Aussie Open (professional wrestling)

Aussie Open are an Australian professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher. 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 Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro), although since joining the United Empire stable with Will Ospreay in 2021, the team has appeared for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where the stable mainly operates. In NJPW, they are the current and inaugural Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship. They have also made appearances in Europe for Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) and in the US for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), who RevPro and NJPW have working relationships with 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.^[5][6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] During their tour of the UK in May 2018, Aussie Open made their Ring of Honor debut, losing to Dalton Castle's "boys".^[9] On October 14 at Global Wars UK, an inter-promotional event held by RevPro and NJPW, Davis lost to Satoshi Kojima.^[10] 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.^[11][12] 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.^[13]

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

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).^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] At Capital Collision, Cobb, Henare and Aussie Open lost to TMDK in an 8-man tag-team match.^[18] 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.^[19] In the finals at Strong: High Alert, Davis and Fletcher defeated Christopher Daniels and Yuya Uemura to become the inaugural champions.^[20]

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.^[21] After the match, Aussie Open challenged FTR to a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championships.^[22] They received their match at Royal Quest II, where they lost to FTR.^[23]

All Elite Wrestling (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.^[24] 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.^[25] 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 .^[26][27] 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.^[28]

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 on August 31.^[29] After the match, United Empire attacked The Elite.^[30]

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.^[31] The following week, the duo lost to The Motor City Machine Guns.^[32]

Championships and accomplishments[]

• ATTACK! Pro Wrestling
  • ATTACK! 24:7 Championship (7 times) – Fletcher (4) and Davis (3)^[33]
  • ATTACK! Tag Team Championship (2 times) ^[33]
• Australian Wrestling Alliance
  • AWL Heavyweight Championship (2 times)^[33]
• DEFIANT Wrestling
  • Defiant Tag Team Championship (2 times)^[33]
• Fight Club:PRO
  • FCP Championship (Davis, 1 time)^[33]
• HOPE Wrestling
  • HOPE 24/7 Hardcore Championship (9 times) – Fletcher (4) and Davis (5)^[33]
  • HOPE Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[33]
• Over The Top Wrestling
  • OTT Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[33]
• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship (1 time, current)^[34]
  • Inaugural Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship Tournament
• Progress Wrestling
  • PROGRESS Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[33]
• Professional Wrestling Alliance
  • PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • PWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[33]
• Revolution Pro Wrestling
  • British Tag Team Championship (2 times)^[33]
• Pro Wrestling Alliance Queensland
  • PWA Queensland Championship (1 time)^[33]
• Westside Xtreme Wrestling
  • wXw World Tag Team Championship (2 times)^[33]

References[]

External links[]

• Mark Davis
• Aussie Open's profile at Cagematch.net, Wrestlingdata.com, Internet Wrestling Database