Time for a third match review out of Canada this week – and a much-talked about main event as Speedball Mike Bailey challenged Daniel Garcia for the C4 title.
This was the main event of C4’s Fighting Back: Wrestling With Cancer show – donations for their annual fundraiser are still open via http://fighting-back.ca/ (it’s the same fundraiser that New Legacy Inc. do their annual streams for – including this year’s insane efforts). This show’s already up on IWTV.live – and we’re live on tape from Ottawa’s St. Anthony’s Banquet Hall…
C4 Championship: Mike Bailey vs. Daniel Garcia (c)
Garcia won the C4 title back in November 2019, just before everything went to shit, beating Josh Alexander… but with the world on hold, his title defences have been limited, with a win over Evil Uno in January 2020 and a defence against Kevin Ku over WrestleMania weekend this April being the only two.
We’ve dualling chants before the bell, and I’m still happy to hear crowds that make noise in 2021. Bailey looks to sting Garcia with kicks early, as their early lock-ups ended in the corner with neither man seemingly willing to break. A shoulder charge from Garcia has Bailey briefly down, before Speedball swung with a kick that had Garcia backing away. Things go to ground, with Bailey’s rear naked choke getting thrown aside before Garcia hit the ropes… and ran into a kick. Garcia tries to get back into it, blocking a knee drop before Bailey kicked him in the back, following up with knees in the ropes before Garcia rolled free and tripped him to the mat.
Bailey’s just chucked into the turnbuckles after that, as Garcia then took over with body scissors on the mat. Rolling Bailey onto his front, Garcia’s hammerfists wore down the challenger, leading to a leglock that had Bailey on the defensive. Getting free, Bailey’s quickly caught in a rear naked choke that Garcia gave up to hit some rolling German suplexes, before a STF led to another submission attempt. Standing up, Bailey’s thrown into the ropes, but returned with a leaping knee to Garcia, following up with an axe kick and a mid kick before a running corkscrew press led to a two-count. Another kick’s caught by Garcia, but Bailey slaps free before a roll-up led Garcia into a Trailer Hitch on Bailey. It’s broken via the ropes though, as the pair resort to back-and-forth forearms, with Garcia switching it up with an arm whip instead.
Stomps from Garcia just seem to annoy Bailey, who frees himself and lands some mid kicks, before he rebounded from a shotgun dropkick to hit a PK on Garcia. Recovering, Garcia boots Bailey off the apron as the pair head outside to spar some more, as kicks from Bailey lead to the Golden Triangle moonsault, before the pair headed onto the apron to trade some strikes, but Bailey’s reliance on kicks looked to put him in trouble, only for him to trip Garcia to the mat… as a moonsault double knees eats nothing but apron.
From there, Garcia traps Bailey with a Sharpshooter on the edge of the ring as Bailey slunk to the floor. Back inside, Bailey’s caught with the Deathshooter again, but this time he can’t pull himself off the apron to the floor, but was able to make it to the ropes as Garcia lost grip. A moonsault/fallaway slam – the Green Tea Plunge – put Bailey back in it, but the shooting star knees miss in the follow up. The tornado kick lands, while Garcia’s attempt to punch out of a Flamingo Driver doesn’t work as he’s planted for a near-fall. Bailey’s running punt keeps Garcia down, but Garcia gets the knees up on the Ultima Weapon as the shooting star knees ended in ugly fashion.
We’re back to the Deathshooter as Garcia looked to get a submission, but again Bailey gets to the ropes… Garcia pulls him away, but Bailey rolls and slaps his way free, only for Garcia to come back in with more stomps. Bailey unloads in return with haymakers and knee strikes, knocking Garcia down to the mat in a heap… but Garcia returns with some more strikes that Bailey covered up on as they went into the ropes. Heading up top, Bailey elbows Garcia ahead of a superplex, but Garcia sweeps the legs and we get a brutal landing ahead of a Bomb Scare knee drop. A spinning tombstone’s next, but Bailey kicks out, then came back with moonsault knees as he blocked a sunset flip. A buzzsaw kick drops Garcia briefly, so Bailey uncorks another before he finally hit the Ultima Weapon to the back of Garcia… and that’s the win!
This one was delightfully violent, feeling like a real battle rather than “you do a move, I do a move” that a lot of wrestling can end up being. Bailey’s such a polite sod, he thanks Garcia for a kiss on the lips after the match… and while we know Garcia’s taking that step up into AEW, we can only hope that a similar move into the big time is coming Mike’s way too. Lord knows, he deserves it…
Result: Mike Bailey pinned Daniel Garcia to win the C4 Championship in 23:44 (****)