Diva Dirt presents its fourth annual Writers’ Choice Awards, as decided by the Diva Dirt team. As we come to the end of 2014, we have picked the best of the best to be awarded our Writers’ Choice trophies.
Best Babyface: Bayley
Question: Is there anyone in wrestling more lovable… err, huggable, than Bayley?
Answer: No. No there is not.
When thinking of what defines a true babyface, it is someone that not only gets the crowd into their matches… but deeply makes you, individually, care. They affect you so much that you become invested in their well being and want to see them succeed beyond their wildest dreams.
This is Bayley.
Bayley is a character that has experienced her fair share of ups and downs in NXT. She’s been mocked. She’s been targeted. She’s been turned on and assaulted and injured… but she continues to put a smile on her face through all of it and never once lets any issue affect her positive outlook on life. When you sit down to really think about it, Bayley is the Diva young boys & girls can look up to, and also the one parents can be proud of. She’s sweet, she’s fun, and she’s that person you literally just want to walk up and hug – but, oh yeah, she also maybe beats people up for a living.
That’s the thing about Bayley though, she is probably the most unlikely wrestler… who has actually perfected everything about wrestling. What we mean is that Bayley doesn’t seem like the type of person who wants to beat people up for a living, but when you actually listen to her promos and hear the words she says, wrestling is about so much more to her than just throwing punches and landing kicks.
Perhaps the best example of this comes from her title shot back in September against Charlotte at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way. The fire and the passion she showed in that exclusive pre-show video package came only second to the intensity and drive she had during the match itself. That was her moment, win or lose, and the pre-finish staredown still gives us chills. Bayley just gets wrestling, and wrestling just gets Bayley.
Honestly though, she idolizes this. Wrestling is her dream, and she knows what it’s like to be that girl in the front row looking on at your role models doing their thing in the ring. She sees people like Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch – her enemies – and wants to take them down while being that Lita or that Molly Holly or that Ivory to the generation looking on now.
Bayley wants to prove that you can chase your dreams and make them come true no matter who or what tries to stop you. She embodies everything that a true “good guy” represents and doesn’t need to blur her character to appeal to the masses. She is just a nice person who is doing what she has always wanted to do. She doesn’t hold her feelings or her happiness back… and you know what? People respect that. People like that.
There is nobody else in wrestling like her, and that is exactly why Bayley is our pick for 2014’s top Babyface of the year.
Stay tuned for more Writers’ Choice Award reveals throughout the day.
