Britt Baker calls herself the "Role Model" on AEW Dynamite. Bayley calls herself the "Role Model" on WWE SmackDown.
Coincidence?
Yes. Bayley started using the nickname first and shortly after, Baker picked up the nickname to coincide with her heel turn. The nickname has sparked online controversy between the two fanbases, leading to Baker getting attacked by Bayley fans for stealing use of the name.
But as Baker explained to Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, she didn't steal the nickname from Bayley. But she did steal it from someone else.
"It was not a blood capsule. I had so many trolls on Twitter saying, 'Oh, you're just trying to copy Becky Lynch and you have a blood capsule.' No, that (was real)," Baker said when discussing her bloody nose and the visual it presented against Hikaru Shida.
"While we're on the topic, no, we did not steal the role model gimmick from Bayley. That's a daily thing. The inspiration came from Chris Jericho. I don't want to say that I don't know totally what's going on with Raw and SmackDown, because I try to stay in touch, but at the same time, I'm a dentist and wrestler, I don't know every single storyline going on. It wasn't until I actually said the word 'role model' on TV and then I've got the Bayley army coming at me, 'you're stealing her gimmick,' that I even knew she was calling herself that too. Totally different uses of the word and gimmicks. But I want to set the record straight. I stole it from Jericho, not from her. I think [Sasha Banks and Bayley] are great and super entertaining. It's a completely, totally different character."
Jericho chimed in, saying, "She probably stole it from me too. I think her and Sasha watch a lot of my stuff and Eddie Guerrero's stuff. And I probably stole it from somebody."
That settles that.
Now, Twitter trolls, leave Britt alone.
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