Mike Bailey Comments On Sharing The Ring With Kenny Omega Again, Thinks Ricochet Is More Focused On Trolling

In an interview with Fightful, Speedball Mike Bailey spoke about wrestling Kenny Omega and Ricochet at AEW Dynasty, which happens this Sunday in Philadelphia. Omega’s International title will be on the line. Here are highlights:

On wrestling Omega again: “Man, it feels absolutely amazing. I mean, it’s been a goal of mine for the longest time. I think the tagline, ‘AEW is Where the Best Wrestling is’ is so true now more than ever. PWG back in 2016 was the best option you had in North America to see the best version of professional wrestling, of real, raw professional wrestling that was done for the audience and not just one person’s vision of professional wrestling, but really a global unified personification of the art form. I think that has become AEW and if you look at all the people that were in PWG at the time, a lot of them are they’re either at the top of wrestling or they’re in AEW. So it is and I want to say that wrestling him on Sunday at Dynasty will be a full circle moment, but wrestling happens in more of a spiral than a circle because I have a feeling that that’s going to be the one of many, many meetings. But if you look at the history of Kenny Omega, he’s someone that I was looking at even before we wrestled in PWG, but even more so after, right?”

On Omega’s career thus far: “The way his career kind of went where he was in Canada and the pro wrestling that was happening near him was like not really what he wanted to do. So he took it upon himself. He made this video, which I’m sure you guys saw of a video that he sent to DDT where he was basically wrestling another local wrestler just out in the wilderness, which was perfect for DDT at the time and sent that in because he wanted to go there, because he had a vision for what he wanted out of professional wrestling and it wasn’t what was being presented to mainstream audiences. It was specific. It was artful. It was different. It was a lot closer to what you see in video games than what you see on American television. Then going over to DDT and he got to do that and you can see how that changed his way of looking at pro wrestling and I got to feel that when I wrestled Kenny in PWG. I really saw that his brain worked differently from any other pro wrestler that I had ever faced before. Then when I got to DDT just about six months after wrestling Kenny and being in that locker room and seeing how everyone goes about pro wrestling really made me understand—okay this is a more exciting version of professional wrestling than what I was familiar with, than what I had even imagined, just the way people were able to look at it. Because being with DDT for the five years that I was, was really like a life-changing experience, especially in the way the art is presented, right? Because in America, feel like, especially if you only looked at what was on television back then, before AEW was so incredibly specific and so homogenous and then getting to DET and doing a show on just blue gym mats in a shopping mall in front of an audience that did not care to see pro wrestling at all, that didn’t know it was gonna be there, but then just because people understand how the translate pro wrestling—half choreographed, half improvised fight scenes for an audience—and still make those entertaining to a public that did not even want to see it really changed the way I look at professional wrestling. I feel like Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and everyone brought that to AEW and that’s why it again, getting to face Kenny in AEW just feels right in that regard.”

On Ricochet’s focus: “So it’s funny because Ricochet, again, he is one of the world’s most talented wrestlers. He is one of the most influential high flyers of our generation, right? Extreme innovator. Just push the envelope. Unbelievable stuff. Hasn’t really seen a lot of success in terms of wins in AEW, right? He lost a, lost to Swerve and lost his previous championship opportunities, again, came close, but I think that Ricochet, his main issue right now is he is way more interested in trolling than in winning professional wrestling matches. I think what I have to do is I’m focused on Kenny Omega. He’s the champion. I have to beat the champion and I have to not let Ricochet get in the way.”