AEW: Britt Baker AEW Contract & Absence Update, Update on AEW Availability on MAX Over WBD Dropping Plans for New Sports Tier & Upcoming New Changes, More News

Britt Baker AEW Contract & Absence Update

Britt Baker has been absent from AEW programming since this past November.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that the recent rumors of Baker being on her way out of the company and AEW CEO Tony Khan being upset over her conduct backstage are not true. Sapp reported that his sources stated that Baker still has plenty of time left on her contract.

Sapp reported that the real reason for Baker’s on-going absence is due to “private reasons” and Baker is open to returning to the company in the future.

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Update on AEW Availability on MAX Over WBD Dropping Plans for New Sports Tier & Upcoming New Changes

As noted before, Warner Bros Discovery announced on Wednesday that they will no longer be going forward with their plans to launch a new sports subscription tier for their MAX streaming service and their sports content would be remaining on their standard and premium tiers.

The Wrestling Observer’s Josh Nason reported that despite the upcoming changes on what sports content will be available to MAX subscribers by the end of this March, one source close to the situation stated that AEW will be unaffected and will still remain accessible to all subscriber tiers.

Besides the dropped new sports tier, MAX is currently scheduled to no longer include B/R Sports and CNN content for their lowest ad-supported sub tier starting on March 30th. Nason reported that AEW content will still be accessible to subscribers of this tier after that date despite it currently being listed under the B/R Sports section.

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AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Buddy Matthews has been out of action for AEW since their Grand Slam Australia show earlier this month due to an ankle injury. Mathews recently provided an update on Instagram posting a photo of him wearing a walking boot and stating in a joking manner “I’m like 1/2 iron man.”

Chris Jericho filed a trademark for “The Hi Spot” on February 25th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the name of the move that Jericho debuted during his match against Bandido for the ROH World Championship at the February 22nd AEW Collision show.

Brian Cage recently commented on Twitter about his praise of some of the crowds at recent AEW shows and his biggest praise for the Atlanta crowd at the February 5th AEW Dynamite show. Cage stated “They have been real good. The crowd have been exceptional as well. That Atlanta Crowd begining of Feb was 🔥🔥🔥🔥“

In a recent interview with Fightful’s The Spotlight podcast, indies wrestler Kevin Blackwood gave his thoughts about the origins of Daniel Garcia’s signature dance in AEW. Blackwood stated “I was just talking to him about [his dance] at West Coast. It’s one of those things where he grew to hate it, like bands having their huge breakout single and they have to play it because the crowd wants to see it, but they don’t feel like playing it. That’s the point he got to with it. He knows the people want to see it, so he’ll do it, occasionally. It obviously worked. It went a long way in getting him over, so whatever is working, go with it. It was entertaining to me. That move is a move he would do at the club. Dan is a big club guy.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Sporting Talk, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley gave his thoughts about Will Ospreay being a phenomenal performer and his futire being limitless in wrestling. Foley stated “I’m laughing because my daughter was on the Jericho cruise and she said Will is quite the character, which I didn’t know. But he’s phenomenal. I was so impressed since I saw him and Ricochet just doing some amazing stuff. So, yeah, his future is pretty much limitless at this point. Massive, huge potential for him.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about his praise of Renee Paquette’s work in AEW. Schiavone stated “I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with such fantastic people. That’s the key to it all. Just getting to know and work with Excalibur and Nigel McGuiness. God, do I have fun with Nigel. Taz, we watch old ECW shows here, and I remember you and I talk about Taz, and I was saying, ‘That’s one bad motherfucker right there.’ He is a bad motherfucker. It’s all part of his charm. I got to work with Bryan Danielson. Holy shit. Jon Moxley, Claudio [Castagnoli]. Got to see kids begin their career and do well, like MJF. Harley Cameron, get to see her career begin. Get to be a part of their careers beginning, talking about them on TV, trying to help put them over, and trying to say good things about them. Just all good stuff. Being able to work with Renee Paquette. If she’s not the best that’s ever held the mic, I mean, she’s in Gene Okerlund territory, she really is. I’ve been very fortunate.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Sackhoff Show podcast, Mercedes Mone gave her thoughts about how she had considered walking away from her wrestling career after her departure from WWE in 2022. Mone stated “I did. I did because of how hurt I was by it and how much it drove me into a place of darkness. I couldn’t believe something that brought me so much light in my life, that saved me so many times when I was a kid, brought me so much darkness. I was just like, I don’t want to feel like this, I don’t want to have so much stress where I’m legit killing myself because all of the stress that I’m creating or the sadness that I’m bringing to myself because of this bad mental talk my head. So, just a lot of healing, just a lot of healing and I told myself no, this is still what I freaking love, I love wrestling and I still have the same goal of when I was 10 years old and no one’s going to take that away. I felt like at this time, maybe they want to see me gone forever, maybe people want to see me disappear. I’m like, I can’t give that to people, I can’t give up on myself and I can’t give up on my dream. I still have so much light and passion for this and such a chase and a drive. My light and my god told me, you’ve got to keep on going. So here’s New Japan, take your bags, go to Japan and go make one of your dreams happen. That happened and then just more dreams kept on coming and coming and then more talks with AEW happened and then the connection just kind of realigned and it was finally perfect until I signed a contract with AEW and it felt so right because I knew I could create so much more new dreams and memories for women’s wrestling.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)