How WWE Has FINALLY Solved Its Babyface Problem

Damian Priest, a man who hucks fresh produce at the baddies because everybody with the ability to access this article unsupervised is far too old for this sh*t, was the latest to do precisely that. He said, like most do, that he "always wanted to say that," as if combat athletes dream not of winning fights and making millions of dollars but rather becoming brand ambassadors for WWE.

The Rock's easy-going charm is also a template, except it was phenomenally hard-going when Seth Rollins did stand-up comedy in 2019. His cringe-worthy attempts to own the room were so embarrassing that his face role was untenable despite going over Brock Lesnar twice. Remember when that was the ticket to babyface stardom, incidentally? It was never that easy. A WWE babyface could tap out Cthulhu, and they'd still have to mock the tentacled sky-scraping behemoth up in bandages and stink lines on the f*cking titantron.

Oh, and of course, Steve Austin. Seth Rollins played the 2000 vintage of the character during that very same programme. He didn't trust anybody and assaulted several wrestlers backstage with a steel chair. His characterisation was all over the place. He played everybody but Seth Rollins.

All WWE babyfaces must fit within an established archetype that they are woefully unsuited to. For years - decades - virtually every WWE babyface has been presented, accidentally, as a total dork. It is impossible to take a WWE babyface seriously as a cool, likeable guy. They beat people up when they haven't even been beaten down, they tell sh*tty jokes, they have no friends out to save them. They, by definition, are geeks.

Have WWE finally realised and embraced this?

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