Mike Bailey discusses the long process behind negotiating with a pro wrestling company.
When 'Speedball' Mike Bailey was able to return to the United States in 2022 after spending five years away due to a ban, he already had signed with IMPACT Wrestling a couple of months prior. As the one year anniversary of Bailey signing with the company approaches, he is currently enjoying a run as the X-Division Champion.
In a new interview with Fightful, Bailey dove into the process of negotiating with IMPACT and how the deal finally came together.
"Scott reached out, as did everyone around that time. The process is never as romantic as people imagine. It always takes more time. It’s a slow process. People, I think, imagine this in a very romantic way. The way it ultimately happened, it ended up, was me signing a contract on Josh Alexander’s back after losing a match to him that Scott had said if I won I would get a contract, but he gave me the contract anyway. So that part, honestly, is mostly real. That is where I signed the contract. However, there had been a lot more discussion and a lot more that went on leading up to that moment that is very, very boring."
Bailey went on to elaborate on the notion that the process isn't romantic.
"Yes and there had been some communications with some people. You’ll talk to someone and then that person will disappear and then someone else will come and talk to you. You talk to two people that aren’t aware that the other person might be talking to you, so there’s that back and forth that’s very slow. I’d been communicating with people associated with major companies including people from IMPACT for several years before I could wrestle in the US and we could actually make something happen. It took a while."
Elsewhere in the interview, Bailey discussed breaking out in wrestling and even named a few of his favorite matches. To read more, click here.
