AEW Original Believes They Weren't Valued
AEW's roster today compared to when the company launched in 2019 is bears many similarities. Both Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, the two men that main-evented inaugural event AEW Double or Nothing 2019, remain fixtures of weekly programming. Hangman Page, Dr. Britt Baker DMD, and the Young Bucks, all stars who were victorious at the first AEW show, remain at the top of the card. That said, there are a couple of AEW originals that have either fallen out of the spotlight or have left the company altogether.
One of those departures is Frankie Kazarian. The former member of SoCal Uncensored kicked off his AEW tenure in a big way as he and Scorpio Sky became the first AEW World Tag Team Champions. Kazarian and Sky reigned with those championships for 83 days. After losing the titles to Omega and Page, Kazarian found himself relatively directionless.
This eventually led to Kazarian leaving AEW completely and ultimately returning to Impact Wrestling on a full-time basis. Kazarian announced the move at Impact's Hard To Kill pay-per-view and has since been in the crosshairs of Sami Callihan and The Design.
Speaking to Eric Bischoff on AdFreeShows, Kazarian revealed that his decision to leave AEW for Impact came down to wanting to maximize his remaining time in professional wrestling.
"The time that I have left in the ring, I wanted to give that time to somebody that would value it," Kazarian said (h/t Fightful). "I felt, at the time in AEW, my time and contributions and talent, was not being valued. That's okay. I had the opportunity to take my time and give it to somebody else. That's exactly what I did."
That said, Kazarian emphasized that he does not anticipate hanging up his boots anytime soon.
"The thing that I have that is most valuable that I can give to anybody is my time," Kazarian continued. "The thing that I can ask the most out of anybody is to give me their time. That's the one thing that all of us are running out of. Everybody on planet earth. My time in professional wrestling, in my eyes, is long from being done."