A clearer picture has emerged regarding the confusing finish to Shelton Benjamin vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey on last night’s special live three-hour AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision show at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts.
And it all comes down to a simple miscommunication.
During Thursday’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live at F4WOnline.com, Bryan Alvarez broke down exactly what led to the awkward moment in the closing stretch of the match.
The bout featured a sequence where Benjamin drilled Bailey with a superkick and immediately covered him, only for the referee to abruptly halt the count despite Bailey’s shoulders remaining flat.
The match continued for another sequence, ultimately ending with Benjamin hitting a German suplex, a knee strike, and a second superkick for the official finish.
While some viewers speculated that Bailey may have been legitimately hurt on the first kick, Alvarez made it clear that wasn’t the case, and that the confusion actually stemmed from Benjamin reacting on the fly.
“As it turns out, everybody is fine,” Alvarez said. “What essentially happened is — the finish was going to be a superkick. So Shelton ends up shooting him in or whatever. And he hits this kick, and Speedball just takes this incredible full-flip bump and it looks like he’s dead. So Shelton decides it ain’t going to get better than that. And so Shelton calls the audible. This is the finish. Apparently the ref didn’t hear him, and so the ref stops the count because that wasn’t actually supposed to be the finish.”
Alvarez added that the miscue wasn’t on Bailey at all, “So 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. It was a miscommunication. And then when the referee stopped [counting], they just went on and did the actual finish. But, no, he did not get concussed by the kick or anything like that. There was no injury involved. It was just, Shelton thought a move looked really cool and that they should just go to the finish right there.”
Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley, fellow members of The Hurt Syndicate, are scheduled to square off as the first two entrants in the Casino Gauntlet at AEW Full Gear 2025 this Saturday night in a match that will determine the first-ever AEW National Champion.
AEW Full Gear 2025 is scheduled to take place on November 22, live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Make sure to join us here at WrestlingHeadlines.com for live AEW Full Gear 2025 results coverage.
SHELTON KNOCKS SPEEDBALLS HEAD OFF #AEWDynamite #AEW pic.twitter.com/H56CODBpws
— TalonWulf91 (@TalonWulf91) November 20, 2025
