Speedball Mike Bailey On Transition To AEW & How Jet Speed With Kevin Knight Came Together (Exclusive)

When Speedball Mike Bailey arrived in All Elite Wrestling, he came to the company with plenty of hype and expectations based on a career on the independent scene, Japan and TNA Wrestling that saw him put on countless memorable bouts.

Debuting for AEW in March, Bailey competed in the AEW International Championship Eliminator Tournament, looking to get a shot at someone he has chased his entire career, Kenny Omega.

At AEW Dynasty, Omega defended the title against Speedball and Ricochet in a superb three-way bout that stole the show at the pay-per-view.

Kenny omega vs Speedball Mike Bailey vs Ricochet
AEW Dynasty 04/06/2025

🎧: Ghost - Kid Cudi@KennyOmegamanX @KingRicochet @SpeedballBailey pic.twitter.com/n0V71tEM1n
— tmcd🇮🇪 (@presxkrg) April 7, 2025

Reflecting on this spectacular contest, Bailey still wants to get a singles meeting with "The Cleaner" before he hangs his boots up for good.

"Absolutely. I mean, I think Kenny Omega, as he said in interviews leading up to his match with Okada, he might be on the tail end of his in-ring career," Speedball Mike Bailey told The Takedown On SI. "But as he proved in that match with Okada, he can still go and he can still perform."

"And I would still like to have a singles match with Kenny Omega. But I think that that three-way at Dynasty really was everything that it should have been."

Competing with two of the best on the AEW roster gave Bailey the platform to showcase what makes him one of the most exciting acquisitions to the company in 2025.

"And to be, you know, on AEW at the highest level, we're the best wrestle and get to have a almost 30-minute three-way match in front of a fully engaged audience," Bailey said. "And I think that match creatively had three performers who were at their peak completely free and just putting on the best match that we could have done that day."

LETS GO! #AEWDynamite https://t.co/tzjz324icz
— Speedball Mike Bailey (@SpeedballBailey) August 5, 2025

Since signing with AEW earlier this year, Speedball has competed against the likes of Kenny Omega, Ricochet and Kazuchika Okada on pay-per-view.

In one of the biggest matches of his career, Bailey recently teamed with his Jet Speed tag team partner Kevin Knight to face The Hurt Syndicate and The Patriarchy for the AEW World Tag Team Championships at AEW All In Texas 2025.

In front of nearly 30,000 fans at Globe Life Field, this event was not just a historic event for AEW, but also for Bailey as well.

"Yeah, I got to wrestle in front of 30,000 people at All In, and that was absolutely a mind-blowing event," Speedball stated. "I mean, the match was fantastic. It's been great."

"I've always taken pro wrestling extremely seriously, and I've always given every single match my best, whether it was in front of, you know, 10 or 300 or 30,000 people. I've always given it my all."

Seeing the magnitude of the event and how grand the stage AEW can present him, Bailey has caught the attention of fans from all over the world.

"But easily, the best part of wrestling for AEW has been the enormous reach that I've gotten and how many more people get to see my matches," Speedball said. "And the reception that I get, the feedback that I get online has been overwhelmingly positive from the AEW audience. And that's been great."

His newfound exposure on a national and international scale with All Elite Wrestling has helped Speedball as he recently starred in a brand new documentary called "Keep It Kayfabe."

Taking a look at Bailey's approach to pro wrestling when he was on the independent scene, this film gives fans a behind the scene look at the inner workings of the wrestling world.

"And that's why I think it's the perfect time for a documentary like this to come out, right? Because I think it tells the story of a focused, independent wrestler who tries very hard in order to get to the kind of place in pro wrestling that AEW is providing me right now."

The Canadian star hopes that the eye opening look to how independent wrestling works from the backstage perspective will open the door for others to follow his footsteps to be able to perform in front of bigger crowds down the road.

"And I mean, I hope that watching this and knowing that I am where I am now performing for the best pro wrestling promotion in the entire world in front of 30,000 people, that I was an independent wrestler and that there are tons like me out there right now who are some of the world's best wrestlers and are going to be on television performing in giant arenas," Bailey stated.

"The larger audience might just not know it yet, but there is such a vast amount of untapped talent out there right now. "

When asked if he misses the grind of the independent scene since signing with AEW, Speedball admitted that he still has the itch.

"I do. I still have that itch to perform all the time," Speedball said. "But again, I don't work any less hard now that I'm on AEW and I do less matches. I just get to train harder in between those matches and focus my energy on that one match that I'm going to have."

"But the one thing that I really love about All Elite Wrestling is that it really has that independent wrestling spirit, right? And you know what I mean? Tony Khan is the booker. He makes the shows, but the wrestlers still have a lot of say in what they do."

MORE: 'Speedball' Mike Bailey Discusses AEW Debut, New Finisher's Name & Chasing Kenny Omega For 10 Years (Exclusive)

Seeing AEW as a place where pro wrestling is brought to the fans on a more national scale than what has been previously been seen before. This is what Speedball loves the most about the promotion.

"And what I love about AEW is that it presents true pro wrestling on television in a way where the wrestlers decide what they do. It isn't overly produced. It's still raw the way that, in my opinion, pro wrestling should be."

