This disc runs at fifty-six minutes long.
Frankie Kazarian joins Daniels for the interview
It is conducted by Rob Feinstein
They are asked how they first met. Daniels said when he moved to California he first met Frankie when he was training at wrestling school.
Daniels talks about how they started to be a team in 2011 when he finished a feud with AJ. At that time, the Motor City Machine Guns were out due to injury and the company was not doing much with them so they decided to team up.
They then talk about how they are each other’s best friends and glad to be able to travel and see the world together. Daniels hopes that when they are on the independent scene that bookers will be able to afford both of them for the same show.
Next, they are asked to compare tag team partners. Daniels said that he had continuity with Elix Skipper but not as much with Kazarian, who said that he teamed with Michael Shane who at times can off like a dick and would flip out if things did not go his way. They both talk about how with each other, it is always the team that comes first.
Kazarian then explains how Bad Influence was formed. There was an angle proposed that had Daniels make Kazarian wrestle his friend AJ and threaten to expose a secret if he did not follow through. Kazarian then came up with an idea of Chris having a secret on AJ and that he himself would rather fall on the sword rather than have the secret exposed, thus protecting AJ. Kazarian said he pitched his idea to Eric Bischoff, who told him that it was a good idea.
After that, he had an idea of AJ being a sponsor to an addict niece of Dixie Carter that would lead to them insinuating that AJ had a child with her a few years ago when they were all friends in storyline at the time. However, the Carter family did not want an affair storyline or someone with that name having an addiction problem. Daniels said that people would have cared and been invested if it was involving them
When asked about the girl who played Claire Lynch, they both sighed. Daniels said that they were told she was the better looking girl of the two girls they had for the role. On her departure, they understood that she claimed about being harrassed outside and that she was not told about her role when she got hired. Claire was also working for a PR firm at the time. Daniels said she walked out of the company a week before the storyline was supposed to end. They then talked about how they wrote the end that a sound tech would come forward and the lady was a fake and he made the tape himself and that way they did not have to use Claire Lynch to explain her departure but the company said no. Kazarian said he came up with the Bad Influence name as it was the name of a team he used with another partner at a couple of shows in the Independent scene.
Daniels said that the Appletini gimmick came about when they had an idea to do a toast and that he was trying to think of the most ridiculous choice and was a fan of the show “Scrubs” and the lead character J.D.’s favorite drink was the Appletini. He said it was never meant to be part of the act but the next week they were doing backstage stuff and decided to have it there and it became a part of his character.
When asked at which moment did TNA not care about the tag division. He said that when Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez took the belts from them and beat them in every other match as well. They were then told the belts were going back to them when they went overseas but found out that the first match that Bobby Roode & Austin Aries teamed they were going to get the belts. After that, they were promised the belts later down the road but instead of being on Bound For Glory, they found out they were on the preshow match, losing in a four-way gauntlet match.
They were still pitching ideas that were designed to make the belts look important but on one idea, John Gaburik told them it was too long.
On if they were told not to wear Marvel shows, Daniels said not at first but a Spike Executive said that they were not allowed to because it was not a TNA brand, prompting them both to mention how other’s wore non-TNA issued brands on the show. Kazarian said that if you want to make that a rule fine but the company was just using a double-standard. Daniels then said they got in trouble for making shirts with their own faces on them, mimicking movie posters. One day at a pre-tape, Al Snow told them that Dixie texted him to make sure they could not wear those shirts as they were not a TNA-brand as Kazarian mentions how Motorhead and Hardcore 5150 are not sponsors of TNA either but that was not a problem and that TNA should have the balls to enforce the rules for everyone.
Daniels goes back to Russo’s problem with him not being over and says that you can point fingers at who was to blame and that they both were. However, you cannot say that Bad Influence was not over or not entertaining and does not know why they were let go or understand how it was a good business decision. Daniels said that they went with the BroMans instead, who he loves and puts over Jesse for improving by leaps and bounds, but that they are the better team. Kazarian says that you question yourself on whether or not you are over or entertaining when that happens.
When asked about if they got their checks late, Daniels said that during Christmas time TNA was three weeks behind on his check and he did not receive it until two days before Christmas and that fucked up his account and at that point, had a less than ten bucks in his account. He then tells a story of the company tweeting James Storm giving the Red Cross a check for $2,500. Daniels then said that he called Gaburik after that and asked him how it looks when the company is promoting themselves as giving to charities while they are weeks behind paying their own employees. He said that Gaburik thought he was being “uncool” for commenting about the tweet and Daniels told him that he was not saying that he needs money more than a homeless person but rather pay your employees, especially around the holidays, before you promote yourself as a monogamous charitable organization. Kazarian then talks about his wife (Tracy Brooks) and how she was a friend of the girl in TNA who handled payroll and hounded her for updates and were told such excuses as the mail was lost, stolen, or never picked up at all. Kazarian then said a young guy came up to him and told him he had not gotten paid in months and was afraid to rock the boat and just kept quiet so Kazarian took it upon himself to help those guys out. Daniels also heard that Spike was late in paying TNA.
Daniels said that TNA told him that they were not renewing his contract until the day after Lockdown. After the show, Kazarian and Daniels pitched ideas of working with Tigre Uno and Sanada to help them get over but the next day, they were not booked for the TV tapings. After that, they showed up to a “One Night Only” taping, Gaburik told Daniels they would talk to him after the taping and told him they were going in a different direction and his contract was not being renewed. Kazarian remembers a few months earlier they pitched two different ideas and were told that they were “too entertaining” and would steal the segment. After that, Daniels said he told the agent of his match he was going to do what got him over, despite the office telling them not to, and the agent did not want to get in trouble himself so Daniels just did what the office wanted him to do and told the agent it was one thing to not push him but for them to not allow what got the team over to be used is something totally different.
Daniels then talks about how he emailed Dixie after being let go to thank her for having him in the company and she replied back that she had no idea his contract was not being renewed and thought they were going to offer him a role as an agent.
On the subject of Dixie, they both say she is a sweetheart as a person but puts stock in the person running her company and basically just listens to them on everything going on in the promotion.
When asked about TNA’s future, Daniels said he does not want bad things to happen but looking at the downward spiral of ratings and decisions it looks bleak. Kazarian would like them to hire someone like Jim Ross or Tommy Dreamer to run the company and boost ratings.
Both guys are excited about working with different teams and wrestlers for Ring of Honor.
They loved working for Tommy Dreamer’s “House of Hardcore” promotion and put him over for putting on entertaining shows and having a great passion for the business.
They tell a road story while at the Wendy’s in Pikeville, KY. A grandmother came up to him and asked them to sign something for her grandson as they were his favorite wrestlers. The lady behind the counter started yelling at them and demanding to know who they were and would not leave them alone. Kazarian responded by saying that he was a man who is waiting for his “fucking chicken salad and Diet Coke.” A few minutes later, the cashier gave him something to sign. Daniels signed his name while Kazarian signed “fuck you” in cursive. Daniels told him not to take it out on the kid so Kazarian then wrote the word “son” next to it.
Final Thoughts: I thought this was a nice, brief addition to the shoot. This is also included in Kazarian’s shoot interview. It was breezy to listen to and both guys certainly seem to have a great friendship and its another interview that shines light on the incompetence that runs rampant in TNA. It also shows us that the company being behind on paychecks was indeed true. And the fact the company did not want to push this team, especially when you listen to the reasons why, sums up TNA in a nutshell.