Insight with Chris Van Vliet - How Britt Baker met Adam Cole, her heel turn, Tony Schiavone, AEW Women's Title, being a real dentist

Episode Date: May 1, 2020

Dr. Britt Baker, DMD chats with Chris Van Vliet from her home in Orlando, FL. She talks about her recent heel turn and why she was excited to do it, her promos with Tony Schiavone, being the first woman signed to AEW, how she met her boyfriend Adam Cole on Bumble, appearing in the crowd at NXT War Games, her favorite AEW moments, wanting to win the AEW Women's Championship and much more!  Thanks to Bet Online for supporting this episode. Use the code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag to get a Welcome Bonus on your first deposit at http://BetOnline.ag to get a Welcome Bonus on your first deposit.  Also a big thank you to BlueChew! Visit http://bluechew.com and get your first order for FREE when you use the promo code BLUEWIRE. Just pay $5 shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With the powerful questions. This is the Chris Van Bleach Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet Show. Welcome back again to the Chris Van Fleet Show. How are you? I'm so glad that with everything going on in the world, that we're able to hang out like this. This episode is brought to you by Bet Online and Blue Chew,

and this is an interview I've been wanting me to do for the better part of the last year. Dr. Britt Baker was the first female wrestler, signed to AEW, and for good reason. We talk about that and so much other stuff. And I kind of wish you were watching this on YouTube because she has an awesome queen shirt on during this interview, which, now that I've said that,

you can imagine it. And speaking of imagine, I imagine that you might have some extra free time over the last, you know, month or so. So I imagine maybe you haven't left a review yet for the show on Apple Podcasts. So please, it'd be so incredibly helpful if you could take half a minute out of your day right now. I know I know I said the goal was a thousand reviews before the end of the year, but what if? Stay with me here. What if we could do a thousand reviews before the one-year anniversary of the podcast. Mmm. Hmm.

The YouTube channel just turned nine years old in February, although I wasn't really uploading that much stuff for the first few years. But February 6th, 2011 was when I officially started the channel. So I guess that's my YouTube anniversary. But the podcast officially turns one year old on June 24th. So if you've been a real year old. around since episode one. Wow, I'm super grateful for you. And if this is your first episode with us, I'm also super grateful for you. You're awesome. Thanks for hanging out. So a thousand reviews

on Apple Podcasts before June 24th. This is ambitious. I think we can do it. This is ambitious, though. This is like less than two months, but I think we can do it. Now, I don't think we, I know we can do it. I just need your help. I can't do this. I can't leave reviews on my own show. Or maybe I can, but I could only leave one. I'd still need 99,99 other ones.

And right now we're at like 824. So I just need 166 more. Please. Help a brother out. Like this one from Mick 2601. Thank you for your help. And thank you for your review all the way from the UK. It's titled,

a true fan. These podcasts are elite, the epitome of what's great about pro wrestling, the Canadian version of Simon Miller, both supremely positive interview skills and underrated, supported by the fact that Chris is a true wrestling fan. Well, thank you, Mick 2601. I think we're all true wrestling fans here. That's why we all enjoy these conversations. That's why we're here right now. And this conversation with Dr. Britt Baker is such a good one. She talked about. She talked about. She talks about, yes, the fact that she is, unlike Isaac Yankham, an actual dentist. But for some reason, people don't actually think she's a dentist. They think that this is a gimmick.

No, she's an actual dentist. Like the other days of the week when she's not on dynamite, she's fixing people's teeth and cleaning people's teeth. Yeah. We talk about her boyfriend, Adam Cole, baby, and how they met on the dating app Bumble. Yeah. I didn't think you could make real connections on there either, but look at them. We also talk about her heel turn. and why she was so excited to turn heel.

And the hilarious promos that's led to with Tony Chivani, we talk about that and so much more. So here you go, please. Give it up for Dr. Britt Baker. Well, Britt, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. How's everything holding up in your world? Everything's good.

You know, I'm saying positive and happy that they're still wrestling content and just happy to be healthy right now. I've been saying that like having live wrestling on TV has been this nice, like tiny little sliver of a reminder that like there is some normalcy out there. Exactly. You couldn't agree more. So how's your nose doing? It's okay.

So it's all, it's more like internal now. It just kind of feels like a stuff nose because my septum deviated. But so much better than what a couple, two weeks ago. Well, I think that people saw like the blood in your mouth and on your teeth and they, you know, their brain immediately goes to, you know, your other job and they're like, oh, my gosh, her teeth are knocked out or something. It's literally my nightmare is to hurt my hands because then I can't practice dentistry or for my teeth to fall out because I don't know who I would trust to work on my own teeth.

