2015 PW Awards

2015 PW Awards: Face of the Year ‘It’s Bayley!’

Published

7 years ago

January 1, 2016

Fight Booth Staff

Face of the Year: It’s Bayley!

“I’ll be completely honest with you guys. The first time I laid eyes on Bayley I was creeped out. I would ask myself, ‘Who’s this super tall grown ass woman with the side ponytail that’s trying to hug everyone?’ She worried me. Then, over time, as all great performers do – she won me over. She won me over big time. How’d she win me over? That’s a good question. There’s just something so honest and innocent about Bayley that makes it extremely difficult to root against even if you are a lifetime pro heel man like myself. As a pro wrestling nerd through and through – I worry about what’s next for Bayley after NXT. I really want her to succeed at the next level. And if she doesn’t – I want her to realize that it’s not her fault. There’s no stopping Bayley if you let her do what she was born to do. This is a competitor that could either be the biggest star or the biggest bust of 2016. All I know is that she was an easy vote for face of the year in 2015.” – Dave Reno

“Bayley is the perfect babyface. Bayley will believe in people, despite how many times they’ve hurt her, because she wants to see the good in them. Bayley will fight with everything she has – but she won’t cheat to achieve her goals. Bayley will never, EVER give up. No matter who you are a fan of, if they are in a match with Bayley, you will end up cheering for Bayley. Watching her win the NXT Women’s Title at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn was the most cathartic experience I’ve ever had as a wrestling fan – even more than DBry winning the WWE World Heavyweight titles at Wrestlemania XXX. That’s how good of a babyface Bayley is.” – Lady J

“My 4-year-old son is becoming a huge WWE fan and I absolutely love spending time watching PPV’s with him. Like every kid he loves Cena. Bayley can and should be the female answer to Cena. I’m glad that if/when my 2-year-old daughter starts to watch w/ us that she has someone to look up to in Bayley and not a dime a dozen fake titty horrible worker “diva” i.e. Eva Marie.” – Brian Porter

“Bayley is the best baby face in the business and she’s talented enough and over enough to be as popular as anyone on the main roster if she’s given a chance to transition to the main stage of the WWE.” – Jim LaMotta

“I’m going with the upset here and I have to go with Bayley as the face of the year. First, look at Bayley’s music… it’s so damn happy and you can’t help but bounce your head and get a smile across your face as soon as it hits. You have the fact that she has the biggest single WWE fan in her audience in Izzy. On top of all of that, you have the ultimate underdog story for 2015. Bayley had a ton of chances to takeover NXT and get to the top of the women’s division but she always lost. Then, at NXT Brooklyn, in the single biggest crowd pop of the year, she hit the Bayley-to-Belly suplex and pinned Sasha Banks for the NXT Championship. The crowd went apeshit (I was in that audience… and I did too). It was incredible, and every time she comes out, you just need to cheer for her to continue to win. Shas the crowd in the palm of her hand every time she goes out to the ring. It’s not a face that is forced upon us, we have just attached to this superfan and living almost vicariously through her. I think that makes her the face of the year.” – Chris Langevin

“Hey Bayley….I wanna know, if you’d be my girl; her reception at NXT TakeOver London was epic. Love Bayley and she edges Cena for top face honors.” – Dan Rose

“It’s Bayley, and here’s why: the energy of the room changes when she enters it. The smiles on the young fans’ faces, and the respect from older fans; Bayley has it all going on right now.” – Matt Addie

Runner Up: Prince Puma

“Even working with a heel like Konan in his corner, there is no denying the in ring talent that is Prince Puma. He is fearless and flawless. Every single match he wrestles in is poetry.” – Andrea Mitchell

Honorable Mention: John Cena

“Bring the hate. For the better half of this calendar year, John Cena’s U.S. Title Open Challenge was the best thing about wrestling every Monday night. Think of all the stars that John Cena helped propel in 2015 for a moment: Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville. All of those performers were involved at some point in a story line involving John Cena and the U.S. Title, and all of them were much better for it. I don’t think there was a face in 2015 that had a more important role in cultivating the wrestling landscape for their promotion than John Cena. I think it should be noted that Cena was also a part of one of the most important memes of the year, and that has to count somewhere.” – Ryan Mathews