Making A Case: Impact Wrestling Should Push Frankie Kazarian

When you look at Impact Wrestling today, it’s hard to see traces of the old TNA. However, some TNA originals remain in the company and it is time for a TNA original in Frankie Kazarian to get his long overdue push.

Back in the early days of TNA Wrestling, the company made its name thanks to a large part of its unique six-sided ring and the electrifying X-Division. Young stars like “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, and “The Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe made the company a hot commodity. They were putting out a completely new taste of pro wrestling when WWE’s sports entertainment was nearly your only choice in the states. Soon, TNA Wrestling was recruiting some of the biggest names in the business such as Kurt Angle and Sting.

While Impact Wrestling gained mainstream major names, many of their own homegrown talents started to slide down the card. One of those names that never got his chance to stand out in the main event picture was Frankie Kazarian. He was a solid X-Division star but it seemed like he would be stuck in that position. In 2005, Impact nearly lost Kazarian for good when he signed with the WWE. However, his run lasted barely half a year and he was out the door. Nearly a year later, Kazarian returned to TNA in 2006 with little to work with.

He returned in a losing effort to Senshi in an X-Division Championship match. Soon after, he reunited with old tag partner Michael Shane and started to embrace a darker, moodier character and shortened his name to “Kaz”. He and Shane joined ranks with Johnny Devine and, stable leader, Raven to form Serotonin. Needless to say, the group did absolutely nothing for the members involved and took up another year of Kazarian’s career. After leaving Serotonin, Kaz began to gain some momentum.

In late 2007 and 2008, he received multiple TNA World Championship opportunities but came up short in all of them. However, it made Kaz seem like he was a main event caliber performer, and just when he was starting to get some chances… they were all taken away.  All of his defeats and failures took a toll on Kaz and led him to “fall out of love with wrestling” and left the company. In reality, he was the man selected to play the masked character Suicide. While the Suicide character was pushed due to being a star of the TNA video game, it took another year away from Kazarian as himself.

It wasn’t until February 2010 that Kazarian returned to Impact as himself. His third “return” to the company was a highlight for Kazarian but not as a singles star. He joined the Fortune stable upon return where he first started an alliance with Christopher Daniels. Once Fortune disbanded, Kaz continued teaming with Daniels as Bad Influence and winning the tag team championships on two separate occasions. In early 2014, Kaz was out of the company once again. He and Daniels were soon joined by Scorpio Sky and Bad Influence grew into So Cal Uncensored, best known as SCU.

SCU was meant to be dirty heels that insulted the fans and the town they were in each week. However, they somehow managed to become fan favorites despite their best devilish efforts. The trio was pushed as top draws when All Elite Wrestling was formed and became the inaugural AEW Tag Team Champions. Looking back now, that feels forever ago as the three have all gone their separate ways and Frankie Kazarian has found himself on a familiar route back home. For nearly two years now, Kazarian has been back off and on in Impact Wrestling when needed.

That all changed at Hard To Kill earlier this year when Frankie Kazarian made a shocking appearance to make an even more shocking announcement. He announced that he had signed a full-time contract with Impact Wrestling and he is home to stay for a while. Now, while it is great news for Impact to have another long-term TNA original, it is time to give him his well-overdue push to the top of Impact Wrestling. He has been so close to getting his hands on the world championship and finally being the face of the company but keeps coming up just short.

While the time may not be now, this new contract is Kazarian’s Impact World Championship run. In a perfect world, Steve Maclin is going to finally “break out” and dethrone Josh Alexander at Rebellion to become the Impact World Champion. Maclin is well deserving and the right choice to be the next Impact World Champion. However, the person next in line is Frankie Kazarian and the story has been slow brewing. When Kazarian cashed in his “option C” to fight Josh Alexander for the world championship, it was Steve Maclin who attacked Kazarian.

This is the story that has been slowly brewing and growing while nobody was paying attention. However, these are the two big money matches that Impact has to give their loyal fans. Steve Maclin dethroning Alexander is the moment that many fans want Maclin to become the main event star of the company. However, Kazarian being the one to later take the title from Maclin is the moment that the TNA original fans still watching need.