5 of the best true male babyfaces in WWE

For most professional wrestlers, portraying a heel is a hell of a lot more entertaining for them than portraying a babyface.

While the good guys tend to do better when it comes to merch sales, the heels are given more creative freedom to express themselves in ways that get them over with the crowd.

In WWE, the same thing rings true, which is why so many babyface characters talk about turning to the dark side in interviews.

Sportskeeda is the one-stop destination for latest WWE rumors and wrestling news.

However, there are still a handful of performers who deserve to be recognised for their great babyface work.

Not all of them are bonafide main event stars, and some of them may not ever reach that level, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still great at what they do.

The criteria are simple: the entries are all babyfaces, who get positive reactions in a non-ironic way and also seem like great guys outside of the ring. With that being said, here are five of the best true male babyfaces in WWE.

#1 AJ Styles

When AJ Styles first came to WWE, his reaction at the 2016 Royal Rumble alone should’ve let the world know that we were in for something special.

In the two years since then, however, The Phenomenal One has been able to exceed all expectations through his determination, in-ring prowess and surprisingly impressive character work.

Nobody could’ve anticipated just how successful he’d be, and even when he turned heel, it was obvious that his natural alignment was to be a good guy.

The sign of a true hero is when he can carry the WWE Championship for a long period of time and still garner positive reactions, and AJ has that down to a tee. While others have suffered courtesy of sometimes harsh crowd responses, Styles just continued to get better and better to the point where people just couldn’t ignore his greatness. He may be in his 40s now, but if he carries on doing what he’s doing, we could easily see him carrying on at the top of the card for another few years.

#2 Zack Ryder

Natural reactions have always been hard to get in professional wrestling because you need to possess a quality that allows the audience to connect with you on a personal level.

That quality is different for everyone, but when it comes to Zack Ryder, there’s no doubt in our mind that his work ethic and infectious personality helped him to reach that next step in his career.

Sure, it didn’t last for too long and sure, he deserves to be booked better, but over the years, the WWE Universe has continued to voice their support for Mr Woo Woo Woo, You Know It.

Nine times out of ten an appearance by Ryder is guaranteed to pop the crowd, and that’s probably one of the reasons why he’s been a babyface throughout 90% of his singles run.

He’s someone who can be elevated to the mid-card title scene on incredibly short notice, and if you don’t believe us, go back and watch WrestleMania 32.

His Intercontinental Championship victory in Dallas is arguably one of the best highlights of that show, and literally, nobody saw it coming.

#3 Finn Balor

As much as we’d love to see what The Demon Finn Balor would be capable of as a main event heel, we can’t escape the fact that he’s an incredibly fun babyface.

The Irishman doesn’t even really need to do anything specific in order to get over with the crowd, as we saw from the campaign behind getting him to that next level after it was reported he wasn’t seen as one of the main guys on Monday Night Raw.

Through fan energy alone and some amusing tweets from Finn himself, the WWE Universe was finally able to see what this guy could do.

His look is a big factor behind his success story, because not only is he a good-looking guy, but he also comes across as incredibly cool - and that’s not an easy thing to pull off.

Balor came over from New Japan Pro Wrestling where he was loved for every aspect of his game, and he’s been able to successfully transition most of that over to WWE.

There are still alterations and improvements that could be made, but either way, he’s destined for big things.

#4 Xavier Woods

We probably could’ve put every single member of The New Day in this spot, but when we think about it, Xavier Woods feels like the standout guy from a character perspective.

He tends to be the man who leads most of the group’s promos, and from a comedy standpoint, there are very few guys on the main roster who can touch him. Oh, and did we mention that he’s also incredibly underrated in the ring?

Still, Woods’ work as a wrestler isn’t his only major plus, with the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel continuing to revolutionise the way in which wrestlers interact with one another.

We’ve often heard from the stars of years gone by that there isn’t much of a brotherhood in the locker room these days in comparison to the Attitude Era, but Woods seems to be leading the charge in bringing that back through gaming and friendly competition.

Xavier is a vital piece of the puzzle backstage for WWE, and he deserves to be recognised as such.

#5 Seth Rollins

Is Seth Rollins the best babyface in pro wrestling right now? We’re inclined to say yes, and the evidence is there to support that.

Following an uneasy few months after his initial turn in the back-end of 2016, Seth has been steadily building up quite the portfolio for himself as an in-ring performer.

Things seemed to be going well for him and then, at WrestleMania 34, he captured the Intercontinental Championship: and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Architect has been putting on world-class matches on a week-to-week basis ever since New Orleans, and the WWE Universe has been recognising that.

Rollins feels like ‘the guy’ who can lead the company for many years to come as a top-level babyface, and that isn’t necessarily something that people were anticipating following his poor start to life as a good guy.

The potential is there, and we’re starting to see it unfold before our very eyes.