AEW: Everything you need to know about Britt Baker

Before she wrestles in her hometown later in tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite, let’s get fans familiar with Britt Baker.

It’s Wednesday. You know what that means. Well, it can mean a lot of things, but to narrow it down for the wrestling fans out there reading this (which, considering this is a wrestling site, all of you), you are either watching AEW TV or NXT TV.

Since you clicked on an article with AEW in the title, I’ll assume you’ll be watching Dynamite tonight. By the same sword, since you clicked on an article titled “Everything you need to know about Britt Baker,” I’m guessing you want to know everything there is to know about Britt Baker?

Assuming that is correct, let’s get started, shall we?

Britt Baker grew up watching wrestling ever since she was a kid, but upon learning that independent wrestling outside of WWE programming was a thing, she decided to train to be a pro wrestler herself. So while living in State College, Pennysylvania, she’d spend 3-4 hours driving back and forth from home to training at the International Wrestling Cartel in 2014. She only has five years of experience under her belt, but she’s accomplished major strides in this business so far already.

The part time dentist (a graduate from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Dental Medicine) made her official in-ring debut in Aug. 2015 for IWC and within a year became IWC’s first ever Women’s Champion. Also in that year, Baker made her WWE debut working as an enhancement talent vs. Nia Jax.

From there, Baker continued to make a name for herself with appearances in promotions like Ring of Honor, Shimmer, Absolute Intense Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, WrestleCircus and several others.

She eventually caught the attention of future AEW execs Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, and when it came time to book their independently made All In show, they paged Dr. Baker. She ended up competing against Madison Rayne, Chelsea Green, and Tessa Blanchard in the only women’s match of the night in front of 11,263 screaming Chicagoans in attendance.

Cody and Co. were so impressed with Baker’s performance that four months later, when they announced opening up All Elite Wrestling, Baker was the first woman they signed onto their roster. She also ended up being the first woman to win a match in AEW, winning another Four Way match at their debut PPV, Double or Nothing.

Obviously, Baker has aspirations higher than just being AEW’s first woman signee: she wanted to be AEW’s first Women’s Champion. A lot of fans and critics expected Baker to become the face of the women’s division going forward and expected her to be their first champion. Many were shocked to see her lose the All Out number one contender’s Battle Royal for entry into the first title match.

Thanks to interference from Bea Priestly (the two have been feuding for quite some time, with Priestly causing Baker’s concussion at AEW Fight for the Fallen during their tag match), Nyla Rose won that match and wrestled Riho to determine the inaugural champion during AEW’s premiere Dynamite episode. Riho wound up being AEW’s first Women’s Champion.

Then, last week, she lost a title match to Riho on Dynamite. Her string of bad luck continues, but hopes to pick up some momentum during tonight’s episode.

Since tonight’s episode of Dynamite will hail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Britt Baker will be competing in her hometown. And as we learned earlier today, she will be facing former NXT UK competitor and current Pro-Wrestling EVE International Champion, Jamie Hayter.

We’ll keep a close eye on this one to see if Baker can pick up a win in her hometown. Then, of course, we’ll keep an eye on her career going forward to see if see lives up to expectations as a future top babyface in AEW.