Mike Bailey Discusses Pros And Cons Of Wrestling Barefoot

Mike Bailey reveals the advantages and disadvantages of wrestling barefoot.

Over the years, Bailey has made a name for himself by going to the ring and competing without shoes. Instead, ‘Speedball’ just wears kickpads that strap to the bottom of his feet.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Mike Bailey said that he has very few injury issues when it comes to his feet.

“No, I don’t. I have very few feet issues. I mean, I’ve hurt some toes. I think I’ve broken some toes, but I
just pop them back in. It’s the kind of thing where it’s not gonna get worse. If you break a toe and you
snap it back, you can’t break it more. It’s just gonna heal and be fine. Back in my Taekwondo days, I
would have chronic turf toe, just feet constantly bruised from kicking elbows.”

Bailey continued by explaining the advantages of wrestling without shoes.

“But it is easily outweighed by the advantages of wrestling barefoot for me. The main one that people don’t think of is ropes. When I’m standing on the top rope and I can grab the rope with my toes and when I do a springboard, you can see my feet curl around the rope and I get extra balance that way. I love wrestling barefoot and I’m glad that I get to do it in a place like All Elite Wrestling that actually embraces the individuality of the wrestlers and that’s something that’s very important for me. Again, the emphasis is on letting the wrestlers be the best and that includes being the best versions of themselves, which, in my case, is wrestling without boots or shoes.”

Being sanitary is still important for Mike Bailey. He doesn’t just roam around backstage with no shoes on. He also laughed at the concept of wrestlers going to the urinal with their boots on.

“I don’t take off my shoes backstage. I’m usually in flip flops. I try to try to keep my best, and of course,
you have to keep them clean. But also it’s funny because I think what I’m doing is a lot more sanitary than
the wrestlers who will wear their boots backstage, go to the urinal in boots and then stomp you in the face
in the middle of the ring and no one bats an eye. No one disinfects their wrestling boots before a match. I
think it’s fair. I don’t think we have to. I’ve not had any facial infections from dirty wrestling boots and I
don’t know why my bare feet would be more of a concern, where I think it’s in fact less.”

Bailey then revealed that being barefoot actually slows him down in the ring.

“This is absolutely correct. However, one issue, I don’t think I can run as fast. I think I can run faster
barefoot than the people in the thick boots. But I think people who wrestle in running shoes, some
wrestling shoes with very grippy soles, I think that can help, especially depending on the canvas. If you
have a brand new canvas or that has a painted logo, sometimes that gets really tricky. If you’ve ever
wrestled on one of those vinyl canvases. Those can get terrible. They can get slippery, they can get wet
just from it gets cooler as the show goes on, condensation happens and it just becomes a puddle. That can
be an issue. Also, one thing that I’ve done before which is wrestle on a vinyl canvas in the blistering summer heat. That was incredibly unpleasant for my feet. In fact, if you look on YouTube You can find a match of mine, which was the last match that I wore in shoes, which was the debut match of Zak Patterson, an excellent pro wrestler out of Quebec. But it was outside in the summer on a black vinyl canvas, and I got in the ring barefoot, and I was like, ‘Nope, not gonna do it,’ and I just wrestled with kick pads and running shoes that day.”

Elsewhere in the interview, ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey revealed that he’ll never sell feet content. Check out his comments by clicking here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Mike Bailey in the video linked at the top of this article.