Speedball Mike Bailey Talks Favorite Movie Fight Scenes, From ‘They Live’ to ‘Oldboy’

“Speedball” Mike Bailey discusses his favorite fight scenes in movies.

Watching “Speedball” Mike Bailey wrestling in the ring is like watching a kung fu movie come to life. Bailey is a fan of the genre, and in a new interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, he opens up about his favorite fight scenes from the movies he’s seen.

He praised the fight scene from They Live, but says that his favorite fight scene is the side-scrolling fight in the Oldboy.

“It’s a cliché to say, and it’s kind of the opposite of your question, but the fight scene from They Live remains one of the best fight scenes in history because it’s just so raw and accurate and it’s two guys actually fighting and they made it look like an actual fight in that it’s sloppy and imprecise,” he said. “We talked about Jackie Chan, and I think it’s rare to see modern movies that actually don’t change the camera angle every half a second and you can’t actually see the fight scene. That’s what’s great about the old stuff. A lot of newer stuff; I think the first Ong Bak, with Tony Jaa, features a lot of real Muay Thai, and it’s raw and well-filmed. However, this is just me nerding out, but my favorite fight scene of all time is the side-scrolling one from the original Oldboy movie.

“The movie is fantastic,” he adds. “It’s Korean, I think. But it’s filmed completely from the side and it’s one guy taking on several other bad guys and taking a lot of damage in the process. But it’s one take and it looks absolutely amazing.”

Mike Bailey is the subject of a new movie. It is an action film in the sense that it features choreographed fight scenes; however, it is a professional wrestling documentary called Keep It Kayfabe.

The world premiere of Keep It Kayfabe will take place on Thursday, July 24, at San Diego Comic Con. There will also be a Q&A session with Mike Bailey. For more on the film, check out an interview with the documentary’s directors, Christian O’Keefe and Michael Priestley, currently available on Fightful Select.

You can check out the full interview with “Speedball” Mike Bailey embedded above.