5 best babyfaces in WWE in 2018 so far

There are two major ways to get a babyface over. You can legitimately make the audience empathize with the good guys' struggles, often because that good guy is genuinely likeable, or you can make the good guy a take-no-prisoners ass kicker who the audience loves to see beat everyone up, especially the bad guys.

Unfortunately, WWE has often forgotten both of these things. Babyfaces instead are usually booked like hapless individuals with the attention span of goldfish. Not even Ronda Rousey has been immune to this. Is there anyone that can get behind a wimpy star? Not really.

To the extent that babyfaces are successful these days, it's because they've been able to break this pattern enough to create compelling programming:

#5 Becky Lynch

Despite her year and a half of meandering, the Irish lass kicker never lost her devoted fans, so when it looked like she was finally going somewhere, the audience got more and more excited.

Becky Lynch is naturally sympathetic, which is why her match with Carmella a couple of weeks ago was better than Charlotte's and Asuka's, as those two individuals fit better into the second, ass-kicker babyface category. Seeing them struggle against a poor worker like Carmella shatters the illusion that pro wrestling is supposed to cast on its audience, but Becky is sympathetic enough to pull it off.

Becky's hot streak secured her a title shot at SummerSlam, only for Charlotte to now muscle her way into the picture. This upset a lot of people, showing how powerful a connection Becky has with her fans.

I want to say that a good story will come from this, but I also can't say I have any faith. For now though, Becky's summer has proven that she's a vastly underutilized commodity, and has pushed her onto the list of one of 2018's best babyfaces.