Britt Baker Talks About Personal Successes and The Importance of ALL IN

Britt Baker joined us two weeks ahead of All In, the biggest independent wrestling event we’ve ever seen. Britt talks about the responsibility to represent for the women of independent wrestling, as well as what’s gone into getting her to the level of success she’s reached today.

“All In” can be viewed only on Fite TV’s PPV Livestream, Saturday September 1st at 7PM EST. To order All In, visit All In’s Fite TV event page.

Chelsea Marcus: Thank you so much for joining us! We are, I guess it’s less now then two weeks til All In, on September 1st, which is absolutely, undoubtedly looking to be the biggest independent wrestling event we’ve ever seen, just like it’s promoting. Are you surprised by the success of the event, or is it more a feeling of gratitude or pride, like “this is what we’ve been working for, it’s great to see that it’s finally coming to fruition”?

Britt Baker: I think it’s both a mix of being surprised and having gratitude that independent wrestling has reached this giant milestone of this show that’s going to have 10,000 people, and it’s outside WWE, and it is sold out, and fans all over the place are still trying to find tickets, still trying to find ways to watch the show, because it’s just such a huge deal in independent wrestling. And I think it’s safe to say if you’re a wrestling fan, you know what All In is. A lot of wrestling fans might not know this promotion or that promotion on the independents. Everybody in the wrestling world, they about All In, they’re talking about it, they’re going to watch it, and I think that’s just such a cool… just a sense of success, like independent wrestling, here we are.

CM: And not only did it sell out, I think it sold out in less than an hour.

BB: It was thirty minutes I believe, which is crazy!

CM: How soon after you announced you were all in were you approached about actually having a match on the card.?

BB: We just found out on… when was it, last week? You know, we heard rumblings this and there, but it wasn’t really sure. Y’know, just because you’re on All In doesn’t necessarily mean you’re guaranteed a match. It could’ve been commentary, it could’ve been anything. So, when the graphic came out of myself, Tessa [Blanchard], Chelsea [Green], and Madison [Rayne], I almost cried. I was like, I’m going to wrestle three of the best girls on the independent wrestling circuit today, and I’m going to do it in front of 10,000 people.

CM: So you found out exactly as everyone else was finding out?

BB: We knew what girls were booked, we knew what possible matches could be, it could be singles or this or that, but we didn’t know the official “this is how it’s going to be” until… I want to say hours before.

CM: How soon after [you found out about the match] did you give Chelsea a call?

BB: Oh my god, right away!

CM: First phone call, no hesitation!

BB: Chelsea’s pretty much on my speed dial at this point when anything good or bad happens in professional wrestling. Even when it’s totally irrelevant I still call her, and she does the same thing with me.

CM: I know you’ve talked before about how fun it is to be in a tag team [Chelsea]. Does it change a little bit when you have a match against her. Does it get a bit more serious, or does it still stay light-hearted?

BB: It’s obviously more serious because we don’t get to have fun, but Chelsea and I know each other and how we wrestle and how we move like the back of our hands. I can look at Chelsea’s face and know what she’s thinking and what she’s going to do and how she’s going to do it, and she’s the same way with me. Since we’ve been tagging together, we haven’t had many singles matches [together], but we’ve been tagging way more frequently. Now we’re at a point where this is going to be very interesting, when we’re in the same ring and we’re fighting to beat each other.

CM: So there’s one person you have to have your eye on a little bit more.

BB: To be fair, all three of those girls, I don’t take any of them lightly. They’re all amazing.

CM: Do you feel a sense of responsibility as the only women’s match on the card to kind of prove or represent for the women on the independent circuit?

BB: Oh my gosh, yes. That’s so funny you said that; I was just talking to someone about that. This is the “women’s revolution”. WWE just announced that women’s Evolution pay-per-view, it’s all women. We are the only female match on this giant, independent, spectacular show. If there’s ever a time to have the match of your life, it’s that night.

CM: If you could book another women’s match on that card, who do you think you’d want to see perform?

