. The direction they’re going, it doesn't really include guys like us, AJ Styles and Chris Sabin right now."

Seeing so many longtime TNA wrestlers leave the company:
"It's different. My last day at TNA, I said this to a few people, I didn't feel like I was leaving TNA because I didn't feel like I recognized the company. There was still people I'll miss, but it didn't feel like I was leaving TNA. Honestly, there was a couple of red flags, and this was even preceding when I was starting to make up my mind about my current situation. AJ Styles leaving obviously, because I'm very close to AJ and knowing what he was going through and talking to him, that was huge. I was like wait a minute. I say this as his friend and I say this selfishly, I don't understand why they didn't do whatever it took to keep him there. And I'm not just saying that because he's a friend. I'm saying that because he's a franchise guy. He's one of the best in the world. He's a good human being. He's a guy you can continue to build the company around. He leaves and real soon thereafter Jeff Jarrett leaves so that was a big red flag being waved. Wait a minute ... things are changing. I don't know that they're changing for the better. It could just be me. Internally, management, complete turnover, people on the creative team, people in management. It really is just different."

On the talk last year of TNA being close to being sold:
"I didn't know. I heard the rumors and there's no one I can really ask. It's not like I can call Dixie Carter and go hey, are we being sold? I could but I would never do that. Obviously, it's none of my business. I would hope and pray that if that were to go down that they would call a meeting and say 'hey guys, by the way, we're selling the company.' When it was all going down, I had people here in the gym near where I live asking me if TNA is being sold. I was like I don't think so. And then we all got an email from Janice Carter one day saying, first email and last I promise you I'll get from Janice Carter, believe it or not, saying please don't believe the rumors, we're not being sold. And I thought that was odd because I was like wow, all these years and all these rumors of TNA and everything that's ever been said and now we finally get a letter saying don't believe the rumors. Okay, all I can do is take that at face value but we later found out that maybe that was ... I still don't know what the situation was because that's all part of the business side. I had hopes that whoever wanted to buy it wanted to buy it because they were passionate about wrestling and wanted to try and do something different with the product. But apparently it's not being sold, it's not for sale, there's not a for sale sign on it."

On the talk of TNA being too much like WWE:
"Trying to be like WWE does not behoove any wrestling company. I understand why wrestling companies want to because WWE is the industry leader – they always have been and they always will be – so I understand the thought process behind wanting to follow suit. But at the same time you’re never going to do it as good as they’re doing it, so what you do is like what ECW did back in the day: You hide your weaknesses and you accentuate your positives. I think TNA’s positive for a long time was the roster; I don’t think it was ever exposed the way it could have been. We should have been having 15-20 minute matches with guys like the Machine Guns, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. There are so many talented guys there, and a lot of times we were handcuffed to 3-5 minute matches. Do something production-wise to make yourself stand out. Like I said, I get the process behind wanting to see what the big dogs do and maybe do something like that, but sometimes you have to think outside the box, especially to a very smart television audience. I think that’s what’s missing with TNA. I think they can go in a different direction and be successful. I don’t know if the drive is there, or if they are afraid to take that risk. I just think the wrestling fans and the TV audiences are primed to grasp something like that." http://www.betweentheropes.com/2014/05/20/frankie-kazarian-parting-ways-tna-wrestling-bad-influence-whats-next/

I copyed and pasted this from tnasylum thus why the weird font

[Kirky]

Agree with Kaz about Styles, as well as the bit about the limit on match times.

[Muur]

Good read there, you should do something about that eye sore formatting though...