Dr. Britt Baker on Cody Rhodes’ AEW exit, backstage reaction

A few weeks have passed since Cody Rhodes returned to WWE, and the months of “will he”/”won’t he”/”when will he show up” that filled the gap between his AEW departure in January and WrestleMania 38 finally ended.

Throughout the process, we’ve read unsourced reports and heard on the record from several prominent AEW people. For the most part, the latter’s accounts have backed up the former. The latest, from Fightful’s interview with former Women’s champ & fourth or fifth Young Pillar Dr. Britt Baker, continues the trend.

“From the day he wasn’t at Dynamite anymore, up until the announcement officially got released, obviously, people were saying this and that backstage. Everyone was talking about it, but nobody believed it cause it just seemed so crazy. Even me. I’m like, ‘Maybe, but no. There’s no way.’”

Baker shares how influential Rhodes was in honing her heel character. She’s effusive in her praise, but part of her answer hints at Cody perhaps rubbing people the wrong way backstage. And who doesn’t have people they clash with or just annoy in the workplace? If you’re looking for dirt though, it’s pretty much the only thing Britt gives us:

“I am so thankful and grateful that I got to work with him when I did. Because when I turned heel, he took me under his wing.

“When I first turned heel he really took me under his wing and helped me map out how to tell a promo or how to do a promo or how to come up with bullet points. I went to a lot of people for help. Tony Khan helped me so much. Chris Jericho, I used to call him and just on delivery alone — Chris Jericho is a big guy on ‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.’ I’d get help from there.

“But when it came to Cody, coming up with the actual structure of what I was gonna say, Cody was there. He would help me. He would write a whole list of bullet points and I would get to twist it and turn it to how I would want to say it. But I can’t thank him enough. He was sitting in Gorilla every time I cut a promo or a match, and would tell me how to fix something, what was good, what wasn’t. He was always on.

“You can fault Cody for many things, you can’t say he wasn’t honest and that he’s not passionate about professional wrestling. ‘Cause he is.”

As for what happened that caused Rhodes to leave the company he helped found, and where he mentored multiple young talents like the dentist from Pittsburgh? She starts to say Cody might have been unhappy, but then course corrects to just suppose it was time for a change:

“Obviously, everyone has their own path, their own journeys, and this is his. He’s definitely gonna be missed as a coach and as an agent in AEW. It was his home. He helped create it. We wish him the best and if you don’t want to be there, you don’t want to be there at the end of the day, too. Better that he’s happy than miserable, if he was miserable, or if he just wanted something different. That’s cool, too.

“I don’t know that he was miserable. I don’t think so. If he was miserable, he did a great job of acting not miserable. Let’s just say that. But no, I think it’s maybe something different. Time to move on. Best of luck to him and thank you very much for all your promo help, all your character help, all your help in making Dr Britt Baker, D.M.D. who she was.”

Check out Sean Ross Sapp’s entire conversation with Dr. Baker here.