News

What reportedly went wrong during the finish of Shelton Benjamin vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey from AEW Dynamite

Aaron Rift

As seen during the November 19th 2025 edition of AEW Dynamite, Shelton Benjamin defeated “Speedball” Mike Bailey in a singles match. While speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com discussed what went wrong at the end of the match…

“So, if you watch the match, what essentially happened is they were doing this spot where Shelton hit him with a big kick and Speedball took this incredible bump. Shelton covered him, the referee counted one, two… and stopped. Speedball didn’t kick out — he was just dead as a doornail. Fans started booing, and then Shelton lifted the guy up. They did two more spots, Shelton hit another kick, and this time the referee counted the pin.

Everyone was trying to figure out what the heck happened and whose fault it was. As it turns out, everybody is fine. I don’t want to say it wasn’t anybody’s fault — because obviously someone messed up — but it’s not as simple as pointing at one person.

Here’s what basically happened: the planned finish was going to be a superkick. So Shelton shoots him in or whatever, hits this kick, and Speedball takes this incredible full-flip bump that makes him look absolutely dead. Shelton decides, ‘It’s not going to get better than that,’ and calls an audible — this is the finish. Apparently, the referee didn’t hear him, so the ref stops the count because that wasn’t supposed to be the actual finish.

You could say it’s the referee’s fault. You could say it’s Shelton’s fault. You can’t say it’s Speedball’s fault — he just laid there like he was supposed to.

So, anyway, that’s what happened. Miscommunication. After the referee stopped the count, they just went on and did the originally planned finish. But no, Speedball didn’t get concussed or hurt by the kick. There was no injury involved. Shelton just thought the move looked really cool and decided to go home on it, and the referee didn’t hear him. That’s what happened in the match.”

Click here to add NoDQ.com as a Preferred Source on Google. Follow NoDQ's Instagram account for wrestling news updates, memes, and opinions!