Britt Baker has been a key point of consistency within All Elite Wrestling since her heel turn that served as quite the catalyst for her career.
No matter the injury status, Doctor Britt Baker D.M.D. appeared on numerous editions of AEW’s televised programming with a variety of different broken bones. Upon returning to the ring, Baker was placed at the top of the card despite her lack of championship gold. However not all fans have received Britt Baker’s tenure with the same positivity, reasoning that Britt’s spot should’ve been given to various other members of the women’s division who may not receive as much screen time.
The simple comparison that the internet jumps to make is that of former WWE Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair, another well presented and prominent wrestler who often receives obviously similar criticisms.
The former AEW Women’s Champion spoke recently to Swerve Strickland & Monteasy on Swerve City where she was quizzed about her role as the face of the All Elite Wrestling women’s division, as well as the previously mentioned comparisons to Charlotte Flair.
“I do consider myself the face of the women’s division. That’s a job and that’s a priority. Me doing what I do at TV every week, me being on TV is a presence. I’m one of the top stars in the division, but I’m doing all these outside things that are given to me and hitting home runs left and right. If you send me to Comic Cons, not only am I going, but I’m gonna network and meet this person and that person and be like, ‘Have you heard of AEW? Let me tell you about this.’ Next thing you know, we have John Kreese (Martin Kove) from Cobra Kai showing up at AEW Dynamite. I’m taking advantage of every single opportunity. I do get compared to Charlotte all the time on Twitter. For me, okay cool, one of the best women’s wrestlers of all time. You’re so mean for calling me that. People don’t understand the constant pressure that comes with all the hate that you get. We are people. On Twitter, they dehumanize us, ‘Oh, we’re just wrestling characters,’ but we’re not, we’re people. This is our job and we want to be good at our job. You’re doing everything you can to not mess up, but sometimes you still might. The next day, you’re working ten times harder to make sure you’re not making the same mistakes because we’re human,”
Britt Baker
“Being the face of the division, you’re under a microscope. No matter what you’re doing, what you’re saying, everyone has you under a microscope and they are looking for any second to twist and turn your words. To watch a match, and all of a sudden they know it all. ‘Oh, I see what happened there. Britt did this wrong because she did that wrong and told Tony (Khan) this, this and this. That’s why this happened.’ No, it’s not. This was written three weeks ago. You can’t let that get in your brain or you will drive yourself insane, because I have. It’s taken talking to people like Chris Jericho, Tony Schiavone, and Tony Khan to say, ‘Do not listen to Twitter. Get it out of your head. It’s not real. Listen to your co-workers and peers and people you look up to in wrestling. Listen to the fans.'”
Britt Baker
Britt Baker frequently gauges opinions of those close to her who watch wrestling in a more casual manner, as to receive a more diversified opinion.
“People forget before I was in the position that I’m in, I lost to every girl on the roster like two or three times. My first year and a half, I was always losing. Babyface and even when I was a heel, I was losing to the point where it was time for me to get ready to challenge (Hikaru) Shida, my record was so bad, I had to do ten Dark matches to get my record up,”
Britt Baker
AEW Double or Nothing 2021, the scene was set and Britt Baker would go on to defeat Hikaru Shida to finally win the All Elite Wrestling Women’s World Championship.
Britt Baker circled back to her conversations with Charlotte and brought to mind the recommendations she was given by Flair.
“Back to Charlotte, her and I have chatted, and she has given me so much great advice just to get through this. She’s given me solid advice to just stay true to what you know is true. Don’t worry about the narratives that fans are creating or what they want to be true because you know what’s going on and what you’re working with. She’s been fantastic to me,”
Britt Baker
Britt Baker is fresh off of a loss in a tag team action with Jamie Hayter. The two would be defeated by Hikaru Shida, and the current women’s champion, Toni Storm.
H/T Fightful for the transcription
