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Britt Baker Reacts To Criticisms Over Black Eye T-Shirt

By John Canton • Published 4th May 2023
britt baker aew slap jericho

Britt Baker has given her thoughts on people that are critical of AEW releasing a t-shirt that has her face on it with a black eye.

As a former AEW Women’s Champion that is constantly featured on television, it can be argued that Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is the “face” of the AEW women’s division.

Baker has been part of AEW since day one and after several years of being a heel, she’s currently in a babyface role alongside AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter. Baker is also one of the featured wrestlers on AEW’s All Access reality show that provides backstage access to AEW wrestlers in a way we’ve never seen them before.

Recently, Baker has been part of a storyline against The Outcasts trio of Saraya, Ruby Soho & Toni Storm, who are feuding with AEW’s original women. That story led to Hikaru Shida joining forces with Baker & Hayter this past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite. There was also a dramatic segment recently when The Outcasts worked with Chris Jericho that saw Baker’s boyfriend Adam Cole being handcuffed to the ropes while Saraya beat on Baker with a kendo stick.

On social media, Baker has been dealing with some backlash over AEW releasing a t-shirt with her face on it where she has a black eye. The shirt has been worn by her rivals like Saraya and Jericho to mock Baker.

When AEW tweeted about the Britt Baker black eye shirt being available, Baker retweeted it as well.

Britt Baker was asked about the shirt by Sports Illustrated with the dentist explaining that if the shirt featured a man with a black eye then they’d be considered tough, but with a woman sporting a black eye, people react differently to it. Baker admitted she was surprised by the reaction to the shirt.

“I was very surprised. When I posted the picture of my black eye on social media, it got almost 100,000 likes [and comments saying] that I’m tough and I’m a badass and, ‘Wow, this girl, she’s strong.’ It was empowering.”

“But then when it went on a shirt, it was really problematic, and that was so confusing to me. Because why? If I’m on a shirt with a black eye, why does that make me weak? Why does that make me a victim? But if a man, or Chris Jericho, had a black eye, they’d be tough and they’d be a badass.”

“To me, it’s showing the internal narrative that people are saying about women—and that’s that we’re not as strong or as tough as the men, and that’s the real problem here. It’s not a black eye on a T-shirt.”

Baker would then go on to mention injuries she has suffered in her career.

“Sometimes I do get hurt. I’ve broken my leg, my wrist, my nose—and guess what? Now I have a black eye and I signed up for that. I’ve actually been telling the makeup artist, ‘Don’t cover up my black eye.’ Because I think it’s empowering, because I’m tough. You should see the other girl.”

On Dynamite this week, Baker also got some payback on Chris Jericho, who she referred to as “B**ch Jericho” during the show.