Kyle Fletcher reflects on WWE contract talks, says AEW was ‘just the right fit’
Before he signed with AEW, Kyle Fletcher gave some consideration to making WWE his pro wrestling home.
Fletcher, then in a tag team with Aussie Open partner Mark Davis, signed with AEW in 2023. He’s since become a singles star for the company, holding the TNT Championship once and reaching World title contention. He told Chris Van Vliet on a new episode of Insight that he and Davis had a Zoom call with WWE following their departures from NJPW. They considered WWE as an option — but AEW ultimately felt like the right fit.
“It was a toss-up for a while. We had one kind of like official — at the time it was myself and Mark Davis as Aussie Open. We had a Zoom call with [WWE]. We kind of spoke about what the deal would entail and that sort of thing,” Fletcher said.
“And I think when it got to that point, it just didn’t feel like the right fit at the time. So it was, we didn’t get super close. It was kind of like at the point where there was options there, but AEW was just the right fit for us at the time, for sure.”
Van Vliet asked Fletcher what made AEW the right fit.
“I think we were lucky enough that we’d worked there a couple of times. We got brought in as a part of New Japan to do a couple of things. And I think it was the vibe there,” he responded.
“To me it was, I don’t want to say the freedom, but I think there’s a whole lot of trust there that I can produce the wrestling I want to produce and I can wrestle the way that I love to wrestle. And I think experiencing that beforehand and knowing that, I think that was what kind of drew me towards AEW.”
Fletcher, who re-signed with AEW earlier this year, now lives in Chicago with his girlfriend Skye Blue. He never got to experience all four seasons in Australia, so he’s loving the fall and winter weather in Chicago.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.