Aussie Open (professional wrestling)

Aussie Open are an Australian professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher.

Aussie Open
Tag team
MembersMark Davis
Kyle Fletcher
Name(s)Aussie Open
The Aussie Assault
Billed heightsDavis:
1.92 m (6 ft 3+12 in)[1]
Fletcher:
1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Combined
billed weight
205 kg (452 lb)[1][2]
DebutJuly 7, 2017[3]
Years active2013–present

The two began teaming in 2017 whilst working on the United Kingdom independent scene and briefly wrestled under the name The Aussie Assault. The two wrestle as freelancers, working mainly for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where they are members of the United Empire, and are the current IWGP Tag Team Champions in their first reign. They also compete in NJPW's United States-based show, NJPW Strong, where they are the current and record setting two-time Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions. They also appear for Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro), where they are two-time Undisputed British Tag Team Champions. The duo have also made appearances in Europe for Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), winning the wXw World Tag Team Championships twice, and in the US for Impact Wrestling as well as All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), with whom RevPro and NJPW have working relationships, respectively.

History

Early career (2007–2016)

Both men worked around the Australian independent scene, Davis debuted in 2007 and Fletcher in 2014. Both men worked for independent promotions, such as Melbourne City Wrestling.[4][5]

Formation in United Kingdom (2017-Present)

Both men separately traveled to the United Kingdom in 2017, and worked for independent promotions such as WhatCulture Pro-Wrestling (WCPW) and Attack! Pro Wrestling. In July, the two men teamed together for the first time at a WCPW event, as The Aussie Assault. After this, the two began teaming more frequently, eventually changing their name to Aussie Open and working on the independent scene as a tag team. Aussie Open also competed in Europe, for promotions such as Westside Xtreme Wrestling.[6] In August, Aussie Open made their debuts for Revolution Pro Wrestling and continued to work with them in the long term. This meant that they would work with New Japan Pro-Wrestling talent due to their working agreement with RevPro. Aussie Open commonly faced talent such as Roppongi 3K, who were on a learning excursion from New Japan.[7] During their tour of the UK in May 2018, Aussie Open made their Ring of Honor debut, losing to Dalton Castle's "boys".[8] On October 14 at Global Wars UK, an inter-promotional event held by RevPro and NJPW, Davis lost to Satoshi Kojima.[9] In March 2019, Aussie Open won the wXw World Tag Team Championship, before losing them to Ilja Dragunov and WALTER, ending their reign at 147 days.[10][11] They regained the championships 41 days later but had to vacate them after 14 days, due to Davis suffering a leg injury. In May 2019, Aussie Open achieved a massive victory, by defeating NJPW's Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr), to win the British Tag Team Championships for the first time. They lost the titles to Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom, ending their reign at 50 days.[12]

Appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and United Empire (2019Present)

Aussie Open made their NJPW debut at NJPW Royal Quest on August 31, losing in an IWGP Tag Team Championship match to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa).[13] Aussie Open wrestled infrequently in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, Aussie Open returned to Australia, for the first time as a team, wrestling on several independent shows. Aussie Open returned to RevPro on August 21, 2021, and regained the British Tag Team Championships the following month. On September 19, at RevPro's High Stakes Event, Aussie Open joined Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay in attacking The Young Guns and Shota Umino, joining the United Empire stable and turning heel.[14] The three consistently began teaming as a trio across the UK. They lost the championships to Roy Knight and Ricky Knight Jr, ending their reign at 63 days. On April 10, 2022, Aussie Open, made their NJPW Strong debuts, teaming with fellow United Empire stablemate, Jeff Cobb to defeat TMDK.[15] On April 16 at Windy City Riot, Aussie Open and Cobb, teamed with fellow stablemates, Great-O-Khan, T. J. Perkins and Aaron Henare to defeat Bullet Club representatives, The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson), Chris Bey, El Phantasmo and guest member Scott Norton in a 12-man tag-team match.[16] At Capital Collision, Cobb, Henare and Aussie Open lost to TMDK in an 8-man tag-team match.[17] On the June 19th edition of NJPW Strong Ignition, Aussie Open competed in a tournament to crown the inaugural Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship. In the first round, they defeated The Dark Order's Evil Uno and Alan Angels and they defeated the Stray Dog Army in the semi-finals.[18] In the finals at Strong: High Alert, Davis and Fletcher defeated Christopher Daniels and Yuya Uemura to become the inaugural champions.[19]

At Music City Mayhem, Aussie Open teamed with T. J. Perkins to defeat the team of Alex Zayne and the IWGP Tag Team Champions, FTR.[20] After the match, Aussie Open challenged FTR to a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championships.[21] They received their match at Royal Quest II, where they lost to FTR.[22] At Rumble on 44th Street, Aussie Open lost the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships to The Motor City Machine Guns in a three-way tag-team match also involving The DKC and Kevin Knight, ending their inaugural reign at 76 days.[23]

In November, Aussie Open traveled to Japan for the first time, competing in their first World Tag League tournament. The duo finished the tournament with 14 points, tieing for first with Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi), meaning both teams advanced to the finals.[24] In the tournament finals, Bishamon defeated Aussie Open to win the tournament.[25]