Oh, come on. There must be someone in your office. No, well, there's some, but it's just you have your own style and you're so like particular of how you like to do things. Then when you see other people, you're like, oh, I don't know if I would do that. So knock on wood again, I'm not knocking any of my own teeth out. other people, that's fine. It's a business. It's a business, right? I've got to have some turnover. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, you knock people's teeth out and they can come. You probably, you can give them a

discount, right? Of course. Yeah. That's how insurance looks like. Right, right, right. We've got to check the insurance. Are you still blown away that people don't actually know that you're a real dentist? Yes, because it's like every week on Twitter, people are just like, wait, she's an actual Dennis. I just, I don't understand. I can't speak on it because I just don't understand how by now you would not know that yes, I'm a dentist. Yes, I have my own office. Yes, it's a gimmick, but it's my life too. But here we are and I'm happy to remind them, I guess, every week. But I mean, I suppose I can understand it, though. That's a profession that takes, you know, a lot of dedication and a ton of time. And so does this other profession called professional

wrestling. And the two of them together is like a whole other world of dedication because there's not enough time in the world to dedicate your life to just one. So when you're trying to split it up and dedicate equal parts, you don't really have time for a social life and you don't have a lot of time to sleep either. So it's always finding little minutes and hours of the day to get stuff done. Was this easier or harder when you were working on the independent scene? I would just say it was different because when I was on the independents scene, I was in school. So school is if you're not studying at any given moment of the day, you should be. You should be in the clinic.

You should do volunteering hours. And it's just so different because you're driving, you're in the car. So sometimes I would have time to study. Sometimes I wouldn't versus now working in a dental office. It's a whole other new world. It's paperwork. There's emergency patients calling. you and just the kind of the excitement but also the stress of being on live TV with AEW.

You want to be in the best shape so I'm not missing any of my workouts. I'm making sure I have the least amount of cheat meals as possible. But it's just different. It's still hard. It was very hard, but it's it just has its own difficulties now. I would think with the Indies, you know, your schedule was mostly on the weekend. And I'm guessing you're practicing and doing dentistry stuff mostly during the week. now it's like in the middle of the week you basically have to say to everyone sorry i can't i can't help

you out yeah but it's like i have all my weekends now true for the most part and and also i always say that like dental school is very hard it's very mentally taxing it's a grueling curriculum and and i think that wrestling was my escape wrestling's what kept me sane through dental school too so i'm very thankful that i had at that point in time i think that i'd be remiss to not say that you're wearing an awesome shirt right now. It's my favorite band. And I'm listening and not seeing this. This is like an awesome queen shirt. Oh yeah. My favorite. I have like 10 queen, vintage queen shirts because I just absolutely love them. What's the best queen song of all time? Ooh, my favorite fat bottom girls. Wow. What a random pick. I know. I don't know why.

I just love that song. I think it's an instant mood lifter. Wow. Do you get the comparisons to Isaac Yankham. Oh my goodness. When I was on the, when I first started working on the indies, I think probably at at least five times a show, they'd be like, are you Isaac Yankham's daughter? No, I'm not. I'm not. But I, of course, I mean, how can you not draw the, the similarities there? But it's, I would like to think it's a little bit different. I'd like to think it's a little bit different. I'd like to think it's a lot different. All right. I mean, but that was also in a time when like that was a gimmick. Like he was this scary dentist man. You are an actual dentist.

And now we're living in a world where there's this crossover between what happens in the ring and outside of the ring. And it kind of mingles together to create this strange reality. Right. And I think, too, that's why I'm having so much fun now is because I'm allowed to kind of really capitalize and over-exaggerate my accomplishments as a heel. And it's really, it's so much fun because it's, you know, you're being ridiculous and over-the-top. It's just bringing more of my outside life in just in a different way in a way that I would never normally talk about myself. But it's so much fun. A dentist being a heel like makes perfect sense.

Nobody enjoys going to the dentist. I know. I know. It's exhausting and stressful too because like dentists are nice people and we just want to help you. But everybody, and it's like across the board men, women, kids, adults, geriatrics, they're scared. They hate the dentist. They hate needles. which, to be fair, we're going to numb you.

You should not feel anything. If you have a good dentist and you have proper local anesthetic, you shouldn't feel anything, but here we are. People are still terrified. I don't know. Have you seen the size of that needle? Of course you have. Oh, yeah.

I say, I mean, every day. But it's so tiny. And it's these guys with these covered in tattoos and neck tattoos and face tattoos that start crying when it's time to numb them. And you always have to giggle a little bit to yourself. What has been the, like, worst horror story that you've had with a picture? Oh man, I think anytime kids that they bite down, like they don't understand. And there's, it's actually been in dental, when I was in dental school, we're trying to work on a kid where you have a handpiece in your hand, trying to drill on a tiny tooth.

These teeth are so tiny. And when they keep biting down, because you have to have like instant reflexes to stop drilling so you don't drill through their mouth or something. But also they're biting your finger and it hurts like hell. Wow. What's the worst thing that you see like just in general? What's the worst thing that you see in the chair? Just overall neglect, people that their parents didn't have them brush their teeth when they were kids. So it's just a habit they never picked up on.

So it's always like sad when you have to, when someone has to have all their teeth pulled and they have to get like full mouth implants or full dentures. Because it's, for some people, it's very traumatic to have to have a tooth pulled, let alone when it's all your teeth. But at the same time, we can't have disease building up in there and have like systemic health concerns develop. I still think it's crazy that you do. a job where people like do not want to see you? Well, I will say I'm getting more and more wrestling fan patients trickling in my office now because they know who I am. My name is Britt Baker.

