Every wrestling company needs a natural heel. Someone who is easy to dislike and plays the role with a high degree of realism. The more you can make the fans dislike you, the better it is for business.
AEW has been searching for that natural heel. MJF has long been viewed as the staple in that role. He’s exceptional as a storyteller and has no qualms about antagonizing the crowd. Yet, despite his best efforts, he is, at heart, a top babyface waiting to happen.
Enter Kyle Fletcher. The budding talent has been an easy person to dislike during his recent rise. Sure, his promos have been shaky, and his in-ring crowd control is a work in progress. But when it comes to naturally fitting into a heel role, he has the ‘it’ factor. It’s no coincidence that his sudden push in AEW has come as a primary heel on weekly programming.
Fletcher has considerably increased his reputation during the current Continental Classic tournament, where he has nine points from three wins out of four matches. On a recent episode of the “What Happened When” podcast, Tony Schiavone praised Fletcher’s recent run.
“This has been really, really good,” Schiavone said. h/t to Fightful for the transcription. “We have seen great matches. I think we have seen Kyle Fletcher come into his own during this tournament. Obviously, Will Ospreay has been great in this tournament as well. Claudio Castagnoli, and I know I’m gonna miss some running the list down, but Kazuchika Okada, we’ve got some great stars in this tournament.”
Fletcher, 25, is young enough to be a staple on AEW programming for years to come. He’s quickly developing an important role and could emerge as the ideal heel to help push the company forward. After all, there’s no point in having a string of good guys without a few villains to take care of. Fletcher will likely join Jon Moxley as a leading heel moving forward.
AEW is slowly figuring out where all the moving parts fit within its loaded roster. When criticizing the company, the fact that multiple talents joined in a short time has been overlooked. It takes time to find the right spot for each talent to shine. Fletcher can help speed up that process. He’s already given Ospreay a legitimate feud that can carry some of the company for the next four to six months.
It’s long been said that for AEW to be sustainable in the long term and to continue growing, it must develop its own stars. Well, it looks like they may have stumbled onto one with Fletcher, and that should be exciting for the company and its fanbase.
