ROH star Frankie Kazarian was a guest on the Wrestling Epicenter this week and spoke about his new band Vex Temper, his messy ending with TNA Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor and his wife, former TNA Knockout Traci Brooks. Here are some highlights of what Kazarian discussed with host James Walsh
His band performing The Addiction’s ROH Theme Song:
“We certainly did. When Christopher Daniels and myself turned heel and changed our attitudes, the company sent us a link to a site with stock music that they have the rights to use. I asked boldly, “I have a band. If I could get something written and recorded. This is me, I know what kind of swagger we should walk to the ring with.” That night, I got my guitar which I don’t do often because I am a bass player and I came up with the riff. I came back, told the guys and they were excited about having our music being heard by a lot of people. I wrote “Get Addicted.” The funny thing is, that song, style wise, is quite different our usual style. It has a little more swing to it, it has a greasy little riff. It is definitely more accessible than the rest of our music you’ll hear on the album. We’ve got a 9 and a 10 minute song in there. You can’t really consider us radio friendly! (laughs)”
How he ended up teaming with Christopher Daniels:
“We’ve been friends and travel buddies for many years. We have been friends since 1998. We were singles wrestlers, Fortune had just broken up, Bobby had just turned on James. AJ and Daniels had just finished their feud. They weren’t doing anything with Chris after that. They certainly weren’t doing anything with me. I was just the last guy in Fortune running around. The tag division was, in a word, weak at the time. The Machine Guns, Alex Shelley was hurt. Beer Money had just broken up. We said, “You know what? We could be a formidable team.” We knew we could be an exciting tag team in terms of our in ring wrestling not to mention us feeding off each other in terms of our personalities. We pitched it, they gave it a shot. The Bad Infuance thing wasn’t supposed to last. It was only supposed to last only a couple of weeks. We fought for it. I have no trouble saying it. We were the most entertaining thing on the show! We were white hot. Again, kind of had our legs cut out from under us at the end of the run considering what we could have been.”
Working for ROH:
“Ring of Honor is awesome, man. I’m not just saying that because I am on the roster. What we do, especially in the ring, is just unmatched. Since we got here in 2014, I’ve never seen a company with such positive up-swing. We’re just riding that wave! I’ve had some of the most fun and exciting matches of my career here. A lot of guys that were once Impact Wrestling wrestlers are now gone and have come to Ring of Honor or gone to WWE. It is a shape that you look at the roster and see that the company had all these guys. But, it is great that they are all now spreading their wings and showing the world what they’re all about!”
ROH’s in-ring style:
“It is about working smart instead of working hard. Some of the things, short of pulling out a firearm and shooting someone, it is hard to imagine something more spectacular. You just learn to work within it, work around it, and work smart!”
Being part of the Bullet Club:
“Hey, man. It is a difficult thing to get over as huge as those guys have. I’m definitely happy to be a part of the squad. It is a new chapter in my career. We’re going to see where it goes!”