That's who that's my wrestling name. That's my real name. And they thankfully they're very, very cooperative and they're very like pro oral health where they're there for a dental appointment, not there to just get like a picture and autograph. But it's very much picking up the wrestling fan business. There's probably going to be a point, though, where you're going to have to say, you know, I just don't have room for new patients right now. Well, I think that's everyone's dream.

So when that happens, you've officially, you know, you're made it. I'll probably have a really nice beach house mansion somewhere when that happened. But for now, I'm paying off the student loans. So you're very much open to having wrestling fans as your patients? Of course. That's like discrimination. I mean, I want to see anybody.

Anybody that wants to come in to take care of themselves, I will help you as long as you allow me to help you. If you're going to be stubborn, you want to fight with me, you think that you can diagnose better than I can, then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. So do you want to do a little plug for your dentistry? No. No. We don't need that many more patients. No, yeah. As much as I love it, I also don't want people outside yelling at me for calling myself a role model on Wednesday nights.

Yeah, but I do appreciate that this has become a part of your gimmick. Lockjaw, I think, has been a nice addition to your repertoire here. Where did this come from? Yeah, so the idea of that, so I did a similar submission on the independence, but it was in the Battle Royale where I had the idea of eliminating, I think it was Shaza, but with the mandible claw over the top rope. Yeah. And I remember asking Tony, and he's like, oh, gosh, why wouldn't you to use mandible claw?

you're done. That's brilliant. That's great. And then I had the idea of using the, it's like the modified rings of Saturn submission while grabbing on. And it was Excalibur that came up with the name lockjaw because I started doing it and everything. We need a name for this. We need a name. And everyone's first instinct is like those buzzword dental words, like root canal. But for me, oh my God, that has nothing to do with the root canal. I cannot just call something or like Novocaine. I'm like, oh, but that doesn't apply. Like my internal instincts are just turning right now. I'm not going to call something that it's totally unrelated. Octaw's pretty unrelated too, but at least it's something that people can relate to.

And it has like a zing to it when I think one commentary says it. Not only does it look like it has it or sound like it has a zing to it. Like it looks really painful. Well, hey. I'm not going to tell you the secrets of that. No, it's the work you've been doing in AEW has been amazing, you know, from a fan. from the outside looking in. What's this last year like, you know, been like for you?

Oh, wow. A lot of learning on the fly and a lot of growing, like as a wrestler, as a character, as a promo, everything, because it's, I was kind of just thrown into it. Well, we all were, like none of us had that much live TV experience.

I had one squash match on WWE and I think one or two on NXT, but nothing where like the cameras are revolving around you. You want, you have to make yourself look good, not just to make somebody else look good, too. So it's a lot of pressure and a lot of stress, but it's also very exciting because it's something that like every single time you learn something.

You learn something camera cues or promo, anything and everything in the wrestling world that you can learn every single dynamite taping, I'm learning something new. Did this all, did the wheels start going on this right after All In? See, that's more of like a EBP question because I had been told by Brandon and Cody, hey, you know, something might be developing. Try not to sign any contracts anytime soon. And I think it was December that I was contacted about signing a contract. And everything was very hush, hush still. So I didn't tell anyone.

I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm not saying a word, not telling it. Literally, no one was talking about it because it was going to be a big deal and it was a secret. and if I was going to be a part of it, I was keeping my mouth shut because I didn't want it. I don't want to be the bad egg. But obviously, I think All In was a separate entity of what we are now. But of course, I think it's what got the ball rolling. Were you told at the time when you were asked to sign that you were going to be the first female in the roster? I think she did.

Brandy did mention that, which is like, holy cow. And it's so exciting because it's an honor. But it's also terrifying. I'm the first woman that you guys are looking to sign for to represent this company because again, I have no TV experience. I didn't have a huge following. Had somewhat of a following, of course, from all in, but nothing where, you know, it's very stressful to think, oh my gosh, I have to really help develop this women's division and be a leader in it. But it's like we have so much help from the back, from the producers, the coaches, the EVPs that it's, if you don't succeed, it's that you're not taking. good advantage of all the help and all the resources you have there.

When that opportunity was presented to you, did you have to kind of take a step back and go, what does this mean for my career? What does this mean for not just my wrestling career, but for my career being a dentist too? That was actually the selling point to me because that was like a two-sentence conversation. I went to school for eight years to be a dentist and it's like I have a hard time sleeping at night knowing that I would have to give that up for wrestling. And it was like, well, you don't have to give it up. We're taping on Wednesdays and we'll work with your schedule.

And they do every single week work with my schedule. So that was a no-brainer. That's a dream come true. I can do both jobs that I've been working for for so long. What do you think of this comment that Cody made on commentary that he doesn't think you're real dentist? Oh my gosh. Okay, Cody.

