Frankie Kazarian Brought Lanny Poffo to Tears Backstage at All In

In a happy, feel-good wrestling story to round off 2018, this beautiful moment between Frankie Kazarian and Lanny Poffo came full circle backstage at September 1st’s All In show.

Frankie Kazarian and Lanny Poffo shake hands when meeting for the first time back in April, 2018

Frankie Kazarian with Lanny Poffo [photo courtesy of @FrankieKazarian on Twitter]

Author: JP Zarka

On the latest edition of The Genius Cast podcast, Lanny Poffo had AMBY and backstage IMPACT Wrestling TV host, Alicia Atout on as a guest. In this fun interview, the two were reminiscing back to what a wonderful experience All In was for everyone involved when Lanny got emotional reminiscing back to a special moment that took place backstage.

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“You know what really touched me?” Poffo began. “Frankie Kazarian.”

“He came up to me and he says, ‘I met you in Los Angeles when I was about eight-years-old.”

Lanny paused for a moment as he began to choke up.

“And [Frankie says], ‘You were nice to me.'”

Lanny stopped again to gain composure. “I’m sorry, I’m getting emotional about it.”

Lanny Poffo continued, “I try to be nice to everybody but not everybody becomes Frankie Kazarian.”

“I said [to Frankie], ‘Well, I’ve followed your career and I am very proud of you.'”

In a tweet earlier in the year, Frankie backed up the sentiments shared by Lanny. “Lanny Poffo was the first wrestler I ever met. It was at the LA sports arena in 1987. I was a very young, excited fan. I never forgot how kind he was. He couldn’t have been more of a gentleman then, and still is to this day.”

Don’t you just love it when things come full circle like this?

To hear this story in full plus how Randy Savage got injured on the set of Spider-Man but told nobody about it, heroes letting down their fans, and so much more, tune in to the latest episode of The Genius Cast below or via your favorite podcast app! Be sure to hit the subscribe button!

Happy New Year from everyone here at Pro Wrestling Stories! We look forward to bringing you the very best in wrestling stories in the new year and beyond.

Editor’s edit: After reading our article, Frankie Kazarian took to Twitter to add, “I met Lanny long before meet n’ greets were a thing. He was larger than life. He was a superstar. Still is. Could not have been more kind to this very young kid. Happy to call him my friend. “For us, meeting a fan last a moment. For them, it could last a lifetime.”

Beautiful.

JP Zarka is an educator, editor-in-chief of ProWrestlingStories.com, and co-host/producer of The Genius Cast with Lanny Poffo. Got feedback? Reach out to him on Twitter here or send us an EMAIL