Now in his second reign as AEW TBS Champion and one of the budding young stars of AEW in general, Kyle Fletcher has reached the point where he could be inspiring kids to follow in his footsteps. But given that Fletcher himself is only 27 years old and not far removed from being a young man with a wrestling dream, it’s fair to wonder just who was inspiring Fletcher during his formative days as a performer.

It’s a good thing then that Fletcher hasn’t been shy about sharing who his heroes were. During an appearance on “The Masked Man Show,” the “Protostar” was asked who were his favorite wrestlers growing up. Surprisingly, Fletcher didn’t name Randy Orton, a wrestler he has often been compared to in recent years, but did reveal an eclectic mix of talents from both WWE and New Japan that served as his favorites.

“So my very first favorite wrestler was Jeff Hardy,” Fletcher said. “He was kind of the man that made me fall in love with pro wrestling. And then from there, my love kind of…I mean, from Jeff, it was then, you’ll love this, The Miz was my next big favorite. The Miz, yup. And then from there, I got into a lot of Japanese wrestling. New Japan Pro Wrestling was kind of my next thing that I fell in love with. Jushin Liger was a big one for me. And then Prince Devitt as well. And yeah, probably Kenny Omega next after that were my favorites.”

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