I, you know, I'm not even going to speak on Cody because him and I have our own differences. But of course I'm a dentist. Look at, look at, look at, first of all, look at my teeth. Yes. Do you, what do you think? They just, I grew, grew out of the womb like these? No, of course I'm whitening my own teeth, cleaning my own teeth. But I, no, I take that back.

I love Cody. Cody's been so instrumental in helping me develop as a heel. And he's, all the younger talent can speak on, on how much help Cody and Kenny and the young bucks have been in helping us develop into the characters we are now. You were, you know, you were really over with the first. fans as a baby face. Where did the turn come? And whose idea was it to basically turn a heel on Jericho's Cruz? So it was just, I don't want to say I felt lost, but I just feel like I didn't have a character. It was just, and it was something that obviously the fans can't relate to because they're

not Dennis and professional wrestlers. So when you're shoving it down their throats, it's almost like a slap in the face, which was a sad, kind of sad for me at first, because I was hoping it would be inspirational, but I guess when it's overkill, it's just kind of like, okay, we get it, shut up, she's a dentist. And it was Kenny who had the idea of turning me heel. And I was like, of course, I'd love to me. I mean, I'm down to try anything, but I knew I was going to need a lot of help because I'd never been a heel before, ever since my like independent career started, maybe like one show as a guest where I still probably worked as baby face because I didn't know what I was doing. So you went out, you obviously wrote that promo yourself, I'm guessing,

it's so it's a lot of a lot of coming together so Tony obviously he writes the show and we'll get bullet points him Tony Cody and I will all kind of come together and come up with the content of what we want to say in the promos and I think that

you'd be foolish to not use your resources like Cody Rhodes or you can he has some of the best promos I've ever heard in my life on dynamite his promo packages and Tony Tony Khan's a wrestling genius and of course I also have the help of Tony Chivani, who is my little sidekick now, and we feed so well off each other.

And there's some stuff that's a lot of stuff is just organic. It just comes out live on dynamite and the reactions and the body language, it just kind of happens. And that's what makes the best TV. Yeah, he looks like he's very uncomfortable in those moments, which is, you know, testament to how good of a worker he is. He's the best. And it's like a comfort having him next to me because he's Tony Chivani and he's such

a professional. And I always say that if something goes off the rails, he's going to bring it back in. Everything's going to be okay. We have Tony Chavani here, take a deep breath. The fans really reacted to the Starbucks line. Yeah, and that was the Tony Con line. I didn't even know he worked at Starbucks to be totally honest, but now it's like an ongoing joke ever. We all pick it at him. And we have the Starbucks cup every week and the Starbucks footage on being the elite. But it's a great story and it's great. It's awesome promo content. I mean, he worked at Starbucks and had the insurance benefits and got to work with a bunch of pretty girls. So he's living the dream. Well, I mean, you have a great story of like how AEW is making your career, giving you this

amazing platform. Tony has this amazing comeback story 20 years later after being the voice of Nitro coming back and continuing to do amazing work on TNT. And he's one of the most positive people. He's so optimistic. He's always happy. And he's busy. He's a lot of, he wears a lot of hats and has a lot of backstage duties that he's in charge of. But he's just the best.

And he will stop anything he's doing to help somebody or to say hello or to have a quick conversation just because he's just such a good human. So fair to say you're really enjoying working as a heel then. Oh, I love it. I said don't eat, no, however go back to me in baby case. I'm having so much fun. What's one match that, you know, really stands out for you over the last year that, you know, you would tell people, hey, you want to sue what Brooke Baker's all about. Go check this out.

I would say the most recent one with Sheeta was really like a defining moment for me, just diving into the character and the, I guess, the dark side of being healed, the blood and the smiling. That really got a lot of traction. developed a or Chris Jericho and Tony on commentary too which is epic as a wrestling fan you're like oh my gosh Chris Jericho and Tony are calling this match right now and also had a top selling shirt which I'd never had before but the with the um the kiss logo from a quote the Jericho had said and I think as of who I am right now that match best defines the character of Britt Baker

Before that, I always say all-in, because that for me was my first exposure to most of these wrestling fans now, because it's AEW wrestling fans were also All-In wrestling fan. And nobody really knew who I was going into All-In that four-way match. It was myself, Tessa, Chelsea, and Madison Rain, and they had all kind of had prior TV exposure, and I really didn't. So I was the underdog. I was the one that people were like, oh, who's this girl? So that one's a very defining match for me, too. How different has it been for you working, you know, without the crowd to feed off of? Of course it's different.

And of course, we love the fans. And they really are what keep you going in professional wrestling. But at the same time, I'm just so happy that we're able to produce content and still give them to the fans. The wrestling matches the content. It's all still for the fans, whether they're at home or whether they're in the arena. You know, you mentioned that you didn't have a lot of TV experience before All-in. but I'm blown away by the fact that WWE offered you a spot on TV less than a year into your independent wrestling career.

Like that must have been such a nice pat on the back to go, I'm doing something right. I'm on the right path. Yes. So it was on raw. And I had been an extra at WWE many times. And as a female, you never really did anything because they used the guys for the security or the medics. but they had told me, hey, you're going to have a match tonight.

