Welcome to the AEW Full Gear 2024 PPVPreview presented by GrapPro.com
We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week.
To find all AEW Full 2024 PPVPreview’s click here.
To find AEW Full Gear 2023 Predictions and Preview click here.
Will Ospreay versus Kyle Fletcher
Kyle Fletcher turning on Will Ospreay was strange to me.
It was strange because Grand Slam: Australia is just around the corner. It’s only in February. Did they really think about that when turning Fletcher heel? Do they really want a “Bizarro World” situation where Fletcher is cheered in Australia?
Then again AEW had no problem with Mariah May getting booed in England when winning the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In 2024 so maybe AEW just doesn’t care about stuff like that and the rest of us need to move on. Maybe.
Gonna put my name to this. Kyle Fletcher is the best men's wrestler in AEW at age 25 or under. If in five years he's at the top top of AEW I would not be surprised. He's better today than Hangman Page was in 2016. Few today have his potential and he's progressing fast. pic.twitter.com/a6M3EkfYLH
— GrapPro – Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) February 14, 2024
I am one of the biggest supporters of Kyle Fletcher as a young star in AEW that needs to be handled with precision to eventually build him into one of the next big superstars in All Elite Wrestling. He has youth on his side, as well as size, and he’s already ahead of the curve in a lot of places.
Fletcher is already pretty good on the mic with a lot of confidence when speaking, and doesn’t have to resort to work shoots like a lot of others his age. Physically he’s there, and he’s finally using his size properly in matches instead of working like a stretched out poor man’s Will Ospreay. He’s really starting to figure himself out.
That’s also why I don’t want him spending too much time in singles for All Elite Wrestling. With Mark Davis healthy he should be back with him as Aussie Open and dominating the tag team division. Like I said, you got the time with Fletcher being young to let him dominate as a tag team wrestler and really get some success underneath him before you eventually move him to the singles ranks.
I once said Davis was Jim Neidhart and Fletcher was Bret Hart and didn't feel confident about it but now I know I was always on the right track. https://t.co/dgRN65vtzM
— GrapPro – Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) August 8, 2024
I know it sounds like blasphemy to compare anyone to Bret Hart, and I’m sure some will say I’m just looking at Mark Davis and deciding he’s Jim Neidhart coded. Maybe I am, but it really feels to me like Fletcher is going to be a top level wrestler for AEW in his 30s and these next few years should all be about developing him into that.
Right now? Maybe he’s closer than I give him credit for. The match he had with Komander on Collision a few weeks back was phenomenal, one of the best television matches of the year for AEW. It was also proof that Fletcher doesn’t need a top level worker to have top level matches. This match with Ospreay could decide if AEW just needs to strap the rocket on Fletcher and make him a serious star in the singles division.
On the other side is Will Ospreay, who spent from his debut until All In acting as if he was the new face of All Elite Wrestling. He was clearly groomed to me a top guy and protected to the point where they had to pivot to Ospreay getting an early AEW Men’s World Championship shot against Swerve Strickland just so people would stop talking about Ospreay needing to win the title in London, England.
Ospreay should be representing AEW in the frontlines against Jon Moxley and his Death Riders but instead he’s involved in “family affairs” with Kyle Fletcher and the Don Callis Family. It’s a similar situation to what Swerve Strickland is in, and it takes two top babyfaces out of being rivals to Moxley and his championship and fits them instead in the midcard.
I wanted to begin the Full Gear PPV Preview with this instead of the Zero Hour because I wanted to highlight how there are currently four singles matches with the men with no titles on the line. There’s four men’s singles titles and only two are currently represented on the pay per view. The International and Continental don’t have matches yet. I’m sure Ricochet gets a shot eventually announced against Konosuke Takeshita, but Okada is just on the sidelines for another AEW PPV in 2024.
It’s interesting that this fight for the soul of AEW just isn’t going to involve the two biggest babyfaces AEW has developed in 2024 in Swerve and Will Ospreay, because they have to deal with lesser factions in the midcard. I don’t know what it says really. Or rather, I’m going to wait until after Full Gear to say what it might say.
I’m sure Ospreay and Fletcher have talked over the years about doing a feud against each other, and I’m sure they will do everything they can to have the best match on the card. Ospreay is likely very invested in making his good friend a top star he can work at any time, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he sacrifices some of his own push to get Fletcher to the next level.
I just can’t get over the fact that maybe this isn’t the best role for Fletcher at the moment. Even for all of the development he has made in the role, I worry that in the end he’s going to get established as underneath all of these other guys waiting for their time in the spotlight, when he could sidestep it, reform Aussie Open with Mark Davis, and dominate a tag division desperate for a team like Aussie Open to play the powerhouse.
Or maybe I spend too much time thinking about fixing the tag team division instead of respecting some talents having singles growth. Either way, expect too men ready to give it all to have an incredible match. For any criticism I could give Ospreay or Fletcher? I know we will get our pay per view money worth.
