In a recent appearance on the “AEW Unrestricted” podcast, Aussie Open’s Kyle Fletcher spoke about why he and Mark Davis decided to sign with AEW in May following their successful stint in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Assessing their options and desiring stability after years as independent wrestlers, Fletcher revealed that the former IWGP Tag Team Champions decided to sign with AEW as New Japan wasn’t able to provide the desired contract and stability they sought. He said,
“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.”
Fletcher added that he and Davis enjoyed working with AEW as part of the partnership between the two companies over the past few years, appreciating the backstage environment and the opportunity to wrestle with the roster’s talented individuals. This ultimately led to Aussie Open signing with All Elite Wrestling. He said,
“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.”
