Kyle Fletcher On How Don Callis Has Helped Him In AEW, Thinks Callis Has ‘Firm Grip’ On Family

Kyle Fletcher is a key star in the Don Callis Family, and he recently weighed in on how Callis has helped him in AEW. Fletcher is Callis’ key project in the DCF and currently holds the AEW TNT Championship. He will defend the title against Mark Briscoe at AEW Full Gear tonight, and he spoke with TMZ Inside the Ring ahead of the show.

Fletcher noted that he’s benefitted greatly from Callis’ guidance. He acknowledged that Callis can be “rough” to members of the Family when they get out of line. He also noted that Callis still has a pretty solid hold on the family despite tensions between Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita. You can see some highlights below:

On How Callis Has Helped Him In AEW:

“I think there’s a couple of different things, right? It’s so valuable to have someone that’s been in the business for this long to watch everything you do so closely, either at commentary or at ringside. And the amount of valuable advice that he has, both before and after the matches, is great.

“And then also you kind of have this person to go to bat for you. Like Don Callas, he truly believes in me and what my abilities are in the ring, and just within the business in general. So he will go out of his way to bat for me. Which I think, in my position as a 26-year-old, pretty pretty fresh in the company, it’s a pretty big deal.”

On How Rough Callis Can Get With the Family:

“I’ve seen him be rough to other people. I think I have a soft spot in his heart. He always treats me pretty well. I haven’t gotten his bad side yet. So yeah, we have a really good relationship. But it definitely — if someone doesn’t want to follow orders, there’s a little bit of, you know, [smacks hand] in the back.”

On If Callis Is Losing His Grip On the Family:

“For the most part, I would say he has a very firm grip on the family and the inner workings of the family. I think people know how good he is at manipulating certain things to go his way. I think people people think they know what’s going on, but there are like a whole bunch of sub-layers going on, and a whole bunch of relationships within that that people don’t know. So people want to say that Takeshita and Okada can’t coexist> I think there’s a couple more couple more layers in that story yet to be told.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.