25-year veteran says leaving AEW was "by far the best decision" he made

An AEW original surprisingly left the company despite having two years remaining on his contract. He has since explained his departure from the company, citing ideological differences as a major factor in his decision.

Frankie Kazarian was a mainstay of the promotion since the company's inception in 2019. That is why it was such a shock when he announced his exit towards the end of last year. He recently appeared as a guest on The Kurt Angle Show to explain his thought process:

"It just became apparent to me that what I like and what I appreciate about pro wrestling and the way I like it presented was not happening at AEW, and that's not an indictment of them. It's just what they perceive as good television wrestling and what I do are different things, and just the business model, everything," said Kazarian. [H/T: WrestlingNews.co]

He continued:

"Again, it was one of those things I feel, and still do to this day, that I feel that I have so much more to offer than what I was being utilized for in AEW. So I bet on myself and I made the decision to walk away and I am very thankful I did. It's by far the best decision I could have made where I am right now."

At IMPACT Wrestling's Hard To Kill pay-per-view in January 2023, Kazarian announced that he had signed with the promotion.

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Frankie Kazarian helped establish AEW

Frankie Kazarian and his SCU stablemates were instrumental in building AEW. The trio would often appear on the Being The Elite YouTube series, where they became extremely popular for their hilarious antics on the show.

According to Kaz, he had conversations with several founding members of the promotion long before All Elite Wrestling was established:

"I was there discussing this company when they didn't even have initials attached to them in these rooms with Cody [Rhodes] and The Bucks and [Adam] Page and [Scorpio] Sky and C.D. [Christopher Daniels]."

Despite walking away from the company, it has been reported that Tony Khan has left the door open for Kazarian to return in the future if he wishes to do so.