Davis and Fletcher would compete individually in the 2023 New Japan Cup in March. Fletcher defeated IWGP Tag Team Champion, Yoshi-Hashi, but was defeated by the other half of the tag-team champions Hirooki Goto.[26][27] Davis defeated Toru Yano in the first round before losing to United Empire stablemate Will Ospreay in the next round.[28][29] However, Ospreay would be injured in their match, resulting in Davis advancing to the third round where he would defeat Evil.[30] In the semi-final round, Davis lost to Sanada, thus being eliminated from the tournament.[31] Due to Davis' success in the tournament and Fletcher's victory over Tag Team Champion Yoshi-Hashi, Aussie Open earnt a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championships, against Bishamon at Sakura Genesis.[32] On April 8 at the event, Aussie Open defeated Bishamon to win their first IWGP Tag Team Championship.[33] On April 15 at Capital Collision, Fletcher and Davis defeated The Motor City Machine Guns and the team of Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, in a three-way tag-team match, to regain the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships for a second time, making them double champions in NJPW.[34] They defended the Strong titles the next night against Lio Rush and Tomohiro Ishii.

All Elite Wrestling & Ring of Honor (2022–present)

Fletcher (left) who accompanied Will Ospreay at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door on June 26, 2022.

On the June 8th episode of Dynamite, Aussie Open and Aaron Henare made their All Elite Wrestling debuts, aiding Will Ospreay in attacking FTR and Trent Beretta, who Cobb and O-Khan had attacked two weeks prior.[35] They made their in-ring debuts on the June 10th edition of Rampage, where they and Ospreay lost to FTR and Beretta in a 6-man tag-team match.[36] Aussie Open returned on the June 15th special Road Rager edition of Dynamite attacking FTR and Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) after Ospreay, defeated FTR's Dax Harwood, however, they were stopped by Orange Cassidy who was announced to face Ospreay at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door for Ospreay's IWGP United States Championship, along with O-Khan and Cobb facing FTR and Roppongi Vice in a triple threat tag-team match, for both Cobb and O-Khan's IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships and FTR's ROH World Tag Team Championships .[37][38] At the event, Aussie Open accompanied Ospreay to the ring for his match against Cassidy, often assisting Ospreay during the match. Ospreay eventually retained the championship, and along with Aussie Open, attacked Cassidy and Roppongi Vice after the match. However, Ospreay and Aussie Open were interrupted by Katsuyori Shibata, who beat down the trio, saving Cassidy and Roppongi Vice.[39]

On July 27, the AEW World Trios Championship was revealed, Aussie Open and Ospreay being named as participants in the inaugural tournament. On August 24, Aussie Open and Ospreay defeated Death Triangle to progress to the semifinals, where they were defeated by The Elite (The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega) on August 31.[40] After the match, United Empire attacked The Elite.[41]

Fletcher and Davis returned to AEW on the February 22 edition of Dynamite, competing in the Revolution Tag Team Battle Royal, but failed to win.[42] On the same weeks edition of Rampage, Davis and Fletcher lost to The Young Bucks.[43] The following week on Dynamite, Aussie Open competed in the Casino Tag Team Royale, but again failed to win.[44]

On March 9, Fletcher and Davis made their return to Ring of Honor (ROH), which was now AEW's sister promotion, following Tony Khan's purchase of the company, defeating Rhett Titus and Tracy Williams.[45]

A week after winning the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, Fletcher and Davis made their first title defense against Best Friends, defeating them and retaining the titles on the April 14 edition of Rampage.[46]

Impact Wrestling (2022-present)

On the September 8th edition of Impact!, Aussie Open made their Impact Wrestling debut, defeating Bullet Club's Chris Bey and Ace Austin.[47] The following week, the duo lost to The Motor City Machine Guns.[48]

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. "Mark Davis Profile". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  2. "Kyle Fletcher Profile". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  3. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Aussie Open Matches". CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  4. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Mark Davis Matches". CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  5. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Kyle Fletcher Matches". CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  6. Quant, Tony (October 1, 2018). "5 things we learned at PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 76: Hello Wembley". mirror.
  7. Staff, F4W. "RevPro TV taping results: Tag team tournament matches". WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, AEW News, AEW results.
  8. Fightful.com, EliteGuy101 | 9/21/2019 Filed Under: "Indy Wrestling" Source (September 21, 2019). "PCO & Brody King Are Set To Face Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) During ROH's HONOR UNITED UK Tour". TheRingReport.com.
  9. @RevProUK (17 September 2018). "SATOSHI KOJIMA returns to the UK for the first time since 2015 when he goes one on one with MARK DAVIS Sunday Oct…" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  10. "#AndNEW Aussie Open win WXW World Tag Team Championships -". 9 March 2019.
  11. Greer, Jamie (August 5, 2019). "#AndNEW: WALTER & Ilja Dragunov Win wXw Tag Team Championship".
  12. "Aussie Open: The Empire Strikes Back". October 18, 2021.
  13. Datta, Soumik. "NJPW Royal Quest Results: Kazuchika Okada retains, former WWE star wins his first championship". www.sportskeeda.com.
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  15. Knipper, Justin. "NJPW Strong results: United Empire vs. TMDK". WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, AEW News, AEW results.
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