Kyle Fletcher admits there was a sense of guilt attached to his rise as a singles star in AEW.
Fletcher and Mark Davis spent years together as Aussie Open before Davis was sidelined by injury, opening the door for Fletcher to receive more opportunities on his own. Fletcher eventually broke out as a singles competitor, underwent a major character change and established himself as one of AEW’s featured stars.
During an appearance on the Battleground Podcast (see video below), Fletcher acknowledged that enjoying his newfound success wasn’t always easy while his longtime partner and close friend remained on the sidelines.
“Oh, absolutely. I think there was honestly a lot of guilt on my behalf,” Fletcher said. “It’s like, he’s not just at that point, he’s not just a tag partner. We’ve been teaming together for five years plus. We’ve been, you know, best friends for majority of that time.
“So, yeah, there’s a lot of guilt and there are a lot of conversations of people telling me, you know, like, ‘You need to be a singles wrestler. You’ve gotten so over and you’re doing so good, it doesn’t make sense for you to be in a tag team right now.’ And then in the back of my brain I’m just like, ‘F**k, man. But then where does that leave Davis?’”
Fletcher said he was thrilled to receive the opportunities, but worried that his success could result in Davis being forgotten.
“And then, like, a lot of these guilty feelings. So, yes, I was stoked to be getting these opportunities, but I didn’t want my best friend to be left by the wayside because of it,” Fletcher added.
Davis has since returned from injury and carved out his own path in AEW. He teamed with Jake Doyle and later captured the AEW World Trios Championship alongside Doyle and Kazuchika Okada. Davis subsequently defeated Jack Perry for the AEW National Championship at Fairway to Hell before eventually dropping the title to Andrade El Idolo.
Fletcher said seeing Davis find success of his own has meant a lot to him.
“Which is just, it makes me so happy to see what he’s doing now and how much he’s flourished,” Fletcher said. “Like, he saw something in me. I’ve known he’s an incredible professional wrestler for as long as I’ve been wrestling, as long as I’ve known him. I think, I don’t know how to take that. I think to me, everything in life is about evolution and growth, and we’ve just grown and we’ve changed into different people.”
While Aussie Open have gone in different directions, Fletcher isn’t ruling out another full-time run for the team down the road. However, he believes a reunited version of the duo would be different from the one fans previously knew.
“I think if Aussie Open were to go and do, like, a proper tag run again at some point in the future after all this evolution and this growth, I don’t even think that Aussie Open would be the same Aussie Open that we’ve seen in the past,” Fletcher stated. “I think we have outgrown that version of Aussie Open, but in that same regard, it makes me excited to see what a 2026, 2027, 2028 Aussie Open full-time tag team run would look like. So, if it gets to happen at some point, I would be excited to see it.”
For now, Fletcher remains focused on his singles career. He is scheduled to defend the AEW International Championship against Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita at AEW All In: London this Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
Make sure to join us here at WrestlingHeadlines.com on 8/30 for live AEW All In: London 2026 Results coverage.
