Collectively known as Bad Influence, the tag team of “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels and Kazarian spent a large part of 2012 as the Total Nonstop Action World Tag Team Champions. Since losing the titles to Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Hernandez at Bound for Glory last October, however, the two have been more focused on singles competition. Having defeated AJ Styles last month at Final Resolution, Daniels faces “Cowboy” James Storm this Sunday at Genesis, which means you can expect to see both members of Bad Influence on tonight’s Impact Wrestling. And with the recent changes to TNA’s pay-per-view schedule, Daniels and Kazarian will also be part of the new TNA Wrestling: One Night Only specials being taped this Saturday. It’s a lot to keep up with, but Wrestling with Pop Culture gets some interesting insight from the duo as it prepares for this exciting and busy weekend.
Following Genesis this weekend, the next pay-per-view is Lockdown in March. What is your take on TNA running fewer pay-per-views in 2013, as well as doing additional tapings like X-travaganza and the Joker’s Wild Tag Team Tournament to fill that programming for different markets. With so many big shows in such a short period of time, what is the mental and physical preparation like for you guys in comparison to a regular pay-per-view weekend?
Kazarian: I think dropping the number of pay-per-views down by a few is a smart business move. The pay-per-view market is oversaturated with pro wrestling as it is. I, myself, have always been a fan of more big pay-per-views as opposed to just standard pay-per-views every month. It gives our program a lot more time to develop and put a lot more importance on matches. As far as this weekend goes, it is unique in that we have a big pay-per-view and this additional content, which will be a tag team tournament and an X Division Ultimate X cage match. For guys like us, we’ve been the workhorses for the entire existence of TNA so a weekend like this is tough, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. It’s business as usual. If TNA is booking and promoting it, we want to be part of it. It’s going to be a heavy workload, but it’s nothing we can’t handle and we’re excited to be doing it.
Daniels: And let’s be honest, if TNA wants to get people interested in watching these things, of course they’re going to have the two most entertaining parts of their roster on the X-travaganza, on the tag team tournament, on Genesis, on television every week. The top two guys in the company are Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. That’s just science. Four out of five doctors agree, and the fifth doctor is a quack, so of course we’re going to be there. As far as cutting the number of pay-per-views goes, TNA has always been more about quality than quantity and that’s fine with us. If they’re going to cut some stuff, that’s going to make all the pay-per-views that we do do (I can say do do) more entertaining and get people excited to watch these shows. As far as these X-travaganza and Joker’s Wild Tag Team Tournament tapings go, fulfilling these pay-per-view obligations overseas is going to give those fans over there a chance to see something that maybe the fans in the United States won’t get, give them a special treat. Of course they’re going to have me and Frankie on there. I mean, if you found out Frankie and I weren’t going to be on there, you probably wouldn’t buy it.
A quick note, that fifth doctor in that poll is actually D.O.C. from Aces & Eights and he’s a surly individual anyway, so he doesn’t count.
During your recent World Tag Team Championship reign, you emphasized the word “world” by introducing yourselves as the World Tag Team Champions of the World. Given that you will be traveling to Ireland, Scotland and England later this month, do you anticipate regaining and defending those titles in other parts of the world in the near future?
Kazarian: As soon as we get the opportunity – as soon as Hulk Hogan and the powers that be give us the opportunity to wrestle for the tag team titles, we’re going to get them again. And of course we’re going to take them on tour. They love us in Dublin, they love us in Glasgow, they love us all over Europe – it’s common knowledge. So to rightfully defend the World Tag Team Championship of the World, we have to tour the world, which is exactly what we intend to do.
Daniels: As soon as Chavo Guerrero III and Shawn Hernandez, Jr. stop defending the titles against tag teams that haven’t won any matches yet, when they decide to give a chance back to the actual World Tag Team Champions of the World, the best tag team in the biz-a-ness (that would be Francois Kazarian and myself), as soon as they decide to give us that opportunity once again, we’re going to regain those titles and we will bring them to the U.K., we will bring them all over this country, all over this world, because that’s what fighting champions do. That’s what Frankie and I were when we were World Tag Team Champions of the World. And that’s what we will be when we regain the championships.
Officially in Glasgow, the Christopher Daniels Museum has been alive and kicking for the last seven years. Look it up, it’s true. Check Wikipedia.
From the Zubaz pants to the “Gangnam Style” dances, what goes into your creative process and how much time do you dedicate to that?
Kazarian: When you talk about the creative process, you’re talking about looking inside the minds of Christopher Daniels and myself and that’s a place I don’t think you want to go. We are two of the most creative, fun-loving individuals in the business. Anything you see us do is basically our creation, our idea and/or a request or dare. A lot people don’t think we have the balls to do certain things and we do them. Most everything we do literally comes from the noodles of Chris Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. Is it entertaining? Of course it is because it comes from us, the most entertaining tag team in the business.
Daniels: We’re 25/8 as far as being creative. All we’re doing during the day is thinking of ways we can get under people’s skin, ways we can entertain, ways we can get people talking about us at the water cooler the next day. Whether it’s “Gangnam Style,” whether it’s Throwback Thursdays, whether it’s the appletinis, whether it’s being a national treasure, being the man with the rear that makes the girls cheer, being the physical fascination like Francois is, all of these things are ways to make people excited to watch the best tag team in the world – that’s Bad Influence. People are excited to watch us, people are excited to cheer for us, people know that when we walk down the ramp into the Impact Zone, when we walk down the ramp at the live events, whenever we do that dance on the pay-per-views, they know that we’re the best thing on the show.
Kazarian: On a side note, Zubaz pants’ stock has risen 88 percent since Throwback Thursdays [began]. So we’re talking to their people right now.
Where did the name Bad Influence come from?
Kazarian: That name’s kind of been hopping around the brains of both of us for a while. A lot of people have kind of dubbed us a bad influence and called us bad individuals, especially after us exposing the truth about what a scumbag AJ Styles was. (I say “was” because he’s gone.) People say “bad influence” in a bad way and we say it in a good way. And you know our thing is, once you’re under it, you can’t get over it.
Daniels: Well done, Francois.
Kazarian: Hey, it’s what I do.