Kyle Fletcher wanted fans to stop seeing Will Ospreay when they looked at him. On October 23, 2024, he took a pair of clippers to his head on AEW Dynamite.
The haircut gave his betrayal of Ospreay a lasting visual change. Every entrance afterward would look different. But behind the segment was a much simpler starting point. Fletcher was tired of his blond hair and wanted to work a change into their rivalry.
Turning a Haircut Into a Statement
Fletcher had cost Ospreay the International Championship at WrestleDream. When he explained himself on Dynamite, his character blamed the comparisons that followed Ospreay’s arrival in AEW. Being called the next big thing had become being called the next Will Ospreay.
He claimed fans thought they looked, sounded, and wrestled alike. Shaving his head turned that resentment into something viewers could see. He was willing to change his appearance in the middle of the ring to prove he was different.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet in December 2025, Fletcher explained that he had suggested using his planned haircut in the storyline. Shaving it himself made the break feel deliberate.
The comparisons also carried some real frustration. He appreciated being mentioned alongside Ospreay, but repeatedly hearing another wrestler’s name made him want to establish his own. Even the Randy Orton comparisons that followed his new look brought the same problem.
“I don’t want to be the second anybody else,” he told Van Vliet.
Making the Change Stick
The new look needed a performance to back it up. Fletcher identified his Full Gear 2024 match against Ospreay as the moment he felt the audience understood why he belonged in that position.
Speaking to Forbes in September 2025, he described feeling the connection during the match, then having it reinforced by the response afterward. He also said he had begun trusting his own instincts more instead of constantly drawing from other wrestlers.
That confidence extended to how he handled a crowd. Fletcher credited Don Callis with teaching him to pause, listen, and let fans react instead of rushing through everything he planned to say. His presence could develop in those moments between the words.
Fletcher didn’t need to become the next Will Ospreay. He needed to make people stop looking for Ospreay in him.
At Full Gear, Kyle Fletcher gave them a reason to see him as more than someone else’s potential.
