Feels like ages since I've written anything for the blog. In April I got married and went on my honeymoon (thank you for the well wishes on discord!) so I had nearly a 3 week stint of not watching any wrestling while I focused on more important matters. I've tried to catch up a bit on recommended stuff I've missed, but nothing has grabbed me or felt interesting enough to write about. Until now.
This week's episode of saw Speedball Mike Bailey and Jonathan Gresham have their 4th and (for now) blowoff match in their rivalry. Gresham won the first match back in February with a roll up, Bailey responded with tapping out Gresham in a figure four at the Sacrifice PPV in March, and last month Tre Miguel spoiled the third match with a run-in to set up the recent 3 way X-Division title match in Canada. While I'm annoyed that Impact, even in the midst of Josh Alexander going down with a serious injury, are reluctant to let these two fantastic wrestlers be near the top of their card, I am still down to watch two of 'my guys' go at it over and over again. I really wish there was more of a story here than just a 'mutual respect' series matches because matches like that lack juice to take them to the next level, but there was at least some......idk tetchiness? here from Gresham who took umbrage at Bailey squeezing his hand too tightly in the handshake. While both men are techinically babyfaces on this roster, Bailey is the pure as snow babyface, and Gresham is the guy that leans a little bit heel and is more desperate to win.
Where my interest really peaks in this match is when Gresham performs a couple of hard hitting arm drags and Speedball takes a little longer than normal to recover from them and starts shaking out his hand. SPEEDBALL STARTS SELLING A LIMB THAT ISN'T HIS LEG~! I've seen Speedball do his leg sell match match routine more than I've seen Gunther do his 'chop the ring post = hand sell' match, I've seen it more than I've seen Jon Moxley gush blood on national TV, I've seen it more than I've seen someone join the Bullet Club (happy 10 year anniversary btw). Don't get me wrong, Bailey is amazing at working that style of match, but I've seen him do it so many times that it doesn't excite me because I know all the beats that are about to happen. This excited me. The hand injury meant that A) Bailey could still bring the textbook Speedball offence with 100% efficiency because his legs were in great condition and B) Bailey had a weakness that Gresham could attack
And attack it he did. Gresham did some nasty joint manipulation work on Bailey's hand that the crowd went along with, 'oooo'ing and wincing in unison as Bailey's hand bent in positions it's not supposed to. It pays off nicely when Gresham forces the hand down for a pin, and even though it's obviously not going to end the match, the idea is that it's forcing Bailey to weaken his own arm by pushing back on Gresham's weight to escape it. I'm all about nerdy shit like that. It really paid off at the end of the match where Gresham caught Speedball in the Octopus Stretch and Bailey had to immediately tap out to it. Limb work matches are nice, but they really feel like they're worth your time when they connect up with the finish like this. Gresham comes off like a total genius because his clear strategy worked; he didn't approach the match by worrying about neutralising Speedball's offence, he approached it by playing to his own strengths and what would aid his own moveset. I prefer it in football when managers are brave and approach games thinking that about how their team's game can hurt the opponent, rather than worrying too much about what the opponent can do to them and so they self-sacrifice their attack and change the team in the hope of nullifying their opponent.....and half the time it doesn't work anyway. I see so many wrestlers take on Bailey and switch up their own game to just attack his legs, and I'd much rather see people take the Gresham approach here, just be themselves against him and let Bailey worry about their game. It's definitely more exciting that way from the fan perspective.
Can you tell Tony Pulis used to manage my team? The scars run deep.
In keeping with all their other matches, this only scratches the surface of what these two are capable of and doesn't flirt with getting on my MOTYC list, but it's such a joy to see them stretch their legs for 10 minutes and still be the best thing on the show. Carve out 10 minutes of your weekend to watch this, it'll be better than the Coronation.
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