One year ago, Kyle Fletcher shocked the AEW fanbase when he betrayed Will Ospreay and subsequently shaved his own blonde locks to differentiate himself. In an ironic twist, Fletcher’s move to set himself apart from Ospreay then backfired as fans began comparing him to WWE star Randy Orton, primarily due to the two’s similar physical presentations. On a recent edition of “The Ringer Wrestling Show,” Fletcher opened up about his reaction to the parallels and the additional changes that followed.

“When I did the head shave and the character change, whatever you want to call it, it was like, okay, I have to make my look stand out,” Fletcher said. “I have to change things. I have to change things up from what I was doing before. Then trunks was the idea. It was like, oh, okay, I’ll do trunks. I’ll change the jacket, I’ll put on the entrance pants, I’ll do whatever. Then that’s when I started getting the Randy Ortons. I was like, okay, that’s a nice comparison, but I never want to be a copy of someone else. I want to be my own person.

“Then it was from there, okay, how do we change things to become a little bit more unique? Then organically I ended up with the pink [ring gear] and the pink has stuck. Everything kind of just evolves. It evolved very naturally into what it is today.”

With his new look and alignment with Don Callis, Fletcher quickly found success as a singles competitor, even defeating Ospreay at AEW Full Gear 2024. Fast forward to 2025, Fletcher now reigns as the AEW TNT Champion, with Kyle O’Reilly as the latest victim in it.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Ringer Wrestling Show” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.