Being the first female signed by AEW, high expectations were placed on Britt Baker. She was viewed as the face of the division right away, but failed to capture the AEW Women's Title despite multiple attempts.
Growing frustrated as a character and not always connecting with the fans, Baker's on-screen attitude shifted to start 2020. Finally, she turned into a condescending heel and started to find her footing in AEW.
"Kenny was the first one who came to me and said, 'What if we turn you heel?' I had never been a heel throughout my entire career, my very long four years. I've always been the bubbly babyface. I was all for it," said Baker on Talk is Jericho. "'Sure, but I'm gonna need a lot of help because I've never done it before.' There was a lot of ideas on which direction the character should go and I really wasn't feeling or connecting with the ideas until I had cut a quick promo on Riho backstage at the New Year's Day show and some Twitter links had been sent to me about how it resembled Chris Jericho's WCW self-proclaimed role model (gimmick). I texted Tony [Khan] like January 3 pitching this idea going off [Jericho's character] and he loved it. I said, 'I'm going to talk to Chris.' That's when I asked, 'Do you think this could work, do you think it'll be a bust?' You said, 'I think it could work. You should go for it.' I pretty much pick your brain every week in some capacity for help to make this succeed. Cody has been a huge help, along with you and Tony, in making this character click and making it something I can present in a way that I believe in myself, which is the most important thing in making a character work."
Many have compared Baker's character to Bayley's as both use the nickname "The Role Model," but as Baker explained, she took the character and nickname from Chris Jericho and not Bayley. You can find Baker's further explanation on the nickname and not taking from Bayley by clicking here.
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