And I was like, what? What are they talking about? And then it was like, oh, yeah, Nia Jax is going to debut on Raw, and we want you to make her look like a monster. And, oh my gosh, I was terrified. I was shaking.

I couldn't eat. I was absolutely terrified because it's live TV, raw, and I have to make someone else look good. I didn't want that. That's what I was most terrified of, was making somebody look bad because you never, especially like a WWE superstar as an independent wrestling,

you have to make them shine. But that was, I was, that was a bit, it was so exciting too, because like you said, no, I was the first female squash match and I don't even, I don't know ever, but in a long time, they weren't really having female squash matches. So super overwhelmed, super excited, but terrified. But did you not think to like, oh my God, I'm barely a year into this and I'm already on Raw? Like, they're going to sign me for sure.

Oh my gosh. the amount of times that I thought, I thought that I was maybe going to get signed from my trial because when, so when you have your trial at the end, they take you and you do like a separate set of medicals where they measure like your joint range of motions and stuff. And I had asked the daughter, I was like, what's this for? And they said, oh, this is like the extra protocol for people that they're most likely going to hire. Wow. Wow, this is great.

And I'm at, I think it was my first or second year of dental school at this point. And I was like, see ya. Like, I'm not finished in this. Because it was the most brutal time of dental school where your nose is in a book. Hindsight, thank God they didn't sign me then. And I was able to finish dental school because, oh, my gosh, my life would be totally different now. But I remember them pulling me aside at the very end, Canyon and saying, you have a lot of the qualities we look for. However, as a father, I have a hard time pulling you from a professional degree.

At the time, I was like, that's it. I'm toast. They're not hiring me. I got to finish dental school. for four more years. And I had always been in good, in talks with WW, in a good relationship with them. Obviously, my boyfriend works there.

It's still a friendly relationship, but I just think that everything that is supposed to happen will happen, and I was meant to be in AEW. At least they gave you, like, a reason instead of just kind of stringing you along for months or years. Yeah, and it's, that's professional wrestling, unfortunately. There's so many hungry, hungry talent that would love to have a shining role on television, but there's just not enough room, unfortunately.

Well, you know, not, I guess kind of by coincidence, you did appear on WWE television somewhat recently. Was, were you surprised that the camera, like, picked you out of the crowd? Of course. Of course, because I, first of all of all right, first of allure, first and foremost, because I worked for another company, the competitor. And I didn't know until I was walking to the back to see him

and my phone's going off and I'm getting greeted in the back saying oh my gosh we're so sorry that was a mistake and I'm like oh no but it ended up working to to my advantage to a w's advantage because I was like a trending Google search of the night one of the top trending Google searches of the night we did obviously a little skit about it on AEW and it's and that wasn't that wasn't like to fire back at them it was just to make light of the situation that it's it's okay it happened we know we're all friends here Oh, a huge thank you to our sponsor for this episode, Bet Online. And with currently no NBA, NHL, or MLB, you might be thinking, Chris Van Fleet, there's nothing to bet on.

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Like, basically the director was having the camera look for people in the audience that were concerned, and who's going to be more concerned than you? But they didn't know, you know, obviously your relationship to Adam. Right. Well, I mean, I can't speak on what they know or what they didn't know or who was in charge of that but at the end of the day it's it's fine it made a uh what was a the britt baker challenge so it was a fun little yeah right the and i'm so animated with my hands i'm always doing stuff like that so it's not even like off character for me to to do anything like that too but hey it is

what it is and it was a fun little moment in time but um the the thing i was most worried about that night but not me being a twitter was him making sure he's saying and he's okay because that was my gosh going through a table oh no i said i don't know if i can watch these live anymore did he get in any trouble for that of course not no he's in the ring he has no control whatsoever i don't know it's just you know i think that a lot of people just read into it a lot and i'm glad to hear that it was just you know it was what it was but are there any difficulties where you work for one company adam cole works for another company early on i would say that they was harder for him to come be more supportive of us in on the

live settings but since then everything everyone's been really cooperative he's he came to our what was it our new year's eve show in jacksonville i've been to obviously many of his takeovers and it's something that tony con has also been super supportive of he's like of course you need of course go watch your boyfriend wrestle of course be there for his big moments and as a wrestling fan, you always want to be there. And you don't want to watch it on a monitor backstage. Like, I want to see that I want to see all the crazy stuff happen with the crowd too. I want, like, you can't, it's just not the same to watch something on a monitor versus

being out with all the fans. Yeah. I'm going to guess the answer is because we're both wrestlers, but how did you guys meet? We did. Well, we, so because we're both wrestlers, but we actually met on Bumble, a dating app. I was in Hershey, Pennsylvania for a dental school conference. and he came on Bumble, but it didn't, it just didn't look like him because he had his hair back and like normal clothes on.

And anytime I've ever seen him in wrestling ring, he's like soaking wet, and his hair's dripping wet, he has no clothes on per wrestling, right? But, and it said his name was Austin. So I, for me, I'm like, this guy looks so familiar, but I don't know, Austin. And then I finally, it finally clicked. And we started talking from there. And then it took us a while to go on a date. I was kind of hesitant because he's not the most likable character on TV and it's kind of evil.

