AEW Star Britt Baker Discusses Being A Heel, Sasha Banks, Cyberbullying, Finances, More

Britt Baker—or Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. as some fans may know her—has solidified herself as the face of the AEW women’s division, and after holding its world championship for nearly 300 days, she knows it’s time to let some other stars shine.

Baker’s impressive reign as AEW Women’s World Championship ended at the hands of longtime nemesis Thunder Rosa in March, and the 31-year-old star is fine with taking a backseat after dropping the title. “We have so many talented women that I can take a step back…I got to sit back and watch everyone else have their moment and watch everyone else rise,” Baker said in an exclusive interview. “Sometimes you’re going to be up, sometimes you’re going to be the focus. Sometimes, you’re not. Its somebody else’s turn, and that’s OK.”

Even though Baker finds herself out of the title picture for the first time in roughly a year, it’s not like she simply vanished into thin air. On this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, she will face AEW newcomer Toni Storm in a semifinal match in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament and feels honored to be a part of it.

““I’m obviously in the mix for the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, and that’s something that I think is really, really special and really, really cool,” Baker said. “I want to have a really big role in that, and I would love to be the first female to win that tournament.”

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Baker had high praise for Storm, saying, “Toni Storm is a star. We really got lucky that she fell into our hands. She is arguably one of the best female wrestlers in the world. She looks like a rock star. She is a rock star.” Baker will have to get through the rockstar Storm to advance to the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation in what will be a battle of the two of the most popular—and biggest stars—in AEW’s women’s division.

While Baker has been a cornerstone and focal point of AEW for much of her career, she has taken a couple of other stars along for the ride with her. She believes her long-term on-screen pairing with both Rebel and Jamie Hayter has been “mutually beneficial” for everyone involved and that Hayter is right on the cusp of becoming a massive star as well. “Jamie is a superstar, and if people don’t notice it yet or see it yet, they will and they will soon…She is one of the best wrestlers in the ring, but she just has so much personality and charisma that you guys are going to see it very soon. It’s just going to take that moment for her to break out,” Baker said.

Baker, Hayter and Rebel have formed one of AEW’s top heel factions, and even during an era in which there is a gray area overlapping good and evil, “The Doctor” still considers herself a heel. “Villains are becoming more and more relatable in movies and TV and in wrestling. In every wrestling company across the board a lot of the heels get cheered. With that being said, I still consider myself a heel,” Baker said. “It’s really hard to predict crowd reaction with babyfaces and heels because the lines are so blurred, and it has nothing to do with the booking or the character work. It’s just the fans. They like what they like.”

While Baker is a villain in her own eyes, she admits that it was the fans who played a big part in her ascension to the pinnacle of AEW. Reflecting on exactly when she felt like she developed a strong connection with fans, Baker mentioned her famed and critically acclaimed Lights Out Unsanctioned Match with Thunder Rosa and a particular moment inside Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, which many consider to be the “home stadium” of sorts for AEW. It was the go-home show to Double or Nothing in May 2021 and the first time that Daily’s Place was mostly filled with fans after the Covid-19 pandemic forced AEW to run largely crowd-less shows or shows with a limited number of fans.

“I cut a promo and I signed off, ‘Yours truly, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.’ And it was the first time that the crowd was there and they did it with me, and I had never had that before…So it almost made me stop dead in my tracks. I was like, oh wow. That’s really cool,” Baker explained. “It really made me feel like I was finally clicking with the fans.”

Baker’s connection with fans remains strong even to this day, but being one of the most prominent superstars in AEW’s brief history does come with some unfortunate side effects, not the least of which is negative interactions with fans on social media. Baker said, “I think people just go on to Twitter just to be heard in a negative way. They just want to say something nasty and hateful and mean, so they will go on to Twitter for literally no [other] reason and they just say it and make sure they tag you in it, too.”

Almost exactly two years after the death of Hana Kimura—a popular Japanese wrestler who took her own life in 2020 after being cyberbullied—Baker noted how “horrible” some fans can be. “We’ve had people in the industry kill themselves over cyberbullying, and you’d think that that would be enough for people to wake up. Keep your mean thoughts to yourself,” Baker elaborated. “You know, the body-shaming and telling me I should go kill myself because I beat so and so in a match, it’s just really, really horrible and toxic.”

