Mike Bailey is finding it difficult to come to terms with his split from former tag team partner Kevin Knight and has discussed how tough it was to face him on “AEW Dynamite.”
Bailey and Knight, former AEW World Trios Champions alongside Mistico, split after the latter turned heel and joined the Don Callis Family. The two faced off for the first time since their breakup on “AEW Dynamite,” where Knight — the current AEW TNT Champion — got the better of his former tag team partner. Before the match, Bailey spoke about his emotions on his vlog.
“It’s hard, man. It’s honestly hard. Kevin and I spent so much time together wrestling in so many countries, had so many matches. And now it’s for the TNT Championship. And I’m going to have to do everything in my power to just take his head off and win his championship,” he said.
After the match, Bailey reflected on the clash, claiming that Knight won it only because of the presence of Don Callis and his group.
“I’m a sad man. So, tonight was rough. It felt great to be out there with Kevin in the ring. We wrestled before and, man, again, he continues to be impressive and good and so explosive. And the last time we had a match was during the Continental Classic and I remember I won that match and I was so proud afterwards. So proud of the match, so proud of what we did, so proud of how good we were. And I don’t feel that way right now. It’s hard,” he said. “He won the match. He did. I don’t think it was a good victory. I don’t think he should be proud of that victory. In fact, I would hope that he feels ashamed of that victory. But he is the TNT Champion, and I am not, and that is because of Don Callis.”
In the match, Callis and the members of his group tried every trick in the book to help Knight win and retain the title, which they did.
Like many wrestlers who try to break through in the business, Anthony Bowens landed himself some work as an enhancement talent for WWE early on in his career. However, the sole match that Bowens had under the WWE umbrella ended in very scary circumstances.
On the December 21, 2016 episode of “WWE NXT,” Bowens teamed up with Jonathan Ortagun as they attempted to halt the runaway train that was The Authors of Pain. The match was only 75 seconds long, primarily because Bowens legitimately had a seizure in the ring after Ortagun was powerbombed on to his head, knocking him out cold. Despite getting a bad concussion, Bowens recalls that day quite well, and during a recent interview with Adrian Hernandez where he was asked what the scariest bump of his career was, Bowens already knew what his answer would be.
“I remember taking the powerbomb and then I remember the guy coming down, and this it was just lights out. I was completely unconscious. I had that little seizure, and then I woke up in their finish, and thankfully Eddie who was the referee stopped the match. Then I blacked out again on the floor and then woke up to the doctors around me. So I wouldn’t call that painful, I would say that was definitely the scariest [bump].”
Fortunately, Bowens was able to get back in the ring fairly quickly after his appearance on “NXT,” wrestling the likes of Drew Galloway (now Drew McIntyre in WWE), Brian Cage, and Sonjay Dutt in the first half of 2017. He was reportedly set to join WWE on a full-time basis in 2017 but nothing ever materialized, and he was eventually picked up by AEW in 2020, and as we know by now, the rest is history.
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WrestleMania is the event that is supposed to make matches feel bigger. The entrances are longer. The stadium looks different. The video packages make every feud feel like a career turning point. The commentary tells viewers that what they are watching matters. And sometimes, that works beautifully. But it also creates a danger. A match is no longer being judged as a match. It is being judged as a WrestleMania moment. Fans do not just want good wrestling. They want the image they will remember years later. They want the finish, the reaction, the shock, the feeling that the months of waiting were worth it. That is why “good enough” often feels small at WrestleMania.
A Bad Match Is Not Always A Disappointment
There is a difference between a bad match and a disappointing one. A bad match usually tells you what it is pretty quickly. The crowd is quiet, the timing is off, the idea is weak, or the wrestlers simply cannot do much with it. Fans may complain, but there is not always much mystery. A disappointing match is more frustrating. It has the pieces. A strong build. A major star. Maybe two. A crowd ready to care. A place on the card that tells everyone this is important. Then the match happens, and it never quite catches. That is often worse than a match everyone expected to be poor.
Hype Can Work Against The Match
WWE is very good at selling the idea of a match. Sometimes the idea becomes stronger than the reality. A great video package can make a feud feel more emotional than it really is. A few intense promos can make a match feel like it has years of history behind it. Two famous names can be placed across from each other and suddenly the audience starts imagining the best possible version. That can be dangerous. Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX looked huge on paper. Two powerhouses, both presented as monsters, finally meeting at WrestleMania. But the crowd knew both men were leaving WWE, and that knowledge changed everything. Instead of reacting to the match WWE wanted to present, the fans reacted to the situation around it.
Star Power Does Not Guarantee Chemistry
Some WrestleMania matches fail because the names are bigger than the connection between them. Star power can sell the ticket. It cannot create timing. It cannot force two styles to blend. One wrestler may need pace while the other needs control. One may work best in a wild fight, while the other needs structure. If they do not meet in the middle, the match can feel heavy no matter how big the feud is. Triple H vs Randy Orton at WrestleMania 25 had a heated story behind it. The build was personal and angry. The match, though, felt more careful than explosive. It was not the worst match in WrestleMania history, but it did not feel like the release fans expected. That is where disappointment lives. Not always in failure, but in the gap between the story and the match.
Why These Matches Stay In The Conversation
The lasting impact of a disappointing WrestleMania match can be significant. Analyses such as TheSportsGeek’s look at the worst WrestleMania matches of all time show how certain bouts remain talking points years later, often because expectations were far higher than the final result. That is the strange thing about WrestleMania. The classics live forever, but so do the missed chances. Fans remember the match they thought they were getting. They remember the better finish, the louder crowd, the version that should have happened. Sometimes that imagined version becomes stronger than the real one.