BB: Well, Deonna. Obviously we just lost her to WWE. I would’ve killed to have her involved in our match, I love Deonna. I think she’s spectacular. Another favorite one is Rachael Ellering. I always have great matches with her. I think she’s just a phenomenal athlete. She lives and breathes for the sport.

CM: And Deonna [made her NXT debut] at TakeOver: Brooklyn.

BB: I was there! I will say this, [at TakeOver] I just took a second to look around. I looked it up, I think attendance was like 14,000 or something like that, but there are some TakeOvers that are right at, maybe even a little below 10,000, and I was like “this is the kind of vibe that All In is going to be”. This independent show is going to have the same vibe as a TakeOver. Those fans are absolutely electric. I turn into a fan. To be honest, if I wasn’t booked on All In, I too would probably be scrambling for tickets or I would for sure be watching it on Fite TV because as a fan, I want to see the show too!

CM: If you could say anything to people who are still are on the fence about whether or not to watch, what would you say to convince them?

BB: The[Young] Bucks and Cody {Rhodes] are absolute geniuses. They are quite possibly the most entertaining people in professional wrestling to begin with. If you just take a second and go on YouTube and look at any of the video packages about what All In is, literally one or two minutes of those, you’ll be hooked. If they’re still not sold, I would say watching maybe one minute of any Young Bucks or Cody Rhodes match and just kind of seeing how they are as performers and the vibe they create, obviously that’s going to trickle into the vibe of what they want to create with All In. You’ll be hooked.

CM: Moving away from wrestling just a little bit, you recently graduated with a DMD degree and you are now a dentist, so congratulations!

BB: Yes, thank you so much!

CM: Was there ever a time while you were doing that or pursuing wrestling at the same time that you were just completely overwhelmed and thought, “there’s absolutely no way I’m going to be able to do both of these, I’m going to have to pick one”?

BB: If I had a dollar for every time it crossed my mind, “I have to choose, I have to pick one or the other”, especially when I first started. I didn’t even start training until I’d started dental school. The first two years of dental school are brutal. Any single second of the day that you’re not studying, you should be studying. I had to go to school, study, read ahead for the patients that I might get to see tomorrow, and on top of that I had to set aside two hours to go to in- ring training, at least an hour, hour and a half at the gym, and if I can, hey, maybe get some sleep in. I was so exhausted, and I just remember thinking, “Ugh, I don’t know how I’m going to do this”. My roommate in dental school would constantly keep me on top of things, like “hey, don’t forget we have a homework assignment due tomorrow”, “hey, don’t forget we have to be at this class tomorrow”. Honest to god, if it wouldn’t have been for her, I probably would’ve missed a significant amount of exams and tests, which who knows if I would be the DMD that I am today.

CM: If you could give a piece of advice to someone who’s in your situation and trying to pursue a career and pursue wrestling at the same time and thinking that it’s not cut out for them, what kind of advise would you give them to keep going?

BB: You have to focus on the moments of reward, because there’s nothing more gratifying than that. After I would have a match that I was really happy with, or even actually just the second I would step foot in the ring and have any kind of interaction with the fans, you just have to think of that moment and hold on to it and remember “this is why I’m doing this, this is how I feel” for those moment when your eyes are closing while you’re in class, those moments when you’re driving home thinking, “oh my god, I get up at 6AM for a class”. The same thing transfers over to dentistry. When I’d do a dental procedure that was really hard, but I did it, and it was awesome, it looks great, the patient’s happy, the patient’s smiling, that makes that worth it too. You can’t focus on when you’re struggling and feeling defeated and exhausted, you have to focus on anything but that. That’s my advice.

CM: Lastly, obviously we have All In airing on September 1st on Fite TV, is there anything else you’d like to plug?

BB: Make sure everyone comes out to Starrcast for the whole weekend of All In. If we’re not going see you at All In, hopefully you’ll be tuning in on Fite TV, and other that, I hope we see everyone All In weekend and hope to impress and just wow the wrestling world!

CM: Thank you again for joining us!

BB: Thank you so much!

Thank you again to Britt Baker for sitting down with us even though she had just gotten off a very tumultuous flight! All In can be streamed on Fite TV and airs Saturday September 1st at 7PM EST.