It was hard not to notice the symbolism at all. In the pre-show, Jamie Hayter returned to a thunderous reception, while Britt Baker’s match with Mercedes Mone later in the night seemed to take place in a mausoleum.
There hasn’t been a better symbol of how Britt’s shifting fit in the women’s division than that. Hayter started as Britt’s heavy and quickly zoomed past her to be a fan favorite and champion over 2022 and 2023. With Hayter back in the fold and numerous other changes throughout the AEW women’s division, one can’t help but wonder where Baker goes from here and even if the women’s division of AEW needs her anymore.
To be fair to Britt and Mercedes, their match was in a nightmare spot, between Will Ospreay’s raucous win over MJF and the night’s final two matches. It was Baker’s first “big” match since her year-long absence due to injury. The problem for Baker is that even with all that, no one can say what her ceiling is and if she wasn’t at it anyway at Wembley.
The kindest description of Mone-Baker would be “choppy.” Mercedes seemingly tried everything to get it into gear, but it just never clicked.
Have we ever seen Mercedes pull off so many throws and slams in a match to be the unrelenting heel?
Sometimes, two wrestlers don’t have chemistry, but Britt’s list is getting long now. What was her last great match? Was there one? What was the last good one? On the biggest stage, it felt like she was more waiting around for her moves than creating something with Mercedes, perhaps the best women’s wrestler of all time. If Britt can’t find some electricity or rhythm with that level of performer, who will she find it with?
Waiting around for “her shit” has become something of a staple for her, with no better example than her “attack” on Mercedes a couple of weeks before Wembley, where she ambled to the ring as if heading to the bar, posed on the apron, posed in the ring, and went for a submission move in what was supposed to be a sneak attack, only succeeding in making both Mercedes and Kamille look like stooges. But then, it’s felt for a while that Britt has only ever been concerned about how Britt looks, as we’ll get into later.
The problem for Britt is not just during her injury absence, but even since Hayter’s rise and Baker’s move to shotgun on that, the division has taken leaps and bounds regarding talent and match quality.
Since Baker moved off the top of the card, we’ve seen Toni Storm have absolute Stormers with Hayter or Mariah May, just to name two.
Willow Nightingale has become a star wrestler everywhere and has classics to claim with Mercedes, Athena, and Mariah.
Mariah herself has stormed through the whole division.
Julia Hart took a major leap in the TBS division.
And this isn’t even near a complete list, as Kris Statlander and Queen Aminata have enthralled fans at times, too. There are still dependable veterans like Hikaru Shida or Thunder Rosa (funnily enough, perhaps the last and only one to make Britt seem completely credible) who just finished having another bloody riot with Deonna Purazzo.
Much like the rest of AEW, the women’s division is now based on what goes on between the ropes.
It’s not…this:
https://t.co/BiWL8zO76O pic.twitter.com/PGNw26EEMe
— brainbuster (@brxinbusterr) August 28, 2024
And quite simply, it didn’t look like Britt could hang on Sunday, and it didn’t look like she could hang even before she got hurt. While claims or accusations of sandbagging Mercedes might be harsh, Britt simply isn’t the worker that the division is now rife with. Her feud with Mercedes was based on her star power, and her claims of being the division leader from Day One. Except she was the leader of a division often derided for its lack of depth and vision. Britt’s claims to be on the top of what was not a very big hill almost sounds like an indictment on what went on before rather than a polishing of her resume to justify her place on the biggest card of the year.
While it’s nearly impossible to get a true handle on what really happens behind the stage, all that, combined with the multiple stories of Britt being unpleasant for some to deal with or just the amount of smoke that comes from her, isn’t helping. It could all be horseshit, it’s just that there’s so much of it, and doesn’t do her any favors when all that’s happened is the women’s division is very belatedly getting the attention and influx of talent it has needed. It’s fine to carry a lot of baggage from the sheets, it’s less so when you’re not wowing anyone when you get in the ring.
Britt is still comfortable on the mic, which is still somewhat rare in the women’s division, but that only has so much value (and please, god, don’t ever let her do another “DO YOU LIKE FOOTBALL?” promo in Ohio).
With that still-unique skillset in AEW, she only has to be so good in the ring to remain relevant.
Perhaps she can hit that level when she can shake off all the injury rust, but she sure looked short of it last Sunday. At this point, though, Baker feels more like a mid-card gatekeeper. Sometimes, a division moves on, evolves, improves, and sheds the skin of previous iterations.
Sunday felt like Britt was about to be left pale and hollow somewhere in the desert.
