Following James' departure, no one was capable of filling that void she left behind. Kelly Kelly was extremely hot, sure, but she had little character depth and couldn't wrestle whatsoever. Eve Torres was fairly generic as well, and AJ Lee and Kaitlyn were never given a chance to fully flesh out their personas.
The last year has seen the rise of Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch. Since their promotion from NXT in the summer of 2015, they have brought a new meaning to the words “women's wrestling,” restoring respect to the heavily damaged division through their outstanding in-ring encounters.
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That said, none of them were what I would classify as “breakout babyfaces.” Charlotte was cheered at first merely because she was Ric Flair's daughter before she hit her stride as a heel, Lynch loses far too often to be taken seriously, and Banks is still struggling to find her footing as a face despite being beloved by the audience.
All of them are exceptional wrestlers, but none of them will make the same impact that Bayley will as the biggest babyface WWE's women's division has ever seen.
