6 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (16 Nov)

1. A Double Turn Or A Total Turn-Off?

Britt Baker
AEW

A great promo is a great promo is a great promo, but was there any worse a time for Britt Baker to go up the gears as an AEW banner-waving babyface?

Last week's face-off between the former Women's Champion and returning former WWE star Saraya undermined the emotion felt by the latter when she taunted the former about supposedly stolen opportunities and accusations of minor league achievements. Baker's right to reply this week felt like a necessity for the character, but not once did her tone or cadence veer in a way that gave audiences an excuse to boo her. She even expressed respect for Saraya before pledging to beat her. Britt Baker just cut the best babyface title challenger go-home promo of her life, and she's heading into a contest without a title where she's supposed to be the heel.

Or is she? Saraya's response added nothing new to the story, but confirmed she was chomping at the bit to get back between the ropes. While not overtly heelish, it didn't do anything to dampen the audience's obvious enthusiasm for her opponent. Saturday's bout is the type of All-Star stuff the division's been missing since it launched, but it remains to be seen if gambling on people's in-built affections for both was really the wise route to take in the build.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett