Frankie Kazarian

Frank Benedict Gerdelman (born August 4, 1977) is an American professional wrestler and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), performing under the ring name Frankie Kazarian.

He is also known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH) and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), as well as several independent promotions, most notably Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he has won multiple tag-team and singles championships.

Frank Benedict Gerdelman was born on August 4, 1977, in Palm Springs, California.

Kazarian began his career in 1998 and performed on several independent promotions.

Kazarian began training with Killer Kowalski in Malden, Massachusetts in 1998, and wrestled his debut match after one month's training, facing Freight Train Dan.

After remaining at Kowalski's school for eight months, Kazarian returned to Southern California and began wrestling on the independent circuit, primarily in the Empire Wrestling Federation, where he continued his training and teamed with Josh Galaxy as "Bad Influence".

During the 2000s, he worked for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he became the inaugural and two-time PWG World Champion.

In 2000, Kazarian joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and in March 2001 he formed a tag team with Nova known as "Evolution".

On March 10, 2001, he became the first Millennium Pro Wrestling (MPW) World Champion by defeating Christopher Daniels and Adam Pearce in a three-way dance.

On May 30, 2001, Evolution won the vacant Ultimate Pro Wrestling Tag Team title.

He travelled to Japan as part of the Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) roster in 2002, where he faced Steve Corino, and also as part of Evolution he and Nova were defeated by Edge and Christian.

He used to freestyle rap along with his close friends John Cena and Samoa Joe while the three of them were on the road in UPW.

From 2003 until 2014, he wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

He began a tag team with Michael Shane known as Shazarian.

He toured the UK, Australia and New Zealand with the now defunct World Wrestling All-Stars promotion in May 2003, where he met Glenn Gilberti and Scott D'Amore, leading to his being offered a job by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Kazarian worked for the upstart Southern Californian promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla from the very beginning, headlining its first event on July 26, 2003 against AJ Styles in a losing effort.

The following month, Kazarian participated in the Bad Ass Mother 3000 tournament to determine the first-ever PWG Champion.

He defeated Scott Lost in the opening round on August 29 and Lil Cholo in the quarterfinals, Christopher Daniels in the semifinals and Joey Ryan in the final to win the tournament and become the inaugural PWG Champion on August 30.

Kazarian successfully defended the title against Styles and Daniels in a three-way match at Are You Adequately Prepared To Rock? and American Dragon at An Inch Longer Than Average.

Kazarian began his first major feud as champion with Adam Pearce after Pearce pinned Kazarian in a six-man tag team match at Pimpin' In High Places.

Pearce earned a title shot against Kazarian on the night one of Tango & Cash Invitational, which ended in a time limit draw, resulting in Kazarian retaining the title.

Kazarian successfully defended the title against Babi Slymm, Jonny Storm and M-Dogg 20 in a four-way elimination match on the second night of the tournament.

Kazarian lost the title to Pearce at Taste The Radness on February 22, 2004.

Kazarian spent the next few months, feuding with Pearce and his Hardkore Inc. stablemates.

He received a title shot against Pearce in a four-way dance, also involving Babi Slymm and Jardi Frantz at Rocktoberfest, where Pearce retained the title via disqualification.

At the company's first anniversary show, The Reason for the Season on July 10, Kazarian became the first two-time PWG Champion by defeating Pearce in a "Loser Leaves PWG" steel cage match.

He would hold the title for the next four months, retaining it against Colt Cabana, Samoa Joe and Ricky Reyes until ''Free Admission!

(Just Kidding'' on November 13, when he was defeated by Super Dragon.

In 2007, he shortened his name to Kaz and briefly worked under the Suicide character between 2008 and 2010.

Impact Wrestling commentator Mike Tenay revealed in a late 2007 shoot interview that during a World Championship Wrestling event in San Diego, California in 2000, a fan appeared to him and boldly declared that "someday, [Tenay] will be calling one of [his] matches".

That fan was none other than Kazarian himself.

After returning to the Kazarian name, he joined the Fourtune stable, where he stayed until 2012.

In 2012, he began to work with Christopher Daniels as a tag team named Bad Influence, winning the TNA World Tag Team Championship twice.

With a total of 4 reigns as X Division champion (one as co-champion with Shane and one as Suicide) and three as World Tag Team Champion, he left the company in 2014.

After leaving TNA, Daniels and Kazarian reunited in Ring of Honor, where they stayed until 2018.

They changed the name of the tag team to The Addiction and later, they were joined by Scorpio Sky as SoCal Uncensored.

He won the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Daniels and once with Sky and the trio won the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

During this time, Daniels and Kazarian appeared in international promotions, such as New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

After leaving ROH, the trio joined the new promotion All Elite Wrestling, where Kazarian and Sky became the first AEW World Tag Team Champions.

In 2022, Kazarian also worked with Impact Wrestling, where he won his fifth X Division Championship (becoming the title’s 100th champion in the process), later signing with the company in 2023, after being granted his release from AEW.