AEW Booms/Duds: The gritty brutality of Moxley vs. Hager

Boom: heel Britt Baker continues to shine

That is the creepiest dentist’s office I have ever seen. The first shot being that multi-colored poster of teeth made me shudder.

That was the goal, probably, and it worked.

Baker is taking the simple, tried-and-true heel playbook: blame her opponent for her shortcomings in a justifiable way. This latter part is important as I’ve discussed before because when heels have justifications for their personalities, tactics, and mannerisms, fans are torn because they can agree with the reasoning even if they disagree with eventual actions.

Last night, Baker blamed Hikaru Shida for breaking her nose last week, “forcing” Baker to “valiantly fight with an excruciating deviated septum.” She called it a dirty tactic even though we, as viewers, know it was just a casualty of physical battle. To be fair to Shida, it looked like she kicked Baker’s arm into her nose, causing the break.

Still, this provided even more reason for Baker to seek revenge on Shida, and I am looking forward to their next match. Shida even added to the fire with this tweet.

Small note: she only discussed rule #1 in “The Rules of Being a Role Model” presentation. Does this mean we will see more in the coming weeks?

To her match with Cassandra Golden, Baker bounced back with a victory after her loss last week. Baker has looked much improved in the ring the last two weeks, but how much of this is due to the shows being taped? I want to say not much, but we really won’t know until we see her live again.

It was also good to see Golden in AEW again, and shows AEW’s flexibility in working with talent that’s available. She did what she was supposed to do: make Baker look like a strong heel.

Golden seems to have a knack for good facial expressions during matches, and her selling Baker’s new finisher was a bit over-the-top, but also perfect for professional wrestling. I’m hoping she gets more time in the future.

Baker helped her own case with a stiff looking superkick (a move I have criticized her for in the past) and those wonderful heel mannerisms, particularly that evil smile and laugh.

Her new finisher is brutal, a callback to what she did to Yuka Sakazaki (should we call it the Rope Stomp or Tooth Decay?). What I really like is she maintains pressure on her opponent even as she is bringing her foot down so there is no chance for her opponent to escape.

It’s basically the opposite of the top rope double foot stomp where the opponent hanging on the ropes for some reason decides to just hang there and wait instead of countering or moving.

Baker’s turn from middling babyface to scathing heel has been tremendous and needed. I think part of the issue was that as a face, she was trying things in the ring that are probably beyond her current skill set. Focusing on being a heel and the (usually) more limited, less flashy move set has really allowed her to find her voice and character as a wrestler. I’m excited to see just what other layers we see from Baker.