Britt Baker Explains What Kept Her Away from AEW, Challenges Mercedes Mone in Dynamite Return

Britt Baker made her surprise return at AEW Forbidden Door, crashing Mercedes Mone’s celebration of her big win. Baker was approached for an interview backstage, but she said she would have more to share on this week’s Dynamite instead, and she would live up to her promise tonight. Baker returned to the ring and revealed exactly what kept her out of action for the past 10 months, which was a sudden diagnosis of a Transient ischemic attack, or TIA. Now she’s fully cleared and ready to go though, and that led to a confrontation with Mone where Baker challenged the TBS Champion to a match at All In. Mone told her to go to the back of the line, but Baker pushed back on that, and it seems we could be seeing that match happen sooner rather than later.

A Long-Awaited Return

Baker started by addressing the fans and talking about three terms that she’s been thinking about a lot lately. “That’s a past, a present, and a future. Our past is our lesson. Our present is a gift, and our future is our motivation. Let’s start with the past. For the last 10 months, I’m sure a lot of you were wondering ‘where’ Britt?” And anytime that question was asked, the answer was given ‘She’s injured.’ Yeah, but I think you guys know me by now that it would take more than a couple of herniated discs and a torn hip labrum to keep me away from this place,” Baker said.

“Back in November, physically yeah I was banged up, and mentally I was probably running on empty, but every time I looked myself in the mirror I said, I’m good. Until one day I wasn’t. Because one day I started feeling really sick, and the room was spinning. My vision was blurry, and my right arm was tingling and numb and it was, something didn’t feel right but I looked at myself in the mirror and said I’m good,” Baker said.

Then things took a turn, and that would lead to a surprising diagnosis. “I tried to open a bottle of water and I couldn’t. And my entire right side stopped working. To sum this story up, I spent a week in the hospital with a diagnosis of a TIA, which is a Transient ischemic attack. And the doctors explained that to me as an instance when your Brian isn’t getting enough blood for that moment, and it is a major warning sign for a stroke, so much that they call it a mini stroke. And at that moment I looked at myself in the mirror and said Britt, you are not good. And I told Tony ‘I need to stay home and get myself right’, and he said okay Britt, let me know when you’re good,” Baker said.

Baker vs Mone

After addressing Mone a bit and her sudden stature in AEW, Mone came out and had everyone put out balloons and decorations to celebrate her win at Forbidden Door. After some back and forth between the two, Baker spoke about being one of the originals in AEW and competing at the very first All In. That’s why it made perfect sense to make more history at the next All In, and she challenged Mone to a TBS Title match at the pay-per-view.

Mone then pushed her face out of the way and told Baker there were lots of other women in the locker room who were up for a Title shot, and to take herself to the back of the line. Baker then looked behind her and asked “what line?” That got a smile out of Mone, so while Mone has shot down a challenge right now, it is definitely in the works.

What did you think of Baker’s return? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!