Ahead of AEW’s first show on Australian soil, with Grand Slam: Australia set for February 15th, we chatted with home-grown talent Kyle Fletcher about what to expect from the show, which Aussie wrestlers to keep an eye on, and what sets Australian locker rooms apart from the rest of the world.
Are you getting to any other shows over the weekend?
There is a Super Show on Friday [Australian Wrestling Super Show at Eatons Hill Hotel]. I’m going to try my best to get to it. I’m very spread thin between work responsibilities, every member of my family wanting to catch up, and friends as well all going to be in Brisbane. So just as much as it’s a cool week to be home, there’s a lot on my plate getting pulled more in a different direction. I’m going to see how it goes.
Do we have any surprises set for Saturday?
For me, I like to do special gear for big days. So I have some brand new ring attire that I’m excited to debut. Otherwise, as far as surprises, I’m not too sure. Hopefully people are going to be surprised when I pin Kenny Omega. That would be pretty cool. But otherwise, yeah, I don’t really know what to expect from the crowd. I think the biggest surprise for me is going to be how the fans respond to the match. Whether or not I’m going to get cheered, whether or not Kenny’s going to get cheered, or booed, or Takeshita. I’m very excited in that regard. I don’t know which way it’s going to go. Hopefully, some surprises.
Which Aussie wrestlers would you want to see in AEW?
That is a good question. I know a man called Slex, I’m sure you know. I think he has just announced that he’s moving to the States where he’s doing an extended stay. I’m pretty excited to see how he goes over there because he’s been someone that even when I started training in Australia I was like, Slex is the guy, he’s going somewhere. I’m excited to see how he does.
There’s also the tag team The Velocities, who are loved all over Australia. When they got to do Junior Tag League last year at New Japan, I was stoked for them. They’re incredible and I think with a lot of Australian wrestlers it basically just comes down to as soon as they get the opportunities they’re ready. They’re ready for any opportunity that’s going to come and when the opportunity does come, they’re going to smash it out of the park. The Velocities are a huge example of that but I think that goes for all Australian wrestlers.
Another wrestler, Tommy Knight from Adelaide, I wrestled back in 2019 in Adelaide and that was really cool. I think he’s going to do awesome whenever he breaks out, I think he’s done a couple tours in Japan as well.
Are there any tag team dream teams between Aussie wrestlers and AEW wrestlers that you can think of?
Interesting. That’s a good question. I’d love to see, because we’re talking about Tommy Knight, this is in my head, a Tommy Knight and Samoa Joe. I reckon that’d go crazy as a tag team. That’d be cool, seeing those two big boys just killing people. I’d like to see that. And they’re both very subtle and funny. They kind of look stone cold and whatever, so they make a funny face and you’re like, oh, I didn’t expect that from you.
Dream matches? Either for you, or other Australian/AEW pair ups?
I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve been able to have a lot of my dream matches already. I’d love to see The Velocities go up against, say, The Hurt Syndicate. I’d love to see that, with The Velocities charging for the tag belts.
I think that pro-wrestling in general is undergoing a sort of cultural renaissance, and moving from being seen as low-brow entertainment to being part of popular culture. It seems everyone is watching at least some wrestling. Have you noticed that from your end?
I feel like I’ve been lucky enough to be almost a part of it in a lot of ways. I came into AEW after that initial boom, but also at the same time that I got there, WWE was going through its renaissance and they were getting super popular. It definitely feels like I’ve felt it. It feels like I’ve been kind of in the middle of it whilst it’s been happening around me. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s just awesome. It’s an awesome time to be a part of wrestling. It’s an awesome time to be a fan of wrestling. Because it just makes everyone want to work harder. It makes the quality of all the products better.
How do you think that AEW sort of contributed to that shift in perception and changing of the media landscape in terms of bringing wrestling to the forefront of popular culture again?
Honestly, I don’t think it happens without AEW. I think for so long, wrestling was done a certain way. It was expected to be a certain way. And it was frowned upon if you went against that grain. Even when I was coming up in Australia it was like, “oh, this is the way WWE does it, so we’re not going to do it this other way.” And I understand why it was that way, but I never liked it. I never liked it that way. It’s why I wanted to go to the UK. It’s why I wanted to go to New Japan, because that’s the wrestling that I love. What I love about AEW is that it embraces and it celebrates all forms of professional wrestling. So these styles that have never been seen on a worldwide stage before. It was the PWG’s, it was the New Japan’s, the stuff that wasn’t mainstream. That was the stuff that I kind of really fell in love with. And now there’s this big platform for this wrestling to be shown. I think there’s a lot of different factors as well, but if you look at the timeline of professional wrestling, this shift, I think it all starts with AEW being created in 2019. From that point onwards, wrestling has changed. And now looking at it, it’s quite possibly the best it’s ever been. Y’know what I mean? And I think that doesn’t happen without AEW.
What do you think that AEW could learn from some of the Australian promotions, like PWA or MCW or ROW, and vice versa?
In Australian wrestling there’s just this… you can’t really describe it, but there’s this passion about it and there’s this passion amongst everyone backstage. I think it stems from the fact that they don’t get the opportunities that they probably deserve. They don’t get the eyes on them that they probably deserve because of just the fact that Australia is so far away from everyone else. We don’t have the mainstream TV deals so it’s like you really gotta search to find it. And even going back to training, I remember being in these training sessions and there’s just this fire, this drive to be better, to be really good at what they do because when that opportunity comes, when that day does come, and it’s happened time and time again – and it happened to me – everyone just wants to be ready for it. And it’s a weekend like this when AEW comes to Australia for the first time, there’s other shows going around, and you know there’s going to be AEW people that want to go and check out the show. So this is an opportunity. And the whole community bands together and is just like “all right, this is our shot. We’ve been waiting for this.”
It’s something that I wish I had seen elsewhere in wrestling. I think a lot of American wrestlers, it’s just so accessible to them their whole life. They grow up and they go ten minutes down the road to an arena and they see a pay-per-view. They see a WrestleMania. They see whatever. And as much as I would have loved that when I was a kid, it makes you complacent. It makes it like, “oh, it’s just around the corner. It’s just a pay-per-view. It’s just down there. It’s whatever.” Whereas, for me, if I even got to watch a pay-per-view on TV live because I wasn’t at school, that was so cool to me. And I think that’s where it comes from. Because it feels so unattainable. It feels so far away that it brings out this fire in people. So if there’s something that I think that AEW could learn from Australian wrestling, it would be to tap into that passion and not to take stuff for granted. Because like we were talking about, this wrestling industry is the hottest it’s ever been. We’re so blessed to be a part of it, right? So blessed that I’m alive at this time that I’m in it. I think [what AEW could learn from Australian wrestling] would be not taking it for granted and to really just find that love and passion and really just drive it home.