Mike Bailey Doesn’t Mind That Naomi Does His Scissor Kicks, Says Trying to Avoid Other Peoples’ Moves Is ‘Silly’

Mike Bailey and Naomi have a signature move in common in their scissor kick flurry, and Bailey says he doesn’t mind that at all. Bailey recently spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview and talked about how the currently on-hiatus WWE star uses the move and more; you casn check out the highlights below:

On Noami doing the scissor kicks: “No, sorry. They’re the Naomi Kicks now. If anything, she inspired me at this point. She has taken over those kicks… It feels great. Of course, it does. Two layers to this. I didn’t invent those kicks. They’re a thing in Tae Kwon Do. If you go on YouTube right now and put in Athens Olympic Tae Kwon Do Highlights you will see only those kicks because at the time, those multiple scissor kicks as well as counter-spinning hook kicks, were the style at the time for Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do is 90% that if you watch it from that era. But Naomi did make a tweet when it happened and she quote tweeted someone saying, ‘Those are Mike Bailey kicks,’ and she said, ‘Oh, you know what? I can watch his tapes.’ So I don’t know of the official full story, but yes. I thought the kicks were great when she did it. I think Naomi’s one of the greatest pro wrestlers on earth right now. I think she’s absolutely fantastic and, yes, I want everyone to do what I do. I never have an issue with it. I think it’s great.”

On people who avoid trying to do each other’s moves: “Mostly because, again, I think the discussion of people not trying to do each other’s moves, especially in independent wrestling, is very, very silly. Everyone does every move in terms of, if you watch an independent show with ten / twelve matches or whatever with a thousand moves on it, someone’s going to do something similar. If you do a double underhook piledriver and want to make sure it’s unique, but someone else does a double underhook suplex and or powerbomb, it’s all the same.”

On making the moves your own: “What matters a lot more is how you make the move yours and the story you tell behind it and how you tease the move and how you make it yours and how you get in and out of it within the match matters a lot more than the move itself. Because to a majority of people that watch wrestling, especially people who watch wrestling for the first time—which, to me, are the most important to impress—a guy picks up another guy and drops him on his head kind of all looks the same. He jump, spun, and kicked him… Especially when it’s a real thing, when it’s a real move that happens. I’m just glad no one in the UFC gets mad at each other for both winning their fights with rear-naked chokes.”