It will likely come as no surprise that this is pretty great.
Not everything is perfect. It goes a little long. Gresham experiments a little too much with some of his offense, trying to fit in big bombs with Mike Bailey’s style and getting a little out of his element here and there. Bailey’s arm selling is occasionally forgotten in little moments. There are imperfections here.
But the match is definitely great.
That maybe shouldn’t be the case.
It would be very easy for this not to be great. Gresham is a technician who likes to go for limbs, and Mike Bailey does not always take so kindly to that. Bailey is the sort of wrestler who ought to never have his legs worked over. He is not especially great at selling them, but also produces close to 100% of his offense with them. It’s one of those situations where there is no good reason to do it except to show off your leg work and maybe to make another guy look bad, as it typically is a significant impediment to the matches in which it takes place. I think less of any match in which it happens, and on any wrestler who opts to fill space in a Mike Bailey match by doing that. Their big Best of the Best final in 2015, I thought, suffered from a little too much of this.
This match is great though, and in part, it’s because Gresham opted for the arm instead.
It’s not just that, of course, but it does make a difference, for every reason lifted above. Bailey can sell an arm perfectly fine, if not exceptionally well, and he’s able to do that while still delivering on all of the offensive firepower that this match has at its disposal. It’s a choice that gives the match a little flavor and focus, that tells the story of Gresham’s advantage when it comes to viciousness and raw science, but this time, not at the expense of the match at large.
The decision represents a large step forward for Jonathan Gresham, if nothing else.
Of course, the match also just kicks a lot of ass and works on that level.
Gresham comes into Speedball’s territory, is a real shithead to him, and is met on that level. For the duration of the match, they get progressively meaner and more hostile with each other. Gresham’s work goes to the hand and elbow as much as the shoulder in his increasing attempts to punish Speedball. In turn, Mike Bailey kicks and slaps and chops a little harder, and gets up in Gresham’s face just a little more every time he does it. It’s a vicious cycle, as they say, but an equally beautiful circle. Two different sorts of maniacs and two different sorts of wrestlers getting more and more Pissed Off, and attacking each other in their own different ways as a result.
That’s pro wrestling, baby.
At the end, the local hero survives it all and wins in the most satisfying possible fashion. Gresham tries to match Bailey by coming off the top, only to crash and burn. Bailey follows with the Ultima Weapon, and as this wonderful emphatic period on the end of it all, Speedball simply winds up and drops Gresham with a buzzsaw kick for the win.
It’s a lovely piece of combat, working on a few different levels. Local hero vs. invader. Striker/flier vs. technician. There’s an old 90s MMA element to the thing, if not in realism (definitely not in realism) than in the sort of freak show throw wildly different sorts of dudes at each other and see what breaks loose mentality that made all of that so much god damned fun. In line with its spiritual inspiration, this was just a ton of fun.
Pretty good for Gresham’s second best match of the weekend.
HANDWERK 