Frankie Kazarian has signed a new contract with Impact Wrestling.
Kazarian made a surprise appearance at tonight’s Impact Hard To Kill pay-per-view in Atlanta and announced that he has signed a long-term contract with the company.
Kazarian has been under contract in AEW after signing a new contract in January 2022, which came after he began working with the company in 2019 at launch. It was never reported how long the 2022 contract was for, and as of this writing there’s no word yet on if Kazarian is still with AEW in any capacity, but his Hard To Kill promo indicates that he is done with AEW.
Kazarian came to the ring at Hard To Kill as fans chanted his name inside Center Stage. He said he hopes the fans were as happy to see him as he was to see them. He went on and said he had a few things on his mind. He recalled coming back to Impact last year to fight for the World Title and the X-Division Title, and said when he went back home, he was among “strangers he thought were his friends,” in an apparent reference to AEW.
Kazarian continued his promo and said he learned a long time ago that if you don’t stand up for yourself, no one will. Kazarian added that he decided he could make the decision to be complacent or he could bet on himself and walk away. He said the fans won’t have to wait long to find out, then he announced the new long-term contract with Impact.
For what it’s worth, Kazarian remains on the official AEW website roster as of this writing.
Kazarian worked one Impact match in 2021, but returned in May 2022, while under contract to AEW, and ended up working 10 matches for the company, including at Bound For Glory in October when he captured the X-Division Title from Mike Bailey. Kazarian then exercised Option C and vacated the X-Division Title for a shot at Impact World Champion Josh Alexander, but came up short. His last Impact match was a DQ win over Steve Maclin on the December 1 episode.
Kazarian’s last AEW match was a loss to Konosuke Takeshita on the December 26 edition of Elevation, taped on December 21. Before that, his last AEW match was a win over Zack Clayton on the November 15 Dark episode, which was taped back on October 28.
Below are a few related shots from tonight:
Welcome home @FrankieKazarian!#HardToKill pic.twitter.com/3leZlsQHFF
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 14, 2023
.@FrankieKazarian signs with @IMPACTWRESTLING!#HardToKill pic.twitter.com/UyAPVQeG2m
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 14, 2023
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