But it was after New Japan, when he got home from New Japan, when he won the Ring of Honor title, I think for the third time, we went on a date and it was ever since then. Now I live in Orlando with him. Where were we still living at the time? So he lived in eastern Pennsylvania. I always say it wrong, Lancaster. Lancaster. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Right, okay. People at the A will tell you that you just said it wrong, I'm sure. I know. I got to yell out all the time for it. And I was in Pittsburgh. So it was still like three or four hours apart. And then he got signed and he was going to have to move to Orlando. But I still had a year of dental school out in Pittsburgh.

So we were long distance for a good year and a half, I would say. And then once I graduated dental school, I knew that I was going to be moving to Orlando. So that's where I job searched. Well, my girlfriend and I were long distance for almost a year. Yeah. For a year and a half. What was the secret to actually being able to make it work? So every night, and I don't know if he'll like that I'm telling you this,

but every night we would FaceTime and he said, because I was really sad. I was emotional when he had to move away because I was like, oh my gosh, I never going to see you. Because I know my dental school schedule is not forgiving and I'm not going to be able and to travel a lot. And he's in NXC where they live at the Performance Center and they travel every weekend. He said, well, pick a TV show and we'll watch it every night on FaceTime.

So I picked Grey's Anatomy and we finished with the whole season of the whole The series which is like what 16 15 seasons of Grey's Anatomy we would watch an episode every night on FaceTime It was like a little date night and then of course anytime anytime he was able to he would fly up to Pittsburgh Even if it was just for the day fly in in the morning fly home that night or fly the next morning So it's just being very and you just have to be very understanding of each other schedules and the situation and each other's stress Like my dental school stresses are different than his performance center stresses, but they're still equally impactful on our lives. I love hearing, though, that, like, I think the biggest thing that we did was we were intentional.

It was like everything that we did was intentional. And that's what your face time dates sound like. It's like, okay, this is going to be a thing that no matter what's happening, we have to do this. Yeah. It was something you always look forward to like, oh, my gosh, I have all this studying to do. I mean, the anatomy lab, I'm in the clinic. but it's something to always look forward to every night.

Would you say that he's even busier? I guess now is not a good example with everything going on in the world. But, you know, with the level that he's at in NXT and everything going on with undisputed era, is he busier than ever? Yes and no. It's like different kinds of busy. So he always has a lot of interviews or appearances or signing. So it's not the same as traveling every weekend on the independence,

but it's still, you're still, it's your time and your energy, it's being a character. So he's still very, very busy. Who is your favorite person in Undisputed Era that isn't Adam Cole? Ooh, I have to say, I have to say Kyle. I love Kyle. Yeah. He's so, he's very, he's very, he's charisma with the air guitar and everything, and he's a great person. I, uh, I found myself for many months.

doing boom all the time. Is this something that happens in your house? No, thank God. I don't know what would happen if we started doing that kind of stuff. No, we always pick, we're always picking at each other and like cutting like little promos on each other here and there. But we don't really have too much wrestling talk unless it's like he's watching my match and critiquing my match or critiquing my promo from asking for help with something.

Has he given you like a piece of advice or a critique? that you now carry with you into your matches? Yeah, if you watch him, he's always so confident, no matter what. Like, he always has a look in his eye. And I think that that's something I try to carry with me now is to always have that. It's even like a sneer or a stare down or something. His eyes always speak for him. And I think that's something that you have to kind of learn with time.

And it's a confidence you have to develop. But that's like the goal is to have the Adam Cole confidence. So if Raisin Atomy was the show before, what's the show that you guys have been watching while hold up in quarantine? Oh man. Well, of course we watched the Tiger, Tiger King. Of course. Crazy. And I was kind of late on the ball with that one because everyone's like Tiger King, Tiger King.

I was like, I don't think this is for me. And then if we watched the first episode and we finished it, what, in a day or two? It's so great, so great. And then other than that, we haven't really, it's more movies. Like we watched the Sonic movie, the Onward, the Disney movie. We're being animated, animated film people. We love, we love our Disney movies. I mean, I used to live in Florida.

You currently live in Florida. When you're watching Tiger King, weren't you just like, there has to be a Florida tie into this because Florida is so weird and so is this? Of course. And I'm like a Pennsylvania girl born and raised. So there's still, like Florida is very stressful. There's hurricanes, there's alligators. There's lizards running.

around everywhere trying to get into my house. So it's very different in the sharks in the water, all that like my favorite beach I found out was the shark capital of the world, which is only a couple hours from here, or an hour or so from here. So Florida has its own, it's its own world. Since you're animated people or animated film people, are you spending a lot of time at Disney since you're so closed? I love Disney. We have season passes. He likes Disney too. I would say I'm a little bit more enthused by going to Disney, but it's, it's exhausting. It's, you're walking around all, and I understand it, because when he has a day off, he wants to have a day off.

