El Generico vs. Mike Bailey, C*4 Level Up 2011 (3/26/2011)

A generational dream match between great Canadian babyfaces. Spiritually, Mike Bailey is El Generico’s son, or barring that, he grew up in Los Angelitos de El Generico. They are kindred souls.

Seedball was always a baby, but he’s SUCH a baby here with his three quarter tights and no kickpads. He’s also not all that good just yet, even if that innate babyface charm has always existed within him. Thankfully, he is in there with El Generico, who is fast making another career for himself working these face/face matches as something approaching an elder statesman. This is as good as any of his more famous matches like this in PWG or EVOLVE or DDT, absolutely incredible stuff that completely fell through a gap somewhere. This is on IWTV on a Best of C*4 set though, so every single one of you has homework to do. The real question after this is how it took another two or three years for Bailey to start getting out there after a match this good.

The goal is to legitimize Bailey with some classic Stronger In Defeat booking. Usually, that’s a half measure, but when the match is this great and both men are THIS GREAT in it, it works. It absolutely works. El Generico accomplishes the goal here mainly by absolutely beating the shit out of Seedball. El Generico is not mean or overly violent, but he does have a harder edge he can lean into by now, and it’s as close to a Kingston/Donst style performance as Generico can put out there. He blisters his chest up with repeated chops, projects this idea of being annoyed by Seedball before then impressed later on, keeps taking it to violence on the floor, all of that. If the IWTV player wasn’t such absolute horse shit for capturing either stills or gifs, there’d be a lot more here. Bailey’s selling isn’t all that great yet, but the visual of his chest is enough to get him where he needs to be. He wins the crowd over for his heart, even if they later revert back into being a dull indie crowd and responding with “BEST MATCH EVER” chants, or those sorts of chants that compliment the wrestlers on performing such a good match. When he gets a chance to turn the tables, Mike’s terrific. A few things he does aren’t great, or feel out of place like the often do for young wrestlers, but he’s a baby, so it feels silly to hold that complaint as close as a veteran wrestler doing things like that. While Bailey’s still developing an offensive arsenal, he does have a great dive and he can hit a lot of the trademarks. He’s not all that unlike a younger El Generico himself, with the sorts of basic high flying routes he’s willing to take, which helps the entire thing out so much.

Finishing run is immense, of course. They strike a perfect balance, as Bailey cannot hang with Generico here, not really. He had enough to fight back and he has enough heart and guts and intelligence to pull off some counters here and there, but he’s a boy and El Generico is at the end of the kind of evolutionary chart now that Bailey is still near the beginning of. They still get SO much out of it. There’s a few genuine nailbiters off of big spots, that are as much a credit to the referee as they are to Generico and Bailey. Absolutely perfect timing, I know the result of this match, and I’m absolutely With Them here at home on my couch nine years later. Bailey has one big counter to stay alive, but he doesn’t have much more than that. He doesn’t have much more than that in terms of what offense he hasn’t busted out yet and he also just physically is goddamned SPENT out there after that. He fights on, because he’s as much of a hero as El Generico is, but with his arsenal being empty and his experience level being what it is comes desperation. Generico can block his obvious Shooting Star Press with his knees and go into the obvious Helluva Kick and Brainbuster finish.

A hell of a thing. The sort of match that fires you up and makes you just want to type in all caps, with every other word being a curse. A lot of the newer stuff I’m watching doesn’t blow me away. I like a lot of it, sometimes the matches are even great. They are rarely this great. I am ashamed a match like this eluded me for the last nine years. Do not allow it to elude you any further.

Watch this match.

***1/2