A confusing finish to the Shelton Benjamin vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey match on last night’s AEW Dynamite special has been clarified as a simple miscommunication. Late in the match, the referee stopped his count after a Benjamin superkick, even though Bailey’s shoulders were down, leading to an awkward pause before Benjamin finished the match with a second sequence.
According to Bryan Alvarez, the planned finish was the first superkick.
“Everyone is fine… Shelton hits the kick, and Speedball takes this huge full-flip bump that looks incredible. Shelton decides it won’t get better than that and calls an audible to make it the finish. The referee didn’t hear him, so he stopped the count because that wasn’t the scheduled ending.”
Alvarez confirmed that Bailey was not injured or concussed on the play and was not at fault for the error.
“You could blame the referee, you could blame Shelton, but not Speedball — he did exactly what he was supposed to do… Bailey wasn’t concussed or injured. Shelton just thought the spot looked so good that they should end it right there.”
