AEW's Britt Baker Glad WWE NXT Tryout Didn't Work Out

D.M.D. had a Performance Center tryout during the infancy of her career.

by Andrew Pollard
Britt Baker AEW
AEW

AEW Women's Champion Britt Baker has detailed how a failed WWE tryout ended up being a positive for D.M.D. in the long-term.

Speaking during an appearance on Talk is Jericho, Baker explained how she partook in a Performance Center tryout in the infancy of her pro wrestling career, and how former WWE Director of Talent Development Canyon Ceman thought it was best that she first completed dental school before focussing on her wrestling career.

As Britt detailed (via Wrestling Inc.):

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"I had a tryout, I was fresh out of training. They [WWE] gave me a tryout solely based on my look, 'Oh, this is a cute girl'. I got put in a group after the training was all done. Bumps and rolls. We can't even walk by the end of the tryout. It was me, Lacey Evans and Bianca [Belair] were the females in Orlando. It was all these extras, they were like testing our range of motion. We were like, 'Holy sh*t, we are getting signed!' So we are celebrating, and I still talk to those girls all the time".

The Role Model continued on:

"But Canyon Ceman, at the time he was like the gatekeeper for independent wrestlers to get into NXT, he pulled me aside at the end of the tryout. And he was like, 'You know, you've just started dental school. As a father, I have a hard time pulling you from a professional degree'. My heart dropped. But I owe him the world, because I would have left dental school in a heartbeat to go to WWE. Because I was young, dumb and I was like, 'I'm going to be NXT Women's Champion'. Like that would have got me far, right? He stayed in touch with me every few months after that, like, 'Let me know when you finish dental school, send me your matches'. He always kept up with me."

After completing dental school in 2018, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. became the first female wrestler signed by All Elite Wrestling the following year - having competed at the All In in a Tessa Blanchard-won four-way contest that also featured Chelsea Green and Madison Rayne

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Baker has been the AEW Women's Champion since last May, with her defeating Hikaru Shida for that prize at Double or Nothing 2021. Up next for the Good Doctor is a title defence against long-standing rival Thunder Rosa at AEW Revolution on 6 March.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.