Kyle Fletcher opens up about his and Mark Davis’s decision to sign with AEW.
The duo, better known as Aussie Open, inked a deal with AEW earlier this year after finding success in NJPW. Fletcher spoke about their decision to join AEW full-time during an interview with the company’s Unrestricted podcast. Highlights from the conversation can be found below.
On their decision to sign with AEW after NJPW told them ‘now now’:
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.
How they still have a great relationship with NJPW:
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.
Aussie Open will challenge for the ROH Tag Team Titles at this Friday’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view. The updated card for the event can be found here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
