WWE is going to release the Netflix WWE documentary series: Unreal while Aew fighter “SpeEball” Mike Bailey presents yours, Keep It Kayfabewhere they can be seen His wanderings for wrestling independentE while participating in 11 events during the weekend of Wrestlemania 39.
OVERLAY FILMS presents KEEP IT KAYFABE. WORLD PREMIERE.
Featuring Q&A with Speedball Mike Bailey
San Diego @Comic_ConThursday, July 24 – 8:05 pm
Grand Ballroom 6 (San Diego Marriott Marquis)#SDCC #SDCC2025 pic.twitter.com/YSU4xDfLHm— Speedball Mike Bailey (@SpeedballBailey) July 1, 2025
► In Mike Bailey's words
The documentary and its beginning
“There were 11 fighting in three days. It all started with a random messagelike many that I receive as a professional fighter, most do not end at all. Sometimes I don't even answer, because you see the profile of who sends it and is full of strange things. But Michaelof Overlay FilmsI had already done a great job: commercial, short … very beautiful things at aesthetic level. What they did was very special. That hooked me immediately and we started talking.
When they told me what they wanted to do with the documentary, I thought: 'This is perfect. This is exactly what wrestling – especially the independent struggle – needs as an art form, so that people see the side they want to show'. Since then I was totally on board. “
Kayfabe and its impact
“I'm always happy to talk openly about professional wrestling. Part of what I love Keep It Kayfabe is that I think that Kayfabe as a concept does enormous damage to wrestling as an art form. I think it's negative. I say it in the documentary: if you really want more people who seem casually understand what it is, or that those who do not know them are interested, you should show them the whole process.
Because what you see as a fan when watching her on TV or live is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to know what wrestling is really, you should show everything: Two real people, which exist, with different lives, traveling from opposite sides of the world, gathering in a room, speaking in broken English or in different languages using luchistic terms, and then creating something in 20 minutes, they shake hands and go out to the ring to execute a perfect fight choreography, which must go well in a single shot, from all angles, and interact with the public.
This whole process is the most beautiful of wrestling, not only the fight itself.”
Is wrestling false?
“I think the question 'Isn't it false?' Or 'Do you know it's false?' It is very interesting because it is very complex. Is it false? Yes, but not also.
75 minutes are really needed and 11 struggles in 72 hours to answer that question wellbecause it is not that it is not false, but it is clearly not false. It is really happening. And that is so incredibly complex that you need to see the documentary to understand it. ”
An art without context
“The documentary shows very well what wrestling is: portable, replicable, has to be sustainable.
Much of the wrestling mainstream requires a very specific scenario to work. There are fighting considered the best in the world that do not make sense out of context. If you don't know the story behind, they don't work elsewhere.
But being a good professional fighter means getting the best out of the stage to be given.
It requires great ability to create something incredible from a six -month history, of course. But the art of the fight is also to make it work on the worst stage. For example: you have four struggles, all different, before an audience that probably does not know you. You have to explain during the fight why we are doing a show on a night emo, why we are going to sing during combat, and everything must make sense. The public has to understand it. That's where you see the true level of skill that is needed. “
The authenticity of the documentary
“They did a great job, making me completely forgot that they were there. Also, the demand for those three days was so high that, honestly, the main difference for having a documentary team was that I had someone who took me by car and I didn't have to walk asking for a round trip. That was the best part.
We chatted in the car and now. The rest of the time was doing what I had to dobecause I had no mental or physical space to act differently. I had to fight with Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Irie and do the damn Battle Bog on the same day, in addition to other things.
That is what they wanted: Mike Bailey Real, making real wrestling. And that is what they obtained. I didn't change anything for the documentary. “
