On the April 19th edition of AEW Dynamite, Britt Baker was on the receiving end of a vicious beatdown from The Outcasts.
The trio of Saraya, Toni Storm, and Ruby Soho attacked the star as she tried to defend her boyfriend, Adam Cole, from an attack by Chris Jericho and his Jericho Appreciation Society.
The episode left Baker with a very visible black eye, an image that AEW put on a t-shirt, causing a huge amount of backlash on social media from users who thought the merchandise was in bad taste and even promoted domestic violence.
Britt Baker responds to t-shirt backlash
The former Women’s Champion has now addressed the controversy, telling Sports Illustrated she was “very surprised” by the backlash as, when she posted the same image on social media, she got an overwhelmingly positive response.
“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.”
Baker explained that it shows a narrative where women aren’t seen as being as “tough” as the men in the sport.
“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. 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.”
H/T to Sports Illustrated for the above transcription.