Seven Deadly Pins: Mike Bailey

“SPEEDBALL” Mike Bailey is one of the most beloved wrestlers in all of independent wrestling, a man whose made his name all over the world in various promotions and wrestled some of the biggest names in all wrestling.

Starting his career in 2006, in his native Canada, Bailey would go onto build his profile all over the country before working his way into the United States; wrestling for CZW and Beyond Wrestling. But he really made an impression working for PWG, going up against some of the biggest names in wrestling at the time like Drew Galloway (McIntyre), Chris Hero, Kenny Omega and many more.

Disaster struck in March 2016, when Speedball was arrested getting into the United States without a work visa. He was in the process of attaining a new one through CZW at the time, but unfortunately didn’t arrive in time for an EVOLVE booking. This resulted in Mike Bailey getting a five-year ban from entering the United States.

This was a major roadblock placed in the way of Bailey, as most of his major work came in the USA; we did find out subsequently that this decision nearly made Bailey quit wrestling; Thank God he didn’t though.

Fortunately for Bailey, he became very in demand everywhere else and he became one of the most sought after independent names all over the world and was able to obtain tours of Japan, working for DDT; working all over Canada; and prominently in Europe, working for wXw, OTT, RevPro and others.

This would be the time that I would have seen Bailey wrestle most and fortunately get to meet in person, several times over.

So, what does make Mike Bailey so great? Well in this Article I’m going to break down the key components that make him the star he is and showcase the matches that show off those components.

I’ve scoured through his work in the UK, Europe, Canada, United States and Japan, and believe I have found six top quality matches, that are all free to watch on YouTube.

So, with Mike Bailey returning to the UK with RevPro and being signed to Impact Wrestling, lets take a look at some of Mike Bailey’s greatest matches and which skills he exhibits in each:

Aggression - Mike Bailey vs WALTER (RIPTIDE, International Waters, 07/07/2018)

Mike Bailey made his way down to Brighton to face “The Ring General” WALTER, who was in the process of having perhaps the best year of his career up to that point.

There’s a size difference straight away, up against a bigger man and Bailey has to match him in the strikes department as well as use his speed if he has any chance of beating WALTER.

He wears down WALTER’s knees through the early portions of the match that WALTER sells really well and convinces the audience that Bailey is on his opponent’s level from a physicality standpoint.

Bailey tries to isolate WALTER on the outside with the moonsault knees to try and get the countout as he knows that would be a guaranteed win. Bailey evens toughens up to WALTER’s chops, which initially floored him, as the match goes on.

He makes everyone believe that he’s going to beat WALTER, which is the key component of what makes this match so compelling to watch. WALTER becomes even more aggressive towards the end because he knows he’s in danger and that’s how he wins.

WALTER Clubs the hell out of Bailey’s chest and locks in the Sleeper Hold for the win, however he still sells the effects of the knee afterwards, even having to pour cold water on it.

A match I was fortunate enough to watch in person, it still holds up as one of the greatest matches I’ve ever watched live. Bailey’s aggression shines through here against WALTER, who does so much for Bailey to help make him a fan favourite with this audience.

Being the Best: Mike Bailey vs Will Ospreay (WCPW “Pro Wrestling World Cup – Quarter-Finals” 24/08/2017)

Mike Bailey is widely considered as one of the best wrestlers in the world based on his amazing matches against a whole host of opponents. When in there with the best wrestlers in the world, he holds his end of the bargain up.

Bailey and Ospreay are no strangers to each other as they’d faced off in PWG and Revpro before this bout. They have tons of chemistry and it definitely shows here.

The match is based around both men trying to outdo each other, including reversals out of hurricanranas; they do lay it in with kicks and impressive high flying.

The sequences and reversals in this match are simply unreal, Bailey at one point even brings out a Gotch Style Piledriver, which he rarely does, showing his desperation to be the best and beat Ospreay to move forward here.

Ultimately Ospreay wins here but Mike Bailey came out looking great as he went toe-to-toe and matched one of the best in the world. This is one that comes highly recommended from me, 21 Minutes of fantastic wrestling.

Independent Spirit: Mike Bailey vs Rampage Brown (TIDAL “Befuddled” 29/09/2019)

Speedball feels like the true meaning of independent wrestling, the ‘have trunks will wrestle’ mentality, it doesn’t matter the size of the venue or the amount of people, Bailey will give the same level of performance.

He showcased that perfectly in this match as he wrestles in a converted vegan kitchen in Leeds against hometown favourite Rampage Brown.

Unlike the WALTER match, here Bailey can’t cut down Rampage to size at an early stage, and is on the back foot for a lot of this match.

Everything is believable here and they use the environment in creative ways, owing to Bailey’s work from DDT. Bailey does get murdered here in the end by Rampage, but he gains the crowd’s respect by the end which he didn’t have initially walking into a Pro- Rampage crowd.

A frantic sprint of a match that got a lot of high praise at the time, it still impresses and gets better on every rewatch.

Elevating People: Mike Bailey vs Kurtis Chapman (GOOD “Be Average to Each Other” 21/09/2019)

I’ve often said that most people have their best matches opposite Bailey and this is evident here, as Bailey faces Kurtis Chapman as a part of GOOD’s Mystery show.

Now, at the time Chapman was in a weird position as he had a dual identity in British Wrestling; either being the young guy designed to be beaten up in matches with more of a technical edge, or the arrogant Keyboard Warrior character that he’d eventually become known for.

He wasn’t known as an outstanding wrestler though and this match though did a lot to help change the view of Chapman, in fans eyes, as somebody that could go against the best on the scene.

