Britt Baker Addresses Black-Eye T-Shirt Controversy

Britt Baker has been at the centre of controversy over the past week.

The former AEW Women's World Champion made the save for Adam Cole on the April 21 edition of Dynamite but she was soon floored by The Outcasts, who beat her down with a kendo stick. This left Baker with a black eye and she posted an image of the bruise on social media a couple of days later, shortly before AEW began to sell a t-shirt with the photo on.

The release of the t-shirt prompted some fans to claim that Baker "supports domestic violence" and Baker has now addressed the controversy, telling Sports Illustrated: 

"I was very surprised. When I posted the picture of my black eye on social media, it got almost 100,000 likes [and comments saying] that I'm tough and I'm a badass and, 'Wow, this girl, she's strong.' It was empowering. But then when it went on a shirt, it was really problematic, and that was so confusing to me. Because why? If I'm on a shirt with a black eye, why does that make me weak? Why does that make me a victim? But if a man, or Chris Jericho, had a black eye, they'd be tough and they'd be a badass.

"To me, it's showing the internal narrative that people are saying about women - and that's that we're not as strong or as tough as the men, and that's the real problem here. It's not a black eye on a T-shirt. Sometimes I do get hurt. I've broken my leg, my wrist, my nose - and guess what? Now I have a black eye and I signed up for that. I've actually been telling the makeup artist, 'Don't cover up my black eye.' Because I think it's empowering, because I'm tough. You should see the other girl."

The black-eye t-shirt was the highest-selling merchandise item the weekend it was released. Baker remains locked in a feud with The Outcasts alongside Jamie Hayter.