Like many in wrestling, Britt Baker has faced her fair share of criticism from online fans, whether they are critiquing her matches or her persona.
Baker has been the face of the AEW women's division since day one of the company, as the first woman signed by the promotion. The division went through growing pains in the first few years as it worked to establish itself in the start-up company. The division and Baker were under a microscope in the first two to three years as fans wanted more from all involved.
Baker proved she could lift herself and the division with standout matches against Thunder Rosa, character work despite being injured, and winning the AEW Women's Title. With more accolades and the company growing, Baker became subject to even more criticism with some fans questioning her place in the division as the likes of Mercedes Mone, Willow Nightingale, Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander started to shine.
"Heavy is the head that wears the crown. It’s the nature of the business. It doesn’t matter what company, what business, what promotion. There are always people that are going to be heavily criticized," Baker told Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp when asked if being the first female talent signed made her more susceptible to criticism.
"As much as it hurts...I think what hurts me the most is when people run with rumors or concepts or ideas that are not true. If I sat here all day and fought off or batted down everything I’ve heard about myself that wasn’t true, I would spend my entire day on social media. I don’t do that, and I delete the app unless I have something to promote or it’s a Steelers game, and I get to talk shit to Bengals fans. That’s actually more frustrating than any of the criticism. I would like to say that, for most genuine wrestling fans, criticism comes from a good place. Just because they might not be able to communicate that properly or respectfully, that’s one thing, but just running with a rumor, people build whole podcasts around a one sentence rumor they’ve heard about me that’s not real. Some day, I can’t wait to do a tell-all; it’s going to be very eye-opening for a lot of people. You just have to let it roll off your back. I can’t control (it). I’m a control freak in all aspects of my life. I was the kid in school that took the reins of the group project because I wanted it to be perfect. I like to have control of things. You can’t have control of the narrative that people are going to say about you. They’re going to hear something and if it doesn’t fit their narrative of what they want it to be, they’re going to twist it and turn it so it does anyway. I’m at the point of my career where I’m happy. I know what goes on and what doesn’t," she said.
Baker sarcastically continued, "Whatever you’ve heard about me, it’s true. Whatever you heard I said, it’s true. I said it, I did it. I don’t care because it gets to the point where it’s laughable. You can’t lose sleep. You can’t sit at home and cry because people say you’re a bully or this and that. At the end of the day, my priority and passion is pro wrestling. I love the AEW women’s division, I love AEW. I love pro wrestling. I watch both companies religiously. That’s more of my focus now. How can we make pro wrestling better? We can’t control Twitter, X, Instagram bullshit rumors, but you can work on making the product better and building bigger stars and growing the AEW audience, crossing over into mainstream media. I’ll leave it at that."
That settles that.
Baker will be in action for the first time since AEW All In when she faces Serena Deeb at AEW Dynamite Fifth Anniversary on October 2.
Fans can watch the full interview with Baker in the video above.
