Britt Baker takes a shot at WWE’s ‘blood money’ business deal with Saudi Arabia

It wouldn’t be an episode of AEW Dynamite if there wasn’t some kind of shot against WWE, right? Last night’s reference to WWE came during Britt Baker’s promo hyping her AEW women’s championship defense against Nyla Rose at Fyter Fest night two on July 21.

Baker is upset because her assistant Reba was injured in a tag team match against Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero last week. Tony Khan booked that tag match at the request of Guerrero, as a “thank you” for the role she played in bringing Andrade El Idolo into All Elite Wrestling.

Baker didn’t appreciate Khan putting Reba in harm’s way over that kind of deal, so she sounded off about the blood on Tony’s hands:

“An innocent person was hurt, and you, Tony Khan, should feel terrible...All for what? So Vickie could bring you Andrade El Idolo, right? That’s why you made this match, right? Well let’s see, Reba’s knee exploded in a clearly calculated attack, and I almost died in a 2-on-1 ambush, being powerbombed through a table. But hey, you have Andrade El Idolo. So, enjoy your blood money. Maybe next week AEW Dynamite can run in Saudi Arabia.”

The eyebrow-raised look Tony Schiavone gives to the camera as Baker mentions blood money and Saudi Arabia pretty much says it all.

What she is referring to, of course, is WWE’s ongoing 10 year partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (that began in 2018) to produce two stadium events a year for ridiculous sums of money in return. Many WWE wrestlers were immediately put into an uncomfortable situation as a result of the royal family’s role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and then some of the wrestlers believed they were held hostage when their airplane was mysteriously detained in 2019 in the midst of a financial dispute between Vince McMahon and the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

WWE’s controversial dealings with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also once inspired CM Punk to tell the Miz to “go suck a blood money covered dick in Saudi Arabia.” Needless to say, there are a lot of people out there who are disgusted with WWE’s decision to sign a one billion dollar business deal with the Saudi Arabian government.

This is why Britt Baker’s comment drew an audible gasp from the live audience in Miami, because they immediately recognized her words as a shot at WWE.

I think these kinds of verbal barbs make the shows more interesting, even if they aren’t always a hit, so I was fascinated to see how it went down here. I also had to double check to make sure Baker didn’t actually say “WWE Dynamite” during her promo.

What did you think of Baker’s reference to WWE’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Dynamite?