Kyle Fletcher is set to face off against Will Ospreay on AEW Dynamite this week, after he appeared at Revolution 2024 alongside the former NJPW star.
The Australian wrestler spent time in both companies over the years, as one of half Aussie Open. Along with Mark Davis, they are considered one of the top teams in the world of wrestling.
The two have been inseparable in recent years, with most of Fletcher’s accomplishments coming alongside Davis.
However, he has been flying solo since Davis’ latest injury. He is currently the ROH Television Champion, a far cry from his start in wrestling in Australia.
Kyle Fletcher started in Australia, but made a name for himself in the UK
Kyle Fletcher trained to wrestle in Australia under the tutelage of Madison Eagles, Ryan Eagles and Travis Banks. The Australian wrestled for a number of promotions in his home country at the start of his career. He spent two years “down under” before moving to the UK, where he first teamed with Mark Davis.
The duo became known as Aussie Assault, before changing it to the more familiar Aussie Open. They embarked on a tour of the country that saw Aussie Open win multiple tag team championships. They became champions of promotions like Attack! Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, RevPro and even Ireland’s Over the Top Wrestling promotion.
Putting on fantastic matches nightly, the pair became known as a top tag team in the British Isles. They defeated New Japan’s “Suzuki-gun” (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr) at RevPro Epic Encounter 2019 to win the Undisputed British Tag Team titles.
This showed just how much faith NJPW had in the Aussie duo, and they soon snapped them up.
He became a star in New Japan Pro Wrestling in Will Ospreay’s “United Empire”
Later that year, the pair lost the titles to the Guerrillas of Destiny. It was meant to start a more substantial run in New Japan.
However, the pandemic meant that they could only wrestle sparingly. This was due to the harsh restrictions on travel to Japan at this time.
They continued to wrestle in the UK and Australia, and joined Ospreay’s United Empire stable the following year. They appeared at RevPro High Stakes 2021, backing up Ospreay as he attacked Ricky Knight Jr. and Shota Umino after the match.
Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis joined him on a regular basis in Japan. This was a huge opportunity, considering Ospreay had recently won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
The duo was instrumental in helping Ospreay win his matches through nefarious means, although his neck injury would soon put an end to their partnership, temporarily.
While away from Ospreay, the pair spent time in the United States. Fletcher and Davis won the NPW Strong Openweight tag team titles, becoming the first holders of the belt in 2022.
With the pair marooned in the US for long periods of time, they soon began popping up on AEW alongside Ospreay.
Fletcher and Davis signed with AEW in May 2023
Fletcher and Davis became official members of the AEW roster in May 2023. This was after months of appearing for the promotion in various matches.
They had already impressed alongside Will Ospreay in the tournament to crown the inaugural Trios Champions in 2022. They beat Death Triangle before falling to The Elite in the semi-finals.
This defeat set up Ospreay’s match against Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 17, but also put Kyle Fletcher on the map in AEW.
Aussie Open wrestled for the AEW and ROH tag team championships multiple times, winning the latter in a four-way ladder match at ROH Death Before Dishonor. This led to a huge match at Wembley Stadium against MJF and Adam Cole. It was fitting that Fletcher, who first made his name in the UK, would lose the belts in England in front of 81,035 fans.
However, an injury suffered by Davis at WrestleDream against FTR would put the team on ice. Kyle Fletcher was forced into a singles role in AEW, and he excelled being on his own for the first time in years. He won his first ever singles title at ROH Final Battle 2023, beating a selection of top talents to win the ROH Television Championship.
The Australian has also aligned himself on TV with Don Callis, who has also represented Ospreay as his manager.
This will make their match on Dynamite interesting. They are scheduled to wrestle this Wednesday night, following the pair appearing together at Revolution.
However, the Callis connection could spell trouble for both men going forward.