Toxic fans have long been a part of pro wrestling, especially in today’s social media age, and in recent years, fans have reacted less than favorably to real life couples being paired together on-screen, as has been the case with AEW’s Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti. Baker is in a real-life relationship with fellow AEW star Adam Cole, but thus far, they’ve had minimal on-screen interaction on Dynamite or Rampage, with one lone mixed tag team match against Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander.

According to Baker, there’s a reason why she hasn’t formed a long-term pairing with Cole on TV. “This is probably a little arrogant, but that’s OK because I believe in it. We don’t need each other. We’re at the top of our respective divisions on our own, and I think that’s what really makes a power couple a power couple. You don’t have to say you’re a power couple. You just are.”

Baker noted that their joint “DMD Bay Bay” shirt was an “instant top seller,” but the two stars are successful enough on their own that they don’t need to rely on each other on-screen. “We don’t have to shove it down people’s throats. People know we’re a couple, but we don’t need each other in the ring and on camera to be relevant,” Baker said. “I’m a rock star on my own. He’s a rock star on his own, and if we get to do stuff together, it just makes it that much better.”

Baker, of course, has done just fine by herself—not just in pro wrestling, but also as a dentist. The moniker “Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.” isn’t just a gimmick. It’s reality. Baker also works as a dentist and is grateful to have two stable careers that give her financial security and will allow her to progress her career as an in-ring performer on her own terms.

“I have two stable financial careers, and I’m very fortunate that AEW gives me the opportunity to still be a dentist because it’s something that I’m very passionate about. I went to school for eight years. I paid a lot of money, and I still have a lot of money in student loans. But I just didn’t want to have to give that up at any point in my life. And if I do have to give it up at some point, then OK. But right now, I don’t want to choose and I don’t have to choose,” Baker said. “Any other company in the world, this wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t be a wrestler and a dentist. I would be a wrestler that was a dentist at one point.”

Baker does have an elaborate sneaker collection and plenty of vintage rock band and Pittsburgh sports team t-shirts—some of which she paid more than $500 for—but her financial flexibility is something that will allow her to retire from the ring on her own terms.

“I think I’ll know when it’s time to be done wrestling. I’m pretty smart financially…so it won’t depend on finances or money. It’s just going to be a matter of my time and when I’m ready,” said Baker.

While she often gets AEW fans who come to her dental practice, she says that they are usually “respectful,” even though she sometimes has to remind them that she is there to work and not to play a character on TV. In addition to Baker’s diehard fans attempting to get their teeth cleaned, they often love to fantasy book in her dream matches against other top pro wrestling stars, and she actually has a dream match in mind for herself.

“Since it’s a pretty hot topic right now, I’m going to say Sasha Banks.…I think she is one of the top draws in all of WWE. She’s such a superstar, she’s such a good wrestler,” Baker said. “She’s definitely somebody that I would love to wrestle.”

Baker vs. Banks remains a dream match for now, and Baker said she “hopes” she hasn’t hit her prime yet and expects that she will remain involved in wrestling for the foreseeable future. “I definitely want to have a family and kids in my future, so I’m not going to be wrestling forever, but I want have involvement in wrestling for a long time even if I’m not a full-time in-ring competitor.”

Exactly what Baker’s future in AEW holds isn’t clear, but after a lengthy story with Thunder Rosa, one thing the former world champion really wants to participate in is more long-term storytelling. She compared storytelling in pro wrestling to that of pro sports: “If you’ve just moved to a new city, you’re really not that passionate about it, but if you’ve been invested in that city for a long time, when that team loses, your day is ruined, you are crying, you are emotional. When your team wins, you’re ready to hit the streets and throw a party. It’s the same with wrestling.”

Baker said she understands how passionate fans are and gets their complaints about AEW’s jam-packed roster and fans wanting everything to happen ASAP, but ultimately, she believes that long-term storytelling is the best type of storytelling. “We are all microwave babies. They want it to happen now or in 30 seconds, but the best meals aren’t cooked in the microwave,” said Baker. “They are cooked in the oven or on the stove top. You gotta let it simmer, right?”

And if Baker’s red hot AEW career thus far has been any indication, this summer will be another simmering one for the cornerstone of AEW’s blossoming women’s division.