Mike Bailey Discusses Receiving Feedback From Tony Khan, Feels Khan Puts A Lot Of Faith In Him
“Speedball” Mike Bailey has discussed the faith Tony Khan has in him to perform well for AEW.
One of the things AEW is often praised for is the strength of its roster, with the company able to plug almost anyone on their books into a one-off match on a Dynamite, Collision, or pay-per-view with the hope of producing a great match. However, the downside of a stacked talent pool is that many solid wrestlers can often get lost in the shuffle, not receiving as much of a spotlight as some of their peers. As such, the roster have to make the most of any given opportunity, and one star the promotion often relies upon is “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Now, the Canadian star has reflected on working with Tony Khan.
In a chat with Battleground Podcast, Bailey discussed the conversations he’s had with Khan about his matches, noting how his recent outings have shown the amount of faith the AEW owner has in him.
“It’s not really a conversation that we’ve had specifically, or methodologically what he wants to see from his people in the ring. But he has been very encouraging and he’s always there. He’s always at Gorilla, and I always get match feedback from him and while it’s not incredibly specific, it does let me know exactly what I need to do in my matches going forward. I think he’s extremely smart about knowing his people’s strengths and he has put me in a lot of fantastic situations, and that just lets me know that he sees me as someone who is able to go into those big matches. For example, I know that the match against Jon Moxley that I had on Collision is a match that Tony just wouldn’t put anyone else in. Going 20 minutes with Jon Moxley is a pretty big deal. That just shows a lot of faith and I really appreciate that.”
-Mike Bailey
“Speedball” first came into the company in March 2025, chasing the International Championship. In fact, at AEW Dynasty 2025, he competed for the gold in triple threat with Kenny Omega and Ricochet which many felt was among the best matches of last year. Then, during the Continental Classic, he put on stellar matches with Kyle Fletcher, Kevin Knight, Kazuchika Okada, and more.
Fast forward to this year, and Mike Bailey has continued his strong output, including adding more matches to his series with Kyle Fletcher. As such, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s in the mix singles gold in the near future having already become a two-time former AEW World Trios Champion.
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As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on “Speedball” Mike Bailey as soon as we hear more.
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