Impact Wrestling star Mike Bailey recently spoke with Joseph Galizia of Wrestling Headlines for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Bailey commented on who he thinks of when the X-Division Championship is brought up and whether his title reign lived up to the high expectations:
“Hmm. Yes and no. I think that’s a hard question. I mean I think of AJ Styles, I think of Chris Saban, I think of Christopher Daniels, I think of Samoa Joe. It’s an endless list of some of the world’s best wrestlers past and present. But I am incredibly proud of my reign as an X-Division champion. I had a record number of defenses in such a short time, but I still feel like I have so much more to give and I feel like my story, my relationship with that X-Division championship is only barely beginning.”
If there is anyone he would like to tag with to pursue the IMPACT tag titles:
“Well, so here’s the thing I did, but I didn’t have a partner for the very longest time in Impact wrestling. But in fact, Jonathan Gresham and I have been quite successful as a tag team. We have an upcoming match against The Design and if that goes our way I would strongly consider going after the tag team titles with him. I mean, I think ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) are a great tag team. I think they’re doing fantastic. I think they’re absolutely world class. I think they are excellent champions, but I think we’d have a shot.”
On working with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Multiverse United:
“Oh man, he’s the Ace. Like the Ace is the Ace. That sounds simplistic, but it’s absolutely mind blowing how that man is the Ace and he never ceases to be. I feel like he, no matter what he does, he is always, his posture is excellent. You will never catch him like, you know, scratching his ear doing something like slightly disgraceful. He’s the Ace and he never ceases to be and that is so incredibly impressive. It’s very, very hard to explain, but being in the ring with him is even more impressive than watching him. And just how perfect every single movement he does is, is truly, truly life changing.”
Whether he thinks he could defeat Tanahashi in a rematch:
“I think so. I think I was very close the first time and I think wrestling him gave me a very, very good preview of the New Japan Pro wrestling style. And I’ve since gone on to participate in the best of the Super Juniors tournament, the most prestigious junior heavyweight tournament in all of pro wrestling. And I learned a ton over there as well. Had some fantastic matches. And I think using the tools that I developed during that tournament, I could beat Hiroshi.”
On D’Lo Brown’s comments about wanting IMPACT to move their television to a live taping format:
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t know. I will not question D’Lo Brown given that he has many, many more years of experience with televised professional wrestling than I do. I’ve been around professional wrestling for a very, very long time, but my area of expertise is not the very specific form of wrestling, which is televised wrestling. I know how to do it, I know how to perform in the ring for it, but I don’t know many of the logistics behind it. What I’m much better equipped to, to give my, my stance on is internet content, which is something that I am way more focused on and I believe is truly the future for professional wrestling. I’m very active on Twitch and YouTube and things like that, and I think that Impact Wrestling is doing a fantastic job with YouTube and many, many other, like, I think Diary, have you watched the episodes of Diary that are on Impact? It’s a great program. It’s fantastic mini documentaries that give you an inside track into the lives of many of the wrestlers on Impact. I think the, the Trey Miguel episode, the Giselle Shaw episodes are all absolutely amazing. And I think that Impact, one of the ways that Impact Wrestling has really set itself apart from other professional wrestling companies is in the amount and the quality of content that they put out for free on the internet for people to watch. And while I think wrestling live on TV would be absolutely great, I can’t say for sure that that is what impact needs right now.”
On an IMPACT Wrestling video game and what he would want it to look like:
“So this is what I want for a wrestling video game. I think Impact has done a great job setting itself apart and being different, and I think the world of professional wrestling is immersive, right? It goes beyond the matches and just the sports, and I think everyone enjoys storyline mode, but I think there is a certain way to that we could push that way further. I mean, I think a great Impact wrestling video game would be kind of be like the wrestling 2K games meets Skyrim and I think you could have a juicy middle section of that.”
You can watch the interview below:
