AEW's women's division was once built around Britt Baker and she was a pivotal part of the company when it launched in 2019. However, she hasn't appeared on TV since the November 13 episode of AEW Dynamite and, even before then, wasn't exactly making frequent appearances.
When we last saw Baker, AEW shot an angle seemingly setting the stage for Serena Deeb to be her next opponent. The former AEW Women's Champion could be seen mouthing "nobody cares" when Deeb appeared, something many took as a sign she was sick of Tony Khan's booking.
Today, PWTorch's Wade Keller has shed some possible light on the situation and this feels an awful lot like the hatchet job Khan attempted to discredit CM Punk with following his altercation backstage at All In with Jack Perry (we're shocked she didn't leave him fearing for his life...).
"She might be done with AEW. At least the feeling I'm getting from talking to people in AEW is Tony Khan might have her in the same category as some other wrestlers where they just don't get phone calls and don't get called in to show up. There is a lot of frustration with her," the insider claims. "I'm told - and I've heard this pretty consistently - she's wildly unpopular in the women's locker room."
"One person said no one ever wants to see her come back, speaking of the women's locker room... There was the incident with her and MJF and I'm told that factors into her being off television, but there are other issues with her that have come up," he continued. "She has become increasingly difficult to work with in a general sense. She has always had a reputation for being difficult to work with."
Keller went on to say that Baker's breakup with Adam Cole isn't an issue and instead points to these being longstanding issues. He'd add, "From what I'm hearing, at least the attitude right now at the moment, the belief is Tony Khan is fed up enough that he's just gonna focus his TV time on others."
"I don't know what that means in terms of her pay and her contract and it's possible eventually things will change...At this point in asking around, you should not expect to see her back imminently."
This is exactly the kind of report which might be used to put WWE off Baker, though we can't discount the possibility that everything Keller shares here is correct. Many fans have argued that it's Baker who should be fed up with Khan, especially as he appeared to lose interest in booking her once he signed Mercedes Mone and Toni Storm got hot.
We'll see what happens but it appears we can now add another original AEW star who has, rightly or wrongly, butted heads with Khan and his way of doing things.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.