AEW’s Britt Baker Addresses Comment About WWE Performance Center

AEW

Former AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker has addressed a comment that has been going around on social media of late.

The quote in question came from a 2021 interview with the Washington Post, during which Baker discussed WWE’s NIL program and its approach to hiring young athletes without backgrounds in wrestling rather than travelled independent wrestlers.

Baker said:

“I don’t think putting a bunch of models and athletes off the street in a warehouse and teaching them all to do the same thing the same way at the same time is going to create a successful roster.

“People learn differently and they have different strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes you have to find out what those are on your own.”

An account on Twitter posted the quote without any additional context and listed several names who had come through the NXT system and been successful (despite the fact that numerous of the examples they’d given had actually worked on the indies before joining NXT), as well as a clown emoji referencing Baker.

This then led Baker to respond on Twitter, where she labelled the quote as “out of context” and “incomplete”, stating her opinion was based more out of support for independent wrestling and wrestlers, rather than attacking WWE’s approach and the Performance Center itself.

Baker said in response:

“This quote is out of context and incomplete.

“It’s from 2021 when WWE stated they would stop signing indie wrestlers and focus on pro-athletes.

“I think most pro wrestlers would tell you how valuable the independent wrestling circuit was to their development, and multiple girls you listed all came from the indies.

“It wasn’t a dig at the PC; it was in support of independent wrestling.”

Baker defeated Taya Valkyrie on last week’s AEW Dynamite, which may put her in line for a shot at AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm in the near future.

First, Storm defends the title against Hikaru Shida at AEW Dynamite 200 this week.

https://t.co/IVw8mOetUX pic.twitter.com/Q29AxVUtLJ

— Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (@RealBrittBaker) July 31, 2023

If you want to stay fully updated on all the latest wrestling news, click the red bell in the bottom right of your screen to receive notifications from WrestleTalk.com straight to your device!

• developmental
• performance center
• AEW
• Britt Baker
• wwe

Share this article with friends