Frankie Kazarian Credits Rocky III For His Love Of Pro Wrestling

In a recent interview on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Frankie Kazarian discussed how Rocky III sparked his interest in pro wrestling, renting WrestleMania I at a video store, and much more. Here are some of the highlights (via Fightful):

Frankie Kazarian on the reason he got into professional wrestling: “The reason I became a professional wrestler is because of the movie Rocky III. Here’s why; I was such a huge fan of Sly and of Arnold and of 80s action movies, but especially the Rocky franchise. Me and my cousin would watch Rocky III ad nauseam. It was my favorite movie.”

On stumbling upon WrestleMania I at a video store: “One day my mom took me to the video store, me and my cousin, and we went in and we saw what we thought was Thunderlips and Clubber Lang on the cover of this… thing. It ended up being WrestleMania I. Mr. T and Hulk Hogan, obviously. But I didn’t know what it was. I’m thinking, ‘Is this like a backstory on Thunderlips and Clubber Lang?’ I asked my mom to rent it for me and she’s like, ‘Okay.’ Me and my cousin, we rent it, we bring it home and put it in and the first thing I see is Tito Santana versus The Executioner and [I’m thinking] ‘What is pro wrestling?’ I was hooked.

“My dad came in, my dad watched wrestling when he was a kid so he started watching with me and I was glued, instantly, like, ‘Well, I guess I’m a professional wrestling fan now,’ because I could not get enough of it. But the reason I got into it is because of the movie Rocky III. So I’ll always credit Sylvester Stallone for my career because who knows — I’m sure I would have discovered it because wrestling became so big at that time, but yeah that was the gateway drug for me.”