“I think it is going to be one of, if not the biggest matches on the entire card. I will go on and say that, I am confident with saying that,” Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, about her match against Hikaru Shida for All Elite Wrestling’s Women’s World Championship. The match is one of four championship bouts at AEW’s Double Or Nothing, taking place on May 30, 2021, but according to Dr. Baker, the other three will pale in comparison to what she and the champ have in store. “Anytime I am in the ring with Shida, it is a war.”
“She is a fighter, that is for sure,” says Dr. Baker, who has stepped in the ring against Shida, in a variety of matches, seven times, according to Cagematch.net. Her only recorded win over the champ came in May 2020, when Britt and Nyla Rose defeated Shida and Kris Statlander in a tag match on an episode of AEW Dynamite. However, Dr. Baker says that was in the past, telling HollywoodLife that Shida faces a “whole new version” of Dr. Baker at Double Or Nothing. “I want the best of the best, and I want to go to war,” says Britt. “I want to feel like I am on death’s door when I leave the ring. When I win, I want to have earned it, to earn that win, and earn that championship.”
“I am confident that I am going to do it,” she adds. “I have respect for Shida — she carried the division through a difficult time. I don’t think anybody else could have, including myself, but I am a different person now and it is my time!”
Dr. Baker’s transformation can be traced back to the March 11 episode of Dynamite, when she took on her rival, Thunder Rosa, in an Unsanctioned Lights Out match. Though Dr. Baker came out on the losing side of the no holds barred, destructive affair, one wouldn’t know judging by the aftermath online. The image of Britt’s face, covered in blood (often called a “crimson mask” in professional wrestling), instantly became an iconic moment, a baptism in violence that seemingly reinvigorated her profile in AEW.
Two months later, the impact hasn’t worn off. “I mean two months, two years, twenty years. That match is always going to hold a very special place for me in my heart,” she tells HollywoodLife. “The outpouring love from the fans and my colleagues and people I look up to in the business, that is a goal in life to have that approval.” Dr. Baker said that people like Mick Foley congratulated and celebrated her (Which is big, since Foley’s Hell In A Cell match at King of the Ring 1998 is considered one of the most memorable – and most dangerous – moments in professional wrestling history.)
“I will never forget that match even if I retired from wrestling tomorrow,” adds Britt. “ At least I know I have that little piece to take with me and that will always go down as a wrestling match that everyone will remember, something that was talked about a long time.”
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. is used to people talking about her, whether it’s in professional wrestling– or in the medical community. She is a legit, authentic, true-to-life dentist. Her time in the ring has attracted the attention of her fellows in the dental world. “Yeah, it is crazy that how more and more dentists from all over the country are reaching out to me because they have seen me on TV,” she said with a laugh. “They know absolutely nothing about my clinical abilities in the office but they want to chat and get to know me. It is cool — people have inquired to have me do graduations and commencement speeches in the future for dental school. So that is something I can really see myself doing because I am such a role model — so I only see it as fitting.”
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Will the “role model” become “the champ” at Double Or Nothing on May 30? The main show starts at 8pm EST / 5 pm PT, with a pre-show airing an hour before that. Double Or Nothing is available via PPV at $60, but it’s also available on streaming services. If you’re in the US, it’ll be $50 through B/R Live. In the UK and Australia, you’ll instead watch it through Fite TV, where it costs $20 (£14, AU$25).