As we’ve been reporting here on eWn, Britt Baker was recently suspended and fined by AEW’s disciplinary committee following a backstage incident involving MJF and his girlfriend, Alicia Atout.
The incident originated backstage on the July 17th episode of AEW Dynamite, when Baker allegedly made a remark about MJF, which Atout overheard. This led to several confrontations involving MJF, Baker, and Atout.
Baker reportedly used profanity toward Atout and demanded her removal from the women’s locker room.
The situation escalated when MJF, in a moment of frustration, punched a wall backstage before his match with Will Ospreay. The AEW American Champion even entered the women’s locker room to address the matter directly. Ospreay also addressed the matter with Baker afterward.
Despite this, Baker continued to appear on television while an HR investigation was underway. The investigation concluded with the decision to suspend Baker but not MJF.
A recent report by Ibou of WrestlePurists states that AEW chose not to suspend MJF because the HR department interpreted his actions as a defense of Atout, and thus did not deem it worthy of disciplinary action.
Ibou said, “All of these things are true. MJF did punch a wall. MJF did 100% go into the women’s locker room. The question now is, and the question that many fans have been asking is, then, why did he not get suspended? The reason why he didn’t get suspended is because of the context and order of these events. According to multiple sources, when MJF hit the wall, it was not a case of like he was in front of Britt Baker, and he punched the wall right next to her. Apparently, he had his interaction, and he walked very, very, very far down the hallway where no one was there and then hit a wall. Which is a different context than, like, you know, in the women’s locker room punching walls.”
He continued, “Regarding the women’s locker room aspect of the story, the official information I got was that it was after this whole thing apparently had calmed down. Apparently, Will Ospreay was the first person to confront Britt Baker and he just kind of asked her why she was starting issues. Ospreay confronted her, asked about it, and Britt Baker went off on Alicia Atout. Britt Baker called Alicia Atout, by multiple accounts, a ‘Stupid f***ing b***’ because Alicia Atout informed MJF that Britt Baker was berating him, talking crap about Max and Ospreay. Because she was basically like it’s what the story had already been told, she was burying them as their match was going on, the one-hour match. Alicia Atout lets Max know via text message. Max finds out later, Ospreay approaches, MJF comes to the defense of his fiancee. Britt Baker goes off on Alicia for being a snitch, she accused her of being a snitch, called her a ‘Stupid f***ing b**ch.’ She said she was going to get her kicked out of the women’s locker room, so on and so forth. MJF going into the women’s locker room was allegedly him going there, knocking and asking if he could enter, and them saying that he could enter, and that’s when he got in the locker room.”
The reason why he was not suspended is because HR had all the details and the information and the footage, and they looked it all over and said, ‘Okay, you’re not in the wrong here and you’re just coming to the defense of your fiancee. So they just kind of didn’t really punish him because they didn’t see it as something that should be punishable. So that’s kind of the deal with…..that’s the situation with MJF and Britt Baker Britt’s not going to miss All In. She’s going to wrestle at All In against Mercedes (Mone).”
While AEW President Tony Khan’s involvement in the investigation remains unclear, most parties were sympathetic to Baker regarding this controversy.
