Former Ring Of Honor World Tag Team Champions Aussie Open have lifted the lid on talks over a potential move to WWE.
The Australian duo of Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher lost their Championships to MJF and Adam Cole on the AEW Zero Hour pre-show ahead of AEW All In at London’s Wembley Stadium on 27th August.
During a recent appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Mark Davis revealed that a move to WWE was an option in 2022 but the pair chose to commit to NJPW at the time. Shortly after, Davis picked up a knee injury that he felt was initially misdiagnosed:
“We hit a point and hit a threshold where, we put the time in, we waited and committed to New Japan, we had offers from WWE to do NXT and NXT UK, that we refused, because we wanted to commit to doing New Japan, and it was a difficult struggle.
In May, Dontaku tour, we were the IWGP Tag Team Champions, we were the New Japan Strong Tag Team Champions, and it’s the last day of the tour we’re wrestling TMDK and the night before, House of Torture stole our titles and we run to the ring to get them back. I duck a clothesline, kick them in the crotch, I roll out and my knee just felt off. ‘My knee is done.’
We did this tag match, six-man tag, eight to ten minutes, and it doesn’t feel good. I had issues with it post-ACL tear, post return to wrestling, I had it checked, I know my meniscus is torn and is causing me issues. I’m fairly confident that’s what it is. I talk to the trainer at New Japan, ‘my knee isn’t okay. I can’t straighten, I can’t bend it, it’s locking, I’m in pain, I’m pretty sure it’s my meniscus.’
He looked at it, worked it over, ‘it’s your IT band. It’s your hip. You have a tight hip. Maybe tomorrow it’s okay.’ He gave me a compression bandage and some heat patches. ‘It’s okay tomorrow.’ Tomorrow included a 17 hour travel day to America, on a flight I couldn’t upgrade.”
Davis went on to reveal that doctors in the US confirmed that he had suffered a meniscus tear at that Ring Of Honor Chairman Tony Khan stepped in to help the Australian have the injury resolved:
“It was a very frustrating 48 hour period, and upon coming to America, there was a Ring of Honor taping we were supposed to be involved in. We got there and I was like, ‘I don’t think I can wrestle, I need to get my knee looked at.’ The trainers looked at it, ‘it’s you’re meniscus.’ ‘That’s what I thought it was.’ It’s a thing I expected to happen, it was a frustrating point in time because we were tag champions. I was in Orlando, I passed Tony [Tony Khan] in the hallway, ‘come and talk to me.’ He sorted it. He got my knee fixed. He didn’t have to.”
How Close Were Aussie Open Close To Joining WWE?
Podcast host Chris Jericho delved deeper into the talks held with WWE, with Kyle Fletcher revealing that whilst discussions had occured, a deal was never close to happening:
“The first time we spoke to them was 2019. It was when we were just gearing up for World Tag League. It was for a NXT UK deal. We were like, ‘We want to do this New Japan thing, maybe we can revisit it after that.’ That’s how it was left. The injury happens, COVID happens, the next time we spoke to them was this year when we talked to New Japan, they were saying ‘wait’ and we put feelers out everywhere and we had a little bit of a conversation. It didn’t get too deep, but there was interest there. The best situation was for us here. The talks didn’t get super deep.”
H/T: Fightful for the above transcription