2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

5. Speedball Mike Bailey v. Trevor Lee PWG 4/3

PAS: One of the best turn the dial to 11 indy matches I have ever seen. I watched Mad Max Fury Road earlier today, and in many ways this was that kind of wrestling match, never has Speedball's nickname been so apropos, cause I felt like I did a speedball before I watched it. I hadn't seen much Lee before, but he was great, he has this Clay Guida look, and kind of wrestles like Guida, intense always attacking and with great closing distance speed, when an opening presented itself he would leap right on it. He had some really brutal stuff, too, nasty running forearms, great dropkick, crazy judo throw. Bailey has some fun fancy shit, crazy kung fu movie kicks, and great highspots, and was awesome as a guy trying to fight off a wolverine. Finish run had spot of the year, don't want to ruin it, but it was fucking lunacy, and then Bailey hits this great looking double knee shooting star off the apron, but by the time he rolled him in and set up another shooting star, Lee had been given enough time to plausibly recover, and he got his knees up and hit a nasty small package driver for the pin. Most PWG matches have endless 2.9 sections which eventually just lose him, this had a killshot, but it was outside the ring, so I bought the recovery, and then instead of a bunch more near falls Lee just grabbed him and smashed him. Awesome stuff, that I can see both Segunda Caida people and people who don't love us agreeing on.

ER: I had seen Lee a couple times before and didn't think much, and Bailey is a SC favorite at this point, but Lee in this match is a wholllllle nuther son of a bitch. This guy was relentless here. Everything he did seemed so natural, even some spots that I've never seen look like anything but two guys being verrrry cooperative with each other. Comparing him to Clay Guida isn't very nice, as Lee is way more interesting than Guida, and does way more than headbang and dry hump his opponent to death. I apologize in advance for Kenny Omega eventually adopting a "dry hump opponent to death" gimmick. Lee threw some of the best running forearms I've seen, exploding late and looking great. He tossed Bailey around in some really impressive ways, rolling naturally into a nice Karelin throw. Bailey is a great underdog babyface and feeds nicely off of Lee's constance. Phil was kind and didn't spoil the spot of the year, but I'm cruel and will say that it was a beautiful, certifiably crazy, dangerous nasty reverse rana on the ring apron (and the apron was reallll narrow). As stupid as it might read, the move came off real organically and was just epic. Bailey tops it off with a shooting star kneedrop off the apron onto Lee's back. His freaking back! Also, it should be noted that Bailey wrestles barefoot, which means he's one of the rarest lunatics. How easy would it be to break a toe, crush your heel, damage one of those couple dozen little bones in there. Bumping barefoot just sounds...stupid. The finish, as Phil mentioned, is logical, satisfying, and original. We were watching it together and I wouldn't stop babbling about it. Bailey goes for a shooting star, Lee gets the knees up, and while Bailey is hunched over from landing on knees Lee grabs him in a small package, fluidly rolls through it and in one motion hits the package driver to end it. The whole sequence looked great. This match goes just the right amount of time, delivers some great, constant action (even the chinlocks had nice character stuff, as Lee undoes his hair so it hangs down in Bailey's eyes and mouth) and was a real blast.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST