| Kyle Fletcher | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Fletcher in 2023, during his simultaneous reigns as both IWGP Tag Team Champion and Strong Openweight Tag Team Champion alongside Mark Davis | |
| Born | 24 December 1998[1] Sydney, Australia |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Billed height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Billed weight | 100 kg (220 lb) |
| Trained by | PWA Academy Madison Eagles Ryan Eagles Robbie Eagles Travis Banks |
| Debut | April 20, 2014[2] |
Kyle Fletcher (born 24 December 1998) is an Australian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is the current ROH World Television Champion in his first reign, and a former one-time ROH World Tag Team Champion. Fletcher also appears regularly for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former IWGP Tag Team Champion and inaugural and record-setting two-time Strong Openweight Tag Team Champion, and British promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro), where he is a two-time Undisputed British Tag Team Champion.
Fletcher and fellow Australian wrestler Mark Davis team together as Aussie Open, which in turn forms part of the United Empire stable. He has also made appearances for numerous promotions in England, Wales, Ireland, and Germany, in addition to performing in the Australian independent circuit for companies such as Melbourne City Wrestling.
Fletcher was born and raised on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, Australia. A fan of professional wrestling from an early age, he was trained by Madison, Ryan and Robbie Eagles in the Australia based PWA Academy.[3]
Fletcher debuted in July 2014, wrestling around the New South Wales state, wrestling for companies such as Melbourne City Wrestling.[4]
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Main article: Aussie Open (professional wrestling) |
In May 2017, Fletcher traveled to the United Kingdom to work on their independent scene, commonly working for WhatCulture Pro-Wrestling (WCPW) and Attack! Pro Wrestling. During July of the same year, Fletcher teamed up with Fellow Australian wrestler Mark Davis as The Aussie Assault. The two commonly teamed from there on and eventually changed, their team name to Aussie Open, competing together across the UK. Fletcher made an appearance for the Chikara promotion. Aussie Open also competed in Europe, for promotions such as Westside Xtreme Wrestling.[5] In August, Aussie Open made their debuts for Revolution Pro Wrestling and continued to work with them in the long term. This meant that they would work with New Japan Pro-Wrestling talent due to their working agreement with RevPro. Aussie Open commonly faced talent such as Roppongi 3K, who were on a learning excursion from New Japan.[6] During their tour of the UK in May 2018, Aussie Open made their Ring of Honor debut, losing to Dalton Castle's "boys".[7] In March 2019, Aussie Open won the wXw World Tag Team Championship, before losing them to Ilja Dragunov and WALTER, ending their reign at 147 days.[8][9] They regained the championships 41 days later but had to vacate them after 14 days, due to Davis suffering a leg injury. In May 2019, Aussie Open achieved a massive victory, by defeating NJPW's Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.), to win the British Tag Team Championships for the first time. They lost the titles to Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom, ending their reign at 50 days.[10]
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Main article: United Empire |
Aussie Open made their NJPW debut at NJPW Royal Quest on August 31, losing in an IWGP Tag Team Championship match to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa).[11] Aussie Open wrestled infrequently in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, Aussie Open returned to Australia, for the first time as a team, wrestling on several independent shows. Aussie Open returned to RevPro on August 21, 2021, and regained the British Tag Team Championships the following month. On September 19, at RevPro's High Stakes Event, Aussie Open joined Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship Will Ospreay in attacking The Young Guns and Shota Umino, joining the United Empire stable and turning heel.[12] The three consistently began teaming as a trio across the UK. They lost the championships to Roy Knight and Ricky Knight Jr, ending their reign at 63 days. On April 10, 2022, Aussie Open, made their NJPW Strong debuts, teaming with fellow United Empire stablemate, Jeff Cobb to defeat TMDK.[13] On April 16 at Windy City Riot, Aussie Open and Cobb, teamed with fellow stablemates, Great-O-Khan, T. J. Perkins and Aaron Henare to defeat Bullet Club representatives, The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson), Chris Bey, El Phantasmo and guest member Scott Norton in a 12-man tag-team match.[14] At Capital Collision, Cobb, Henare and Aussie Open lost to TMDK in an 8-man tag-team match.[15]
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On the June 19th edition of NJPW Strong Ignition, Aussie Open competed in a tournament to crown the inaugural Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship. In the first round, they defeated The Dark Order's Evil Uno and Alan Angels and they defeated the Stray Dog Army in the semi-finals.[16] In the finals at Strong: High Alert, Fletcher and Davis defeated Christopher Daniels and Yuya Uemura to become the inaugural champions.[17]
At Music City Mayhem, Aussie Open teamed with T. J. Perkins to defeat the team of Alex Zayne and the IWGP Tag Team Champions, FTR.[18] After the match, Aussie Open challenged FTR to a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championships.[19] They received their match at Royal Quest II, where they lost to FTR.[20] At Rumble on 44th Street, Aussie Open lost the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships to The Motor City Machine Guns in a three-way tag-team match also involving The DKC and Kevin Knight, ending their inaugural reign at 76 days.[21]
