Britt Baker: ‘I Had Grown Stale & Stagnant Before AEW Hiatus’

Britt Baker may not have planned to be away from AEW TV for as long as she was, but her lengthy hiatus did allow her ‘stale’ character to freshen up.

Baker returned to AEW programming at last month’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view and confronted TBS/NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone. Since then, Baker has made it clear she wants a shot at the CEO, though Mone isn’t interested in the match. On tonight’s AEW Dynamite, Mone will defend her TBS title against Nyla Rose who accepted an open challenge made to every woman in AEW except Baker.

Before her return at Forbidden Door, Britt Baker hadn’t appeared on AEW programming since September 2023 as she was dealing with herniated discs and had suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack. Speaking to Renee Paquette on Close Up, Baker reflected on needing the time off to recover and why it helped her in much more than her physical health.

“It was time to let everything heal and just mentally, emotionally, get in tune with myself again because you do kind of lose yourself at some point. It felt like I was I was stale. I was stagnant with who I am as a performer and I needed time away to be reinvigorated again and to find myself again.”

This invigorated Baker will continue her pursuit of the TBS Championship, in spite of Mercedes Mone ducking her attempts to have a match. Some fans expect that their showdown will take place at AEW All In: London 2024, though that has not been confirmed yet. The August 25, show will be AEW’s biggest event of the year and therefore a fitting home for a match fans have discussed long before Mone became All Elite in March 2024.