Modern Fans Expect The Whole Package
Today’s wrestling audience watches differently. Fans know the history. They know the backstage reports. They compare finishes, match structure, crowd reactions and booking decisions almost instantly. A WrestleMania match now has to satisfy the story, the live crowd, the online audience and the memory of every classic that came before it. That is a lot for one match to carry. Some matches still manage it. Others collapse under the weight.
The Missed Chance Is What Hurts
The most disappointing WrestleMania matches are not always the worst ones. They are the ones that should have worked. They had the story. They had the names. They had the stage. But for one reason or another, the final result felt smaller than the promise. At WrestleMania, that is enough to be remembered for the wrong reason.
As a primary architect behind the current product direction, The Undertaker aims to elevate the AAA brand by implementing a distinct philosophy that prioritizes character-driven narratives alongside athletic showmanship.
Ever since WWE shook up the industry by announcing the acquisition of Mexico’s prominent Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide promotion at WrestleMania 41, the boundaries between the two companies have rapidly blurred. A steady stream of cross-promotional talent exchanges has kept audiences guessing, but it is the unique in-ring presentation that has recently captured the imagination of mainstream wrestling fans. Tasked with steering this creative ship, WWE icon The Undertaker is focused on finding a perfect harmony between traditional Mexican aerial artistry and serialized dramatic arcs.
The Undertaker Discusses Creative Narrative Shifts on Six Feet Under Podcast
During the latest broadcast of his Six Feet Under podcast, the Hall of Famer outlined his philosophical approach to the product. He emphasized that while breathtaking high-flying stunts will always remain a core foundation of the Mexican wrestling tradition, the true key to long-term economic and audience growth lies in giving the public a deeper emotional reason to invest in the matches.
“What I can see happening and what we’re trying to do is have that lucha style and then also wrap a story around it. When you can combine – instead of it just being a spectacle and having two dudes do these incredible moves, if we can wrap a story inside of it, make all that make sense, I think that’s going to be a win-win and a huge growth opportunity for people,” he said.
The veteran performer openly acknowledged that the broader wrestling landscape has gone through massive evolutionary shifts since his days as an active locker room leader. While he believes that many of these structural changes have ultimately improved the sport, he expressed a belief that the intricate art of classical narrative construction has occasionally been cast aside in favor of rapid, move-heavy pacing.
“For the business in general, you know, the business has definitely changed. And I think in a lot of ways, it’s changed for the good. But I still think there’s a lot of elements that have gotten lost within the storytelling part of it,” The Undertaker further added. “Again, if we can figure out a way to combine it all and make things make a little more sense, I think, man, the wrestling business is going to be – it’s going to continue to grow. The talent is there. It’s just, I think, a little bit of reigning in, a little bit. And wrap some more story. Man, it’s exciting.”
This evolving creative direction was fully on display during the highly praised Noches de Los Grandes event, which was anchored by a monumental mask vs. mask main event featuring El Grande Americano. By framing incredible in-ring acrobatics inside deeply personal stakes, the brand is successfully cultivating an episodic feel that mirrors the must-see theatricality found weekly on major domestic broadcasts like WWE RAW.
When Chris Jericho came back to AEW in April, I figured I’d give him a shot. He had been gone for nearly a year at that point, so his booking was going to feel fresh no matter what, right? Well, he’s entering just his second feud since his return, and it already feels like a new Jericho Vortex. The New Jericho Vortex of Bald, if you will, and it already feels pointless and redundant.
I’m sure it’s because Jericho loves his catchphrases and attempting to get goofy things over, and now, he’s trying to overtake the sickos’ love of chanting “BALD!” at various heels. First, he feuded with Ricochet, which took fans through an oddly booked assortment of babyfaces for the Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing, and Jericho’s next bald foe is none other than Tommaso Ciampa.
The pair opened up “Dynamite” tonight, and though the segment lasted about 10 minutes, it felt like it dragged on forever. I guess I thought we’d start out with one of the matches advertised, and I assumed Orange Cassidy vs. Andrade, so I wasn’t prepared for an immediate promo segment, as that’s not usually AEW’s thing.
Ciampa brought out Jericho, who, of course, was nearly immediately silly and called Ciampa “Tommy,” which got the crowd chanting, and it just felt like it got the show off to a slow start. It wasn’t as cute or clever as Ciampa’s previous “List of 1,004 Reasons he Hates Jericho” bit. The segment ended in a pull-apart brawl, and by the end of it, I didn’t want to see Ciampa vs. Jericho any more than I already did. Which was already only a tiny bit, simply because I just really like Ciampa in AEW.
While I think Ricochet is fine after taking the overall loss to Jericho, I don’t want to see Ciampa lose to him. Right now, the “Psycho Killer” feels slightly lost, as there are too many guys in the main title picture, and I guess you can’t have a heel Ciampa feud with a heel Kevin Knight for the TNT Championship. For a company with so many titles, you’d think there would be obvious space to slot Ciampa in for a feud over one.
If Jericho’s whole new thing is just feuding with bald guys on the roster and making up catchphrases to sell t-shirts, I don’t know if I could have thought of anything more ridiculous for him upon his return. Jericho is back to not working for me, and this opening segment just fell really flat.