Bailey is dressed as Shrek, as he promised to on Twitter in the lead up to the match, so you’d think that Bailey would be more in for doing a comedy match here. But underneath all that green paint, the same old Bailey remains as he ambushes Chapman and beats down on him.

This allows Chapman to make some great fiery comebacks, as he takes it to Bailey in a big way. Even matching Bailey in the big high spots of the match, such as a Top Rope Destroyer which looked Spectacular.

He’s also able to ground Bailey with lovely leg submissions. Bailey does so much for Chapman here in selling well for him and making his offence look great.

This is another match that I viewed live in person and I gave this match a standing ovation. I felt like both men had gone out and worked their arse off here, and I started to look at Chapman in a different way afterwards, seeing as he could have these big Indie kinds of matches.

This also evident as to why Mike Bailey is such a valuable wrestler to have, as he helps elevate talent to that next level.

Arrogance: Mike Bailey vs Joe Nelson (IPW: UK “Area 52” 28/08/2019)

Mike Bailey is normally a good guy, but in some matches, he can be a dick. Bailey does have an arrogance to him and it particularly shines through here up against young Joe Nelson for an IPW:UK show in Canterbury that I was live in attendance for.

Bailey does show initial respect towards Nelson but when he outdoes Nelson in the opening technical exchange, he gives himself a round of applause; then Nelson outdoes him, Bailey this time offering a sarcastic round of applause.

Feeling like he’s being upstaged by this promising youngster, Bailey goes to town on Nelson, completely kicking the shit out of him and making him fight harder; he even hits a moonsault to the outside and lands on his feet with effortless nature, as the crowd chant his name, he struts arrogantly, soaking in how good he is.

With Bailey’s arrogance is so prominent here, it makes Nelson’s comebacks and big moves mean so much more, sold here by some excellent facials by Nelson.

Even small moments from Nelson, like the first time he hits a suicide dive, he gives a fan a high five; after being worked over and hitting a moonsault to the outside, he gives the same fan a high five, but he high fives harder before, as he’s in fight or flight mode here against Bailey.

Unlike the other matches on this list, Bailey actually wins this match but he gave Nelson a lot and his arrogant nature matched with Nelson’s natural Babyface persona works perfectly. A really underrated match that I feel needs more eyes on it.

Being an Underdog: Mike Bailey vs Keith Lee (OTT “Homecoming: Dublin” 04/02/2018)

Already on this list, we’ve seen Bailey take on bigger men and find a way to match them, this is not the case here though; Keith Lee is a much bigger man than Bailey and subsequently dominates Bailey for a large majority of this match.

Bailey does have certain spots to take out Lee, including taking him to the outside and hitting a mad looking Corkscrew Asai Moonsault, but when taking the advantage with Lee, Bailey starts to show that arrogance that he’s shown previously, it costs him.

As Lee starts whaling in on him, clocking him with forearms and hitting big power moves. Bailey goes into complete desperation here, barely kicking out of moves including a major kickout after a Spirit Bomb that leads to a Standing Ovation by the Crowd and a line from Commentary – “Mike Bailey is Unbeatable”

Bailey’s last chance is an Incidental Reverse Rana on Lee, he then tries to hit the Shooting Star Knee Drop but Lee catches him and hits the Ground Zero to win a stunning match where the whole crowd was behind Bailey by the end, in such a great Underdog performance.

Home is Where the Heart Is: Mike Bailey vs Sammy Guevara (DDT “What are you Doing 2018” 24/06/2018)

As we touched upon at the start of this article, Speedball’s Visa issues prevented him from entering the United States.

Now, even though the United States is most famous for being the biggest media wrestling scene, the biggest wrestling scene as far as culturally would be Japan (Mexico also lives in the similar vein).

So, in 2016 he got his first tour with DDT and instantly fit in with the vibe of the promotion. By the time that this match takes place in 2018, Bailey has integrated himself with the promotion so well and makes it a home for himself outside of Canadian and European bookings.

Here he’s up against Sammy Guevara who’s such a raw talent, but shows a lot of talent and charisma that would wind him up in AEW only a year after this.

The tone is set when Bailey goes for a handshake only for Guevara to flip him off. Bailey still tries to wrestle him but does give him a kick to the knee for a small measure of payback.

The two soon fit into the usual DDT Pattern with some great high-flying and ability that leads to Bailey giving Guevara a penalty kick on the outside not before trying to give one of the staff members of Korakuen Hall, a high five.

The match settles into a clash of styles with Bailey absolutely destroying Guevara with his textbook kicks whilst Guevara pulls out some fantastic high flying.

The match really does kick into gear after the dives from both men to the outside. Back in the ring and they go balls-to-the wall and attempt everything to win, in the end we actually have Speedball win with the C4 (Moonsault Fallaway Slam).

Coming in at 11:40, this is one of the shorter matches on the list, but it does so much in a short amount of time to make a connection with the audience and me as a viewer.

When speaking to Bailey recently at a RevPro show, he told me that this was one of the best matches he’s had in his career and it’s easy to see why, get this watched folks.

Conclusion

So that’s my look at “Speedball” Mike Bailey, I have to say that this was a really fun project to work on and every Bailey match I viewed was a pleasure, check out the matches that I recommended and if you like them then go and view more of this great man’s work.

You can follow me on Instagram @IwanMack and listen to me review RevPro, EVE, WrestleCarnival and more on Graps and Claps Audio Podcast.

Thanks for Reading

Iwan Mackenzie