Bailey has been part of a list of new AEW talent in 2025 that have been wonderful additions to their roster alongside Kevin Knight, Megan Bayne, Thekla and Josh Alexander.

These additions and changes to the storyline direction for the entire company has led to 2025 being one of the best years in recent memory for All Elite Wrestling with an upswing in fan interest and perception.

While he can't take full credit for this turnaround, Speedball is proud to be part of this change and thinks it was great that the promotion brought him in.

"I mean, I can't really speak to what AEW was like before I was there, because obviously I wasn't there. But I mean, I think, not to sound too, you know, self-involved, but I think hiring Speedball Mike Bailey was a great decision for AEW," Speedball said.

"And while I can take credit for the success that the company has had in 2025, I mean, I think that hiring people, like if you look at the list of recent signings, right, and I think where the company is going is in an incredibly positive direction."

One of the other big new signees for All Elite Wrestling has been Kevin "The Jet" Knight who has formed a popular tag team with Bailey called Jet Speed.

This is not the first time that Speedball has been part of a duo in his wrestling career, so he talked about some of his past experiences in tag team wrestling and how Knight compares to his other partners.

"I think that there is a lot being made right now about thrown together tag teams and that's kind of a buzzword being goes around, right?" Bailey said.

"But in Japan, sort of the model for the shows is there's four six-man tags on the card and one or two singles matches, right? Because you have to get everyone on the show and kind of that was my mentality for tag team wrestling."

Speedball Mike Bailey is coming soon to AEW!

Watch #AEWCollision on TNT & Max@SpeedballBailey pic.twitter.com/jcBXE1l886
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) February 23, 2025

"I mean I've always been in tag teams, I've always done tag team matches, but there are a few people that there has been so much chemistry that we're able to make a unit and really make something of it. And all of those happened absolutely randomly."

During his time in Japan, Speedball wrestled for DDT Pro where he formed a tag team with Mao that was called The Moonlight Express.

"Mao in DDT just started because he and I did a really cool dive together in a match that we had and the president of DDT was wrestling in that match and he was like, 'yeah that's great. We need that dive that you guys did together on every show, so you're a tag team now.'"

Then, Bailey formed duos with Jake Something on the independent scene, most notably DPW. His last stint in a major promotion for TNA Wrestling saw him form a tandem with Trent Seven called Speedball Mountain as well.

"Same thing with Jake Something, it was just a match that we had on DPW random thrown together tag team match, but we worked great as a team," Speedball explained. "Again Trent Seven, same thing just got thrown together in TNA, had great chemistry and made things work because Mao, Jake Something, Trent Seven and also Kevin Knight are people that have the same mentality that I do."

MORE: Speedball Mike Bailey & Overlay Films Talk 'Keep It Kayfabe' Documentary: 'Pro Wrestling Is A Language' (Exclusive)

"There's all points in common that makes us working together work, right? Like Mao in DDT, we were both about 'just doing cool things,' which sounds simple, but again, not everyone approaches planning matches this way. But we just wanted to have fun, do cool things, do wrestling that we like and we like the same wrestling."

"Same thing with Jake Something, we like having the same kind of matches, we like going hard," Bailey said. "Jake Something is someone who puts so much incredible effort behind everything he does and he never backs down from a challenge. And so that was our approach to making tag team matches was just we're going balls out every single time."

"And Trent Seven, I mean if you look at his history, he and I both have the same past of being independent wrestlers for the most time. He led the boom of British independent wrestling so he understands the correlation between 'have a banger, sell lots of t-shirts, make more money, help the promotion grow, bring in more fans.'"

These experiences with other competitors around the world has helped to guide Speedball in his journey alongside Kevin Knight in AEW.

Starting with the two men being part of an all-star eight man tag team match alongside Will Ospreay and Mark Briscoe, Jet Speed was born and further expanded upon when the duo faced The Young Bucks on an episode of AEW Dynamite.

"And that's why when me and Kevin Knight, we were in a four-on-four all star tag team match and we worked great in that," Speedball said. "And then it was us in a tag team against The Young Bucks and I think Kevin Knight really showed out in that match and we both came to the table with many, many ideas for what we should be like as a tag team, how this match should go and they were the same ideas."

"We both had a list of things we should do and they were the same because that's how good wrestling works. Good wrestling just makes sense and you don't have to force it, it just happens and that's how it was with Kevin Knight every step of the way."

We went toe to toe with probably the greatest tag team of all time and pushed them past their limit to where they needed to cheat to win.

We're disappointed but so grateful for all your support! We'll come back stronger bc no matter what, it's always JetSpeed UP! ⬆️ #AEWDyamite pic.twitter.com/Mrdh6QwoJj
— Speedball Mike Bailey (@SpeedballBailey) July 24, 2025

"So that's why I'm so happy that we made Jet Speed a thing and that's why I want it to keep going long enough for us to get the AEW World Tag Team Titles."

Jet Speed last competed on the July 23rd episode of AEW Dynamite when they suffered a loss to FTR in the AEW World Tag Team Title Eliminator Tournament. AEW Dynamite airs live on TBS Network and the HBO Max streaming service on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern.

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