Davis and Fletcher would compete individually in the 2023 New Japan Cup in March. Fletcher defeated IWGP Tag Team Champion, Yoshi-Hashi, but was defeated by the other half of the tag-team champions Hirooki Goto.[22][23] Davis defeated Toru Yano in the first round before losing to United Empire stablemate Will Ospreay in the next round.[24][25] However, Ospreay would be injured in their match, resulting in Davis advancing to the third round where he would defeat Evil.[26] In the semi-final round, Davis lost to Sanada, thus being eliminated from the tournament.[27] Due to Davis' success in the tournament and Fletcher's victory over Tag Team Champion Yoshi-Hashi, Aussie Open earnt a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championships, against Bishamon at Sakura Genesis.[28] On April 8 at the event, Aussie Open defeated Bishamon to win their first IWGP Tag Team Championship.[29] On April 15 at Capital Collision, Fletcher and Davis defeated The Motor City Machine Guns and the team of Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, in a three-way tag-team match, to regain the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships for a second time, making them double champions in NJPW.[30] They defended the Strong titles the next night against Lio Rush and Tomohiro Ishii.[31] On April 29 at NJPW Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni, Aussie Open retained the IWGP Tag Team Championships, defeating TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste)[32] On May 21 at Resurgence, Fletcher announced that the team would vacate both titles, due to Mark Davis's injury.[33]
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On the June 8th episode of Dynamite, Aussie Open and Aaron Henare made their All Elite Wrestling debuts, aiding Will Ospreay in attacking FTR and Trent Beretta, who Cobb and O-Khan had attacked two weeks prior.[34] They made their in-ring debuts on the June 10th edition of Rampage, where they and Ospreay lost to FTR and Beretta in a 6-man tag-team match.[35] Aussie Open returned on the June 15th special Road Rager edition of Dynamite attacking FTR and Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) after Ospreay, defeated FTR's Dax Harwood, however, they were stopped by Orange Cassidy who was announced to face Ospreay at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door for Ospreay's IWGP United States Championship, along with O-Khan and Cobb facing FTR and Roppongi Vice in a triple threat tag-team match, for both Cobb and O-Khan's IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships and FTR's ROH World Tag Team Championships .[36][37] At the event, Aussie Open accompanied Ospreay to the ring for his match against Cassidy, often assisting Ospreay during the match. Ospreay eventually retained the championship, and along with Aussie Open, attacked Cassidy and Roppongi Vice after the match. However, Ospreay and Aussie Open were interrupted by Katsuyori Shibata, who beat down the trio, saving Cassidy and Roppongi Vice.[38]
On July 27, the AEW World Trios Championship was revealed, Aussie Open and Ospreay being named as participants in the inaugural tournament. On August 24, Aussie Open and Ospreay defeated Death Triangle to progress to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by The Elite (The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega) on August 31.[39] After the match, United Empire attacked The Elite.[40]
Fletcher and Davis returned to AEW on the February 22 edition of Dynamite, competing in the Revolution Tag Team Battle Royal, but failed to win.[41] On the same week's edition of Rampage, Davis and Fletcher lost to The Young Bucks.[42] The following week on Dynamite, Aussie Open competed in the Casino Tag Team Royale, but again failed to win.[43]
On March 9, Fletcher and Davis made their return to Ring of Honor (ROH), which was now AEW's sister promotion, following Tony Khan's purchase of the company, defeating Rhett Titus and Tracy Williams.[44] At Supercard of Honor, The duo competed in the "Reach for the Sky" ladder match for the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship, but failed to win the match.[45]
A week after winning the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, Fletcher and Davis made their first title defense against Best Friends, defeating them and retaining the titles on the April 14 edition of Rampage.[46] On the May 25 edition of Dynamite, Fletcher appeared in a backstage segment, attacking AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy and admiring the title. A championship match between the two took place on the May 24 edition of Dynamite, where Cassidy defeated Fletcher. Shortly after, it was announced that both Fletcher and Davis had signed with AEW.[47]
On July 21, 2023, the duo won the ROH World Tag Team Championships at Death Before Dishonor in a Four-way tag team match.[48] The following week on Ring of Honor, Aussie Open made their first title defence, defeating the Iron Savages.[49] At Dynamite: 200, Aussie Open retained their titles against El Hijo del Vikingo and Komander.[50] On the following week's episode of Rampage, The duo accepted Better Than You BayBay's (Adam Cole and MJF) challenge for the titles on the Zero-Hour of All In.[51] In the lead up to the match, Aussie Open made further title defences against Ethan Page and Isiah Kassidy and Isiah Kassidy and The Hardys (Matt and Jeff Hardy).[52][53] On the Zero-Hour of All In, Aussie Open lost the ROH World Tag Team Titles to Cole and MJF, ending their reign at 37 days.[54]
Following the loss, the duo shifted their focus towards the AEW World Tag Team Championships, calling out champions FTR on the September 16 edition of Collision, demanding a championship match at WrestleDream. Soon after, the match was made official for the event on October 1, which was notably the one-year anniversary of the two team's last match, for the IWGP World Tag Team Championships at Royal Quest II.[55] At WrestleDream, FTR defeated Aussie Open, retaining their Championships.[56] After the event, it was revealed that Davis had suffered a wrist injury and would be out of action, leaving Fletcher as a singles wrestler.[57]
On the October 28 edition of Rampage, Fletcher was defeated by Konosuke Takeshita. After the match, Fletcher was welcomed into The Don Callis Family.[58] On December 15 at Final Battle, Fletcher defeated Komander, Lee Moriarty, Dalton Castle, Lee Johnson, and Bryan Keith in a Survival of the Fittest to win the vacant ROH World Television Championship, thus making it his first ever singles championship.[59][60] At Supercard of Honor, Fletcher successfully defended his World Television Championship against Lee Johnson.
Fletcher is currently in a relationship with fellow AEW wrestler Skye Blue.[61] He has cited Jeff Hardy as an early inspiration for wanting to become a professional wrestler.[3]