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So far, 2020 has been quite an eventful year for WWE. Fans have seen WWE's product change completely during the pandemic era of programming. This has included the first ever WrestleMania to take place without a crowd, and the introduction of the WWE ThunderDome.
Also, many titles have changed hands in 2020. The WWE Universe saw Bayley finally drop the SmackDown Women's Championship after a record-breaking reign, while Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36.
As well as this, audiences saw the introduction of cinematic matches in WWE. The Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker and the FireFly Funhouse match were both well received by fans.
Throughout every year in WWE, fans see performers turn from a babyface to a heel, and vice versa. Here are five WWE Superstars who turned babyface in 2020.
#5 WWE RAW's Mandy Rose
Up until 2020, Mandy Rose was known to be part of Absolution, and later Fire and Desire with Sonya Deville. Throughout her WWE career, Rose had portrayed a heel, but this all began to change towards the end of 2019.
Rose started getting involved with Otis, who at the time was also one-half of a tag team. A relationship blossomed between the pair, only for Sonya Deville and Dolph Ziggler to sabotage their Valentine's Day date.
When this was revealed to Mandy Rose, she sided with Otis and began a rivalry with Deville. Throughout her relationship with Otis, Mandy Rose began to turn into a more friendly and warm babyface, whereas Deville became a manic and twisted heel.
The pair had an intense rivalry, which ramped up even further when Deville attacked Rose and hacked off chunks of her hair in a backstage segment. This set up a match between the two at SummerSlam.
Inititally, it was supposed to be a Hair vs. Hair match, but it was later turned in a Loser Leaves Town match, which Deville lost.
Rose is doing well as a babyface, and is now part of the RAW roster in a tag team with Dana Brooke. She was one of the only women on RAW who appeared to object to Nia Jax's bullying of Lana, as she continues her run as a babyface on the red brand of WWE.
#4 WWE RAW Women's Champion Asuka
Asuka began 2020 as a heel in WWE, and was involved in a feud with then-RAW Women's Champion, Becky Lynch. At the 2020 Royal Rumble, Asuka was unsuccessful in capturing the title from Lynch, after a lengthy and intense rivalry.
At the time, Asuka was also one-half of The Kabuki Warriors with Kairi Sane. The pair won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships from Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at Hell in a Cell 2019. They managed to keep hold of the titles until the opening match of WrestleMania 36.
Asuka began showing more babyface traits around the time of WWE's Money in the Bank pay-per-view, where she won the women's briefcase on the roof of WWE's Titan Towers.
The day after the event, her babyface turn was solidified. Becky Lynch relinquished the WWE RAW Women's Championship to her, and explained that the title was in the briefcase. Asuka joyfully celebrated in the Performance Center, before embracing her former rival in a truly lovely moment.
Following that, Asuka and Kairi Sane began a rivalry against Sasha Banks and Bayley. Asuka even sacrificed the WWE RAW Women's title to rescue Sane from a beatdown from Bayley.
Throughout 2020, Asuka has been a fan favourite of the pandemic era of WWE programming, which means it makes perfect sense to have her in a babyface role.
#3 WWE RAW's "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt
Since Bray Wyatt transformed into The Fiend, he has been a character used to change other WWE Superstars. For example, after being attacked by The Fiend, Finn Balor re-emerged on NXT as a heel, before Seth Rollins began transforming into his "Messiah" character following a rivalry in 2019.
During this summer, The Fiend seemed to begin a face turn. Like in other feuds, The Fiend changed Braun Strowman. However, Strowman appeared to change midway their rivalry, and attacked Alexa Bliss with a gorilla press on WWE SmackDown. This reversed the roles in their feud, with Strowman turning heel, and The Fiend slowly becoming the babyface.
His babyface turn continued when Alexa Bliss aligned herself with The Fiend and began appearing in the Firefly Funhouse. Bliss was used somewhat as a vehicle to turn The Fiend face, and add another dimension to the character and his universe.
Alexa Bliss and The Fiend were later drafted to RAW together, where they now appear as a duo. Since his move to RAW, The Fiend has been cemented as a babyface through his rivalres with heel performers, such as Randy Orton.
#2 WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks
During her WWE return segment in August 2019, Sasha Banks shocked fans when she unveiled a new look with blue hair and a new heel persona. She later teamed back up with Bayley, who also turned heel.
The pairing dominated WWE for quite some time and won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships in June 2020 from Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. They managed to defend the championships against multiple teams, including The IIconics and The Kabuki Warriors.
Fans started to see some hints towards the friendship between Sasha Banks and Bayley being not quite what it seems. The pair eventually came to blows after they lost a rematch for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships to Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. Afterwards, Bayley viciously attacked her former friend with a steel chair.
Sasha Banks started to become a more sympathic character than previously, with Bayley coming across as a cowardly heel who was too scared to face her. Banks appeared to be turning face, as Bayley became more villainous, to make their feud a classic babyface vs. heel showdown.
Sasha Banks eventually won the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship from Bayley at Hell in a Cell and has since become a top babyface champion of the company.
#1 WWE Champion Drew McIntyre
After his move from NXT to the main roster of WWE in 2018, Drew McIntyre was firmly established as a heel. The star aligned himself with a long-time villain of WWE, Dolph Ziggler, and assisted him in winning the Intercontinental Championship from Seth Rollins.
Drew McIntyre seemed to regularly align himself with heel characters on RAW. This began to end towards the end of 2019, as McIntyre slowly drifted apart from stars such as Shane McMahon and Randy Orton. In early 2020, the star embarked on a winning streak and quickly emerged as a favorite to win the Royal Rumble on January 26th.
During the episodes of RAW that built towards the Royal Rumble, fans began to really get behind McIntyre as he displayed more of his charismatic persona on television. A moment that stood out was when he defeated No Way Jose in seconds, still clutching a microphone, much to the delight of the crowd.
McIntyre's new babyface status was ramped into action when he managed to end Brock Lesnar's dominance in the Royal Rumble. He sent The Beast Incarnate flying over the top rope with an expertly-delivered Claymore Kick.
This new status as a babyface Superstar was cemented at WrestleMania 36, when McIntyre managed to defeat Brock Lesnar in the main event of the second night of the weekend. Since then, McIntyre has had an impressive run as WWE Champion, and even managed to win the title back after briefly dropping it to Randy Orton.
