Mike Bailey may have been killing it in IMPACT for the last year, but his greatest achievement came this past weekend when he won the prestigious Battle of Los Angeles tournament held by the popular indie, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
The “Speedball” spoke about this triumph during his recent chat with Sports Illustrated, where he also hyped up his match at IMPACT Hard To Kill on January 13th. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says PWG creates superstars:
PWG is the place where you go to become a star. If you look at their history, the best wrestlers in the world have all been there. It’s completely out-of-this-world talent. My favorite part of this year’s ‘BOLA’ was the diversity among all the people competing. Backstage, there were so many languages being spoken that it became extremely confusing. I started speaking Japanese to Bandido because we were all so mixed up.
Says the hardest part for him was cooling down in between matches:
I went over 15 minutes with Jordynne Grace—after that, I was thinking, ‘I have three more of these?’ At that moment, it felt insurmountable. But it was a lot like when I competed in taekwondo tournaments. You’d start at nine in the morning, you’d be there all day, and you didn’t know how much time there would be between fights. The hardest part for me is always cooling down. Luckily, there wasn’t much time between my semifinal match and the finals. Before the semis, I got to cool down, rest and relax, but then I warmed up and I could feel all the damage from the first two fights. So I knew I couldn’t cool down or lose focus for a second because I needed to keep my adrenaline.
On his upcoming matchup at Hard To kill:
This match will be a celebration of wrestling. Between Bhupinder and Mike Jackson, you literally cover the entirety of a wrestling career in one match. It is going to be great wrestling and a celebration of diversity. There are so many different styles. We’re going to have to come together and make something happen, and that’s what excites me most.
