Speedball Mike Bailey is carrying momentum into Bound For Glory.
WrestleZone recently spoke with X Division Champion Speedball Mike Bailey ahead of Bound For Glory, where he will defend his title against Frankie Kazarian. Bailey spoke about the extra pressure facing a name like Kazarian presents, but he says he has one key advantage going into the title match.
“It absolutely does [add a new dynamic], yes. Because there’s so much Frankie Kazarian material on the internet for me to watch and get prepared, I feel like that heavily plays to my advantage” Bailey said. “But the main advantage I think I have going into Friday is momentum. I’ve had one of the best and busiest years of my life, and I’m looking to ride that straight to victory.”
Bailey said he was watching earlier X Division matches to study Kazarian’s work, some of which are his Ultimate X matches. Bailey competed in and won the title in the same match in July, but has mixed feelings on the match being used more often.
“It’s a difficult balance, right? To me, winning the X-Division Championship in Ultimate X was perfect. I could not have hoped for anything better because that is the X-Division match. It’s as insane as it gets. Just having that structure over the ring gives everyone so many opportunities to do things that are different. It takes a toll on the body. It’s a physically, extremely strenuous match.
“However, man, it’s so cool. Part of me wishes there was one every single week because I absolutely would watch it. If doing Ultimate X was a professional sport, I would tune in every single week. However, I don’t think it would be fair to put the X-Division wrestlers in Ultimate X weekly. I think that would shorten our careers dramatically. So there’s a delicate balance, but yes I love Ultimate X.”
One other X Division great that Bailey had mentioned was Chris Sabin, who is still competing in IMPACT Wrestling. Bailey said he would love to face him as well, adding that in a perfect world, he would face every former champion.
“It absolutely is, and I would absolutely love to. He is definitely at the top of the list, however, in a perfect world, I would go right down the list of former X-Division Champions and fight them all,” Bailey said. “That is my ideal scenario for my X-Division Championship reign coming up.”
“Chris Sabin does have the highest number of reigns and the longest—held the title for the longest time as well,” Bailey said. “He probably is number one on the list.”
Check out our full interview with Speedball Mike Bailey at the top of this post; IMPACT Wrestling’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view takes place on October 7.
More must-reads: