The Watch List takes a look at what matches you should be watching while you’re at home and they come recommended by your favorite professional wrestling stars.
WrestleZone recently spoke with ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, who had a stellar month of April so far. Bailey had an impressive run over WrestleMania weekend that saw him compete in nine total matches in three days, including matches with Effy, Bandido, Jordan Oliver, The Workhorsemen and Alex Shelley, the latter of which was a show-stealer at IMPACT’s Multiverse Of Matches. He summed up the weekend by saying it’s not only one of the most demanding things he’s done, but also the most rewarding too.
“I was fully going on autopilot halfway through it but it was absolutely wonderful. Definitely one of the — that takes the lead right now in one of the physically hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Now topping BOLA [Battle of Los Angeles] 2015, which was just ridiculous and the 2013 Canadian Tae-Kwon-Do National Championships, which was the preceding winner,” Bailey said. “But this takes the cake, absolutely.”
“Speedball” Mike Bailey is really starting to break out in the United States wrestling scene in the past few months, largely due to a five-year ban because of a visa issue. For the most part, domestic fans only knew about Bailey’s work because of clips on social media and events streamed internationally, but now get a chance to see what he can do on a bigger platform. Asked if he could point to any matches that he felt helped him break out before joining IMPACT in December, Bailey said that he had a series with Bandido that he held in high regard. As far as his recent work, Bailey feels like the match with Shelley is one that shows the complete wrestler he aspires to be.
“I really feel like my greatest accomplishment in professional wrestling and in life, is continuous improvement and I really feel like that last match with Alex Shelley is the most recent and best version of Mike Bailey you can find. I mean, I’ve had some great matches aside from that one,” Bailey explained, “but that’s the best and most accurate version of the best ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey that you can get so that is the one to watch.
“As far the stuff before returning to the US, I had a series of matches with Bandido, we had our first match at WXW in Germany as part of their 16 Carat Tournament, which I think is available on YouTube now. Yeah myself versus Bandido, which was the last high-profile, very noticeable match that I had before the pandemic hit and I was forced to stop having matches for a while.”
Check out some free-to-watch full-length matches from Bailey’s career below, including the match with Alex Shelley from Multiverse Of Matches.
Mike Bailey vs. Alex Shelley
IMPACT Wrestling Multiverse Of Matches — April 1, 2022
Mike Bailey vs. Acey Romero
Pro Wrestling REVOLVER Once Upon A Time In Iowa — January 16, 2022
Michael Oku vs. Mike Bailey
RevPro Uprising 2021 – November 11, 2021
Mike Bailey vs. Bandido
wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 — March 7, 2020
Keith Lee vs. Mike Bailey
OTT Homecoming — February 3, 2018
Check out our full interview with Bailey at the top of this post, and read more about his desire to prove himself to the wrestling world at this link.
