AEW TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher is on the verge of making history. His upcoming defense at Full Gear will be his ninth, and a victory would give him the record for most defenses in a single reign, surpassing a record he currently holds with Cody Rhodes. Speaking on “TMZ Inside The Ring,” Fletcher discussed the pressure of the title and what it means to pass one of WWE’s top stars.
“Especially a title like the TNT Championship, which has had such a crazy lineage, the amount of people, the people that have held it such like a high echelon, that you almost just by holding it feel like you have to live up to that,” Fletcher said. “I keep saying that I want to be the greatest TNT champion of all time, and when I think about that, it’s like that means I have to be better than all these people that have held this belt before me”.
When asked how he felt about potentially passing the legacy of Cody Rhodes, Fletcher admitted it was a strange feeling.
“Proclaiming that I’m the greatest anti-champion of all time, and surpassing Cody as well …it’s a weird sense of, like, imposter syndrome, a little bit to me,” he said. “Cody Rhodes, currently, the number one star in probably all of wrestling right now, like the top dog. And to be like, Oh, I had a better championship race. Yeah, look at me”.
Despite the “weird feeling,” Fletcher is using it as validation that his career is on the right trajectory. “But it’s also very reassuring to me, like, oh, I mean, look at me. I’m doing better than Cody Rhodes, better than Miro, better than WWE. You know, it’s kind of a weird thing. It’s a weird feeling, but it also reassures me that I’m on the right path. I’m doing, doing the right thing, you know, moving in the right direction”.
Fletcher is set to defend his AEW TNT Championship against Mark Briscoe in a No Disqualification match this Saturday at AEW Full Gear.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
