During a recent interview with Alternative
Nation, Christopher Daniels and Frankie
Kazarian spoke about TNA creative towards the end of their run. They also
commented on knowing Vince Russo was back in the mix. Here are the
highlights…
Kazarian: I don’t know if we fell out of favor, we were
still getting great reactions, cutting great promos and doing very entertaining
segments and nobody cared to tell me any different. However, we were just
spinning our wheels and going nowhere. We were both pitching ideas, pitching
ideas, pitching ideas and they just fell on deaf ears. We would also get the
line: “You’re untouchable, bulletproof, it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re
gonna get over,” and I’m thinking, “Exactly. Now, just imagine how over we’d get
if you got behind us a little bit.” It just seemed like we never got any
answers. I’m not blaming any specific person but it sure as hell wasn’t our
fault because we were still at the top of our game and we still are.
Daniels: They had the people they wanted to work with and it
seemed like myself and Frankie weren’t those people. We did what we could and
what we were given but after a while it seemed like they wanted to focus on
different people so that’s what led to us leaving.
Kazarian: Well you saw the last year of what Chris and I were
doing, that will probably [show you] what I thought of that creative team, and I
could of told you Vince was working with those guys for a long time. Vince, just
knowing his style of writing, and what was happening with the company, it all
screamed of Russo. I don’t know what that says about the company, that they were
so ashamed to announce that he was with the company, and that they knew it would
them even more of a black eye, that they would be shunned publicly. If the guy’s
working with you, just say that he’s working with you. I just don’t get why they
couldn’t say that he was working for TNA. I don’t know why they didn’t but I
don’t care and it’s not any of my business.
Daniels: I mean, I heard scuzzlebutt but there was never any
proof or anything that made me go, “Oh that had to be Vince Russo,” because a
lot of it really, like any of those guys could of written that. I don’t think
Vince was writing any specific stuff. I think it was just a collaborate effort
and if he was one of the cooks in the kitchen, and nothing was so obviously him
that it made me go, “Oh, it must be him.”
Kazarian: I had a very good relationship with Dave [Lagana]
and Matt [Conway]. John [Gaburick] however, I honestly never talked to outside
of a few e-mails in which I don’t think I ever heard back and I never developed
any sort of relationship with him whatsoever and my last few weeks there, seeing
where the stories were going , being told that they were going in a different
direction I was like “OK, well if you’re going in that direction then I guess
you are going in a different one. This isn’t for me.” That’s why I’m not there
anymore and that’s perfectly fine and I say that with no malice or anything like
that. It’s just what it is.
