Kyle Fletcher On Signing With AEW: We Wanted Stability, NJPW Said, ‘Yes, But Not Now’

Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis (Aussie Open) have established themselves as one of the top tag teams in all of wrestling over the past couple of years through their work in NJPW. 

Fletcher & Davis ventured over to AEW ahead of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, teaming with Will Ospreay as part of the United Empire. Thoughout 2023, Fletcher & Davis confirmed they were free agents and were looking for more bookings.

On May 24, it was announced that Aussie Open had signed with AEW. 

Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Fletcher explained the decision to sign with AEW. 

“The beginning of this year was very much like a ‘let’s assess where we are with everything, let’s look at what is happening, and let’s weigh our options.’ We were pretty happy in Japan, but not to say too much, we wanted a contract. We wanted stability. We had been independent wrestlers for…I’ve been wrestling ten years, Davis has been wrestling longer than that, we’ve been independent wrestlers for that whole time. We’ve never had stability and that’s what we wanted. We told New Japan this and it was very much a ‘yes, but not now’ type thing. Okay, whatever. We were doing the New Japan stuff, and that was a big goal of mine, to get there, and I love the style of wrestling there, I love the culture, I love immersing myself in the culture and exploring the country. It got to a point where it was like, if they’re not going to give us that stability that we want and have asked for, let’s see what else is going on. We work with Tony quite a lot, we worked with AEW, we really enjoyed the environment, the backstage environment, we really enjoyed the people and there are a lot of people on the roster that I would love to wrestle. That was a big thing,” he said.

Fletcher continued, “There is also the fact that there is still a New Japan relationship, that was also a big deal. The fact that AEW guys have been able to do New Japan stuff and because we already have that connection, it was very much, when we were in discussion, ‘how do you feel about still doing New Japan stuff?’ We spoke to both sides and they’re like, ‘of course, that’s not an issue. That’s still something you can do.’ That was a big part of the decision. We love the environment in AEW, there is a lot of exciting matchups there and the nationwide TV exposure is a big deal as well. A lot of different thinking went into it, but very happy with the decision.”

Mark Davis has been sidelined with an injury but will return at ROH Death Before Dishonor. Aussie Open will challenge for the ROH Tag Team Titles in a four-way bout at the show. 

Fans can check out the lineup for ROH Death Before Dishonor by clicking here. 

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