AEW’s Britt Baker has joined the world of Cobra Kai. The 33-year-old wrestler made her debut in the ninth episode of Cobra Kai Season 6, showing face as Sensei Oksana, the co-sensei of Russian dojo Tiger Strike. Baker’s Sensei Oksana has popped up in two episodes thus far and has been teased to return when Cobrai Kai Season 6 Part 3 premieres next February.
Outside the dojo, Baker is best known for her time inside the squared circle. Baker has been wrestling since 2015 and was part of All Elite Wrestling’s roster at the company’s launch in 2019. Within AEW, Baker is a regular staple of the women’s division, having reigned as AEW Women’s Champion for 290 days.
In celebration of Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2’s release on Netflix, ScreenRant interviewed Baker about how Martin Kove helped get her involved in the show, who her character of Sensei Oksana is, how she balances wrestling and acting, keeping her role a secret, and what could be next for her in the larger Cobra Kai world after the show ends.
Martin Kove Helped Britt Baker Get Involved In Cobra Kai
ScreenRant: You’re joining this world in what feels like has been a long time coming because I remember seeing you have a backstage segment with Martin Kove years and years ago. What kind of role did Martin play in getting you involved in the show?
Britt Baker: Man, so Martin’s probably the first person in the Cobra Kai universe that I met and became friends with. Our agents are best friends at the Comic-Cons and the signings, so we’re always near and dear to each other at those types of things. We became friends, and then I got introduced to more people through the Cobra Kai universe through him. When I attended the Season 4 premiere with Netflix, I met Hayden Schlossberg, one of the writers, and I got to talking with him and we exchanged social media information.
Then I essentially just kept bugging Hayden. Sorry, not sorry. Kidding, but not really. ‘Hey, if you ever need a person of dental background or pro wrestling background, or if you just need anyone to be there to shine the shoes, I will be there.’ I’m just such a massive fan of Cobra Kai and The Karate Kid. I just would’ve loved to just be on set just to see anything. So when I got the call, ‘Hey, we actually have a part that we think you’d be great for,’ I was so excited and I had no idea what to expect. I was loosely given the information, and then I showed up and it was a lot more than what I was expecting, and I was a little nervous, overwhelmed, but I was so excited.
From an approval standpoint, I know the rules in terms of wrestling and movies have become a lot more lenient, but back in the day, I know wrestlers would have to turn down projects because of their wrestling schedule. what was the process like of going to Tony and saying, ‘Hey, I got this role. Is this something I can do?’
Britt Baker: I had been manifesting some sort of Cobra Kai involvement for a long time. Dancing with the Stars, that’s the next show I’m going to be on. I just need to keep manifesting it. So he knew how badly I really wanted to be involved, and when the opportunity came up, I just told him, ‘Hey, this opportunity came up,’ and I was off camera anyway at the time with AEW. So it was as simple as like, ‘Okay, we’re not bringing you back any sooner than then,’ and he was so supportive, so happy. Tony’s really, really cool and he’s so easy when it comes to big projects like that. I think he gets the big picture. More eyes on us as individuals means more eyes on AEW.
Britt Baker Kept Her Cobra Kai Role Secret
You’re not the first person from AEW to make the leap from the squared circle onto a film set. Adam Copeland has a starring role as Ares in Percy Jackson. MJF has a bunch of projects coming out. Did you turn to any people in the locker room for advice on how to juggle these two worlds?
Britt Baker: I actually didn’t tell anybody that I was doing it. Less than five people. I told no one. The bad luck of you hype something up and it’s going to be great, and then all your scenes get cut, or they write you out, and I’m like, ‘That’s not going to be me, so I’m just going to downplay it.’ I’m going to be excited. I’m going to be up every night with excitement and then hopefully I still make it into the show, but I’m not going to hype myself up and then it all gets cut. I definitely didn’t that want to happen.
It was so hard though, because I’m such a Cobra Kai fan. Wrestling and the Cobra Kai Universe are one of the same. There are so many crossover fans. I wanted to shout it from the mountaintops, but I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m not going to sit here and hype this up, and then my scene gets cut to two seconds. Nope, I’m not doing it.’
WWE’s Xavier Woods Stopped By Cobra Kai’s Set
Who surprised you the most on set as someone who just knows wrestling and is a big fan?
Britt Baker: Actually, who surprised me on set, literally as just background, someone who’s just kind of floating around was Xavier Woods. He was on set. Yeah, he was just there. Just some mutual connections in the Atlanta area, and that was fun because I got to hang out with him for a little bit and we were just talking about the difference between stunt fighting and pro wrestling fighting and how they’re so different but so similar and just the massive respect we have for the stunt world and the stunt fighters and the coordinators. I mean, it’s crazy how complex and difficult and just amazing that world is.
Who is Britt Baker’s Sensei Oksana?
I want to talk about your on-screen character Sensei Oksana . Who is she?
Britt Baker: It’s funny, I felt when I was reading the script, there a lot of similarities between Oksana and kind of my character here and there on AEW, Dr. Britt Baker, the heel, the villain, the evil smile, the antagonist always just stirring the pot. It’s something as simple as when Team Russia defeated Team Cobra Kai, just the evil smile to Alicia, to the person I ended up fighting with her, but it’s just little things, like stirring the pot. I’m going to mush it in your face, that type of thing, and I love that. I think just Team Russia in itself just, you don’t want to like them.
I love when I get to watch wrestlers in major motion pictures or TV shows because you can always tell they bring some of that in-ring flair. Fast X, last year I saw John Cena hit an Attitude Adjustment. I’m pretty sure Batista hit a Batista Bomb in a movie he was in recently. Was there ever a discussion of how we would work the Lockjaw into Cobra Kai?
Britt Baker: No, but I will say Ken, one of the stunt coordinators, he definitely had the idea right away. When I showed up on set, we got to do something with a table. I ended up doing a Rock Bottom. It was actually his wife, ironically, who I put through a table because both him and his wife had worked on Heels, so they had definitely a little bit of wrestling, knowledge, expertise. We had so many mutual people that we know, which was really cool talking to them. But yeah, Ken right away was like, let’s get some wrestling in here. Sneak it in.
Season 6 is the final season of this show. It’s wild to say out loud. It feels like it’s been such a constant pop culture for the past decade now. Without getting into anything specific, do you feel like there’s a bow tie on your character, or do you feel like there possibly could be more to explore with her down the line?
Britt Baker: There are so many different avenues that you can take within the Cobra Kai universe, The Karate Kid universe, really. I mean, there’s so many different characters that could have their own spin-offs. It’s like little things that you don’t expect that could make really good stories and avenues, so I would say never say never.
More About Cobra Kai Season 6
In Cobra Kai season 6, following the downfall of Cobra Kai, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence focus on preparing their merged Miyagi-Do students for the “Sekai Taikai,” a prestigious international karate tournament, leading to internal conflicts within the dojo as they grapple with different training styles and personal issues while facing challenges from a resurfacing John Kreese and the potential return of other old rivals, all culminating in a high-stakes competition in Barcelona.