For me, I'm like, let's go do something. But we put in a day when we go to Disney. We're pretty much there all day walking around. Of course, if you go to Epkaa, you go to have to have a couple drinks in each of the countries, so. So what's the go-to ride in Magic Kingdom? Oh, see, I'm, I like the, that's so. hard. I love like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Me too. Because it's long. It's and it's just

it's amazing and I know it's like it's an older ride. Oh man. That's so hard because you know Space Mountain. I can't pick. I'm really bad at favorites. I feel like when I go to when I go to Magic Kingdom, I'll just go to like Space Mountain and grab the fast pass because you know there's going to be a giant line for that. Yeah. I love Space Mountain but I'm also always terrified like it just seems so low the beams and the I'm just always like ducking like I'm afraid I'm going to get decapitated now do you get recognized when you go to Disney

when we're together yes he I mean he has a man bun he's more recognizable than I am but people are also very pretty respectful too it's some a lot especially him because he obviously gets recognized more than I do he they'll even be like hey baby I'm a big fan

and it's super respectful whenever you know and then people ask for a picture and we never say know. I don't think it's possible to say Adam Cole without saying Bay-Bay after it. I know. It's certainly a catchphrase. I feel I apologize. Tell him I apologize for saying it several times during this interview without saying Bay-Bay after that. Oh, he'll love it. He'll be pumped to hear it. If there's someone that's watching this right now and kind of wants to follow on the path that you're on as a professional wrestler and they're working the Indies right now,

what kind of advice do you have for them? Just really, really, really use your resources because you don't know, you don't know everything. You will never know everything, but there's people that know so much more than you do and just really, really listen to all the advice and take it to heart because if someone's taking the time to give you advice, they mean it and it's genuine most of the time. So I would really say to just really, really respect and just take it all in and try to keep it in a notebook or type it in your phone because there's little pieces of information that you'll always get that you will use someday.

Is there something for you that maybe you found out or was told early on that you went, that's something that I really needed to hear or really needed to work on? I think it's early on, before even had any wrestling experience, Rino said in a seminar, be seen, not heard, which I think is very important that, you know, show your skills or show your dedication. Don't just yap about it or talk about yourself because nobody wants to hear that. I think that's for anything in life, too, not just wrestling. Yeah, that's just great life advice, I feel like. Yeah.

Because there's a lot of people that will tell you how great they are and talk about all the things they can do. But wow, I like that. That's really good advice. Yeah. Yeah. Rina was a mentor to me early on in the Indies from when I did a seminar, actually. And he's always helped me through to where I am now pretty much. Growing up, who were the wrestlers that you looked up to?

Oh, man. So I didn't get on to like, I want to be a, of course, you know, I loved Ed, Lita. Stone Cold, Sean Michaels, but I didn't get really serious about I want to be a wrestler until I was in high school and in college. And at that time, I remember I loved Daniel Ryan and the WrestleMania where he had to wrestle Triple H. And then was a WrestleMania 30. Yeah, Rustista.

Batista, yeah. That story to me was so inspiring because I was also at the Royal Rumble that year where he wasn't in the Rumble and everyone was riding, including myself. I was like, no, we want Daniel and Brian. That to me was like, I was so invested in that story. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I want fans to feel about, to feel like this about me one day. Hmm, hmm. So it was like, that's when you really started to decide like, all right, this is a path that I want to be on.

Yeah. Yep. That it was, I was transitioning moving from state college to Pittsburgh. And we would watch wrestling in my apartment all the time. me and my coworkers and my classmates, and they're like, you know, you're moving to Pittsburgh. That's a big independent wrestling scene. I didn't know what independent wrestling was. Of course, I'm researching and looking everything up, and I saw, wow, there is professional wrestling schools in Pittsburgh.

I don't know how serious I took it at the time. And I was like, oh, I'm just going to try out for fun, something to do. And here we are now. Well, I was, I lived in Cleveland for five years. I spent a lot of time at the AIW shows, which you did a lot of work there. I mean, I don't think, I don't know if everyone realizes how close Pittsburgh and Cleveland are to each other. Well, they're close until you have to drive there twice a week for training because that's where I also did some training with Candice, Lurray and Johnny Gargano, about twice a week. Once or twice a week, I would drive there and back after dental school to train after I finished my original training in Pittsburgh.

So I just wanted to learn more and it was a different, they're very, they had mastered independent wrestling as far as style and Flash and Pazasgo. So I wanted to learn from them too. And also I had kind of worked out a deal where I got to train for free. And then in exchange for working on the shows for, so for me, it was like, oh, my gosh, this is heaven. And I really, AIW really gave me a platform too for some exposure that I would have never had. So you made the, it's about a two hour drive. So you drove from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and then back round trip twice a week. Yeah.

