Former X-Division and Tag Team Champion Frankie Kazarian made his return to Impact Wrestling during Friday's Hard to Kill and for a longer run than last time around, announcing he signed a "long-term deal" with the company earlier in the day.
While not mentioning AEW by name, Kazarian cut a promo during the show, saying that after his brief return last year, he went back to where he was and was surrounded by strangers who he thought were his friends and something didn't seem right.
He said he didn't like complacency and realized he had to make a decision to either just sit idly by or bet on himself and walk away, then revealing he signed a long-term deal earlier Friday.
After re-signing with AEW in January 2022, he requested and was granted his release following his November match against Impact World Champion Josh Alexander at Over Drive, according to PWInsider.
"We are told it was a completely amicable situation based around Kazarian wanting to push himself harder as he's getting closer to to the latter point of his career and that in Impact, he'd had a chance to be more in the mix than he'd likely be able to get the opportunity to do in AEW, given how massive that company's roster is," the report read.
"The word backstage at the PPV is that Kazarian pretty much told the truth about what happened," it continued, adding it was an amicable situation and he would be welcomed back to AEW anytime.
After seven years away, Kazarian returned to Impact in 2021 for a trios match and then again in 2022 for a late-spring run followed by a fall run that included an X-Division title win over "Speedball" Mike Bailey and the aforementioned loss to Alexander.
The 45-year-old last wrestled for AEW in December in a loss to Konosuke Takeshita, snapping a five-match win streak on the Dark/Dark: Elevation shows. His last TV appearance was in June's Royal Rampage battle royal on AEW Rampage.
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