Yeah. If I had too many exams, obviously it would only be once a week. But it was, I remember that I would be so, as soon as I got there, I'd be so exhausted because I'm fighting rush hour. But then after I trained, I had so much adrenaline. I wasn't even tired on the way home. I was like, yeah, wrestling. So it wasn't, it wasn't that bad. And I learned so much. And I'm so grateful for that opportunity. Do you think there's anything in the wrestling world that helps you deal with your patience as a dentist? man it kind of goes hand in hand it's it's making sure that when you're talking to someone that that they are they feel like they have your time like I always like when you're talking to a wrestling fan make sure that you're making eye contact that you're talking to them you're not just signing something and moving on that and that goes with your patience too they want you are talking with them you're talking at them you're answering their questions you're being very you're explaining everything in ways that they understand um and I think that's really important to make people feel like

they're in the conversation with you. That's just great life advice here. Appreciate this for it. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Who in the AEW haven't you worked with that you're looking forward to having some sort of a match or program with? Oh, man. Who haven't I worked?

I think I've worked everyone at this point. Who would you like to work again then? Okay, yeah, that's great. So I'm, She does amazing. love working with Sheeta. Chris Statlander is phenomenal. I love her. Big Swole.

Oh, man, not here. I'm just going to list off the whole woman's roster now. I'm just excited to get back in the ring and in storylines with all of the girls to be totally honest. I think that anyone who subscribes to my channel or watches my interviews saw the first bunch of interviews that you did backstage, like the media scrums at AEJW, which as a journalist is like the coolest thing.

that there's that access made available to reporters. What was it like for you being on the other side of this? A scrum of reporters in front of you and people just shouting questions. Overwhelming, because when you get asked to do that, it's kind of like, hey, will you do this scrum? Yeah, sure. And then when you walk into the room and it's just like all these people with cameras and recorders and lights and like, oh my gosh.

And of course, they all talk over one another. And you don't know who to ask, who to answer first because everyone's fighting. they want to get their question to answer. It's very overwhelming, but I've always had really great experiences with the media scrums and knock on what, they've been very nice to me. Well, there's no reason not to be nice to you. Well, yeah, you would think. I don't know.

It's nice to see that there's a difference between, you know, who we see in the ring and, you know, who we see sitting here. Yes, yes. But I will say it's so much fun being a bad guy. You don't know until you get the opportunity to do it, how fun it is, to just be so over the top. and just ridiculous because it's, it's, it, I don't even know how to explain it other than it's, you finally, I finally feel like I'm playing a character, but it's also, I get to pull more and more and more

of my accomplishments and content from my dental side and deliver it now in a way that is shoving it down their throat, but it's because we're supposed to be. Is there like a part of this where fans have maybe taken this too seriously and they legitimately think that you are not a nice person now. Hey, if they do, it's wrestling.

I think that means you get your job right. That's right. That's totally, totally correct. So I mean, I love wrestling. And I, so be it. If that's the case. Are you still watching a ton of wrestling right now? Yeah, it's, it's so weird because it's, we have so much time that I've been falling into

weird warm holes of wrestling, like independent wrestling and stardom wrestling. and old Royal Rumbles and AEW and all across the board. Well, I love it. I appreciate you taking the time to do this today. It's so great to finally have this kind of conversation and catch up with you. Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate you. Even if it is virtual.

Well, we'll have to do this again in person when we aren't able to be in the same room as each other. Of course. Yep, count me in. But until then, I appreciate your time today and so excited to see what, that heel, Britt Baker will continue to do in the ring. Well, thank you. I hope everyone keeps watching on Wednesday nights. Well, there we go.

Dr. Britt Baker, isn't she awesome? And so much nicer than the heel that we see on Dynamite. Poor Tony Chivani. Please take a screenshot right now. Tag me, tag Brit, let us know that you're listening with us. Let us know what stands out the most for you. I think for me, I can't believe that her and Adam Cole, Babeae, you always have to say,

Bebe? I can't believe they met on Bumble. And look at them now. She's amazing. I also think it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when Brit will be the AEW women's champion. Who knows? Maybe she's the next one. I mean, if it's not her, I guess it's Chris Statlander. That's what I'm thinking. But Brit's going to make an awesome heel champion. I'm looking forward to that one. Thanks for listening to this interview and for listening to all of these interviews. I'd never done. a virtual interview before the quarantine happened, but, you know, we all have to find a way to pivot and make it work with what's going on in the world. I have nothing against these interviews. I just prefer to do them in person, even if I can get that like 1% edge of the interview being that much better. I prefer to do them in person. But until the world goes back to normal or some sort of semblance of normality, we will continue to do them like this. And I appreciate you being along for this ride. So who could be next? It's definitely a lot more possibilities when you're doing the interviews like this. You don't have to fly anywhere or book rental cars or get hotels so we can

really do anything with the click of a button. So hmm, maybe we should do someone who was recently released by WWE. Hmm. Maybe. So I saw this on Instagram. I'm not sure who this quote is from, but I'm sure that someone out there needs to hear this. I know that it hit me. me hard when I first read it. Four things you can't get back. The stone after it's thrown, the word after it's said, the occasion after it's missed, the time after it's gone. Thanks for spending your time with us.

We'll see you soon with that set with maybe that interview. Maybe that interview was someone who was recently released from WWA. Could my voice get any higher here? The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s Flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley.

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