Rants

Vince and the Creation of the Babyface

By Scott Keith on September 16, 2019

Hey Scott–

Following Smackdown this week, Bryan and Vinny did a segment about how WWE has no idea how to book a babyface anymore.

This made me think about the top faces throughout WWF/E history and I wanted to ask: how many top faces can Vince McMahon say he actually "made"?

Hogan pretty much had his act down from the AWA days, Bret got over as "great wrestler" and then really only got the belt when Vince's other vanity projects failed. Shawn and Nash were told to be smiley white-meat goofballs devoid of all the attitude that got them over in the first place. Austin became a mega-star through sheer force of will (and great heels to play off of.) We all know what happened with Rocky. Roman Reigns BEAT CANCER, and he's "just a guy".

The exceptions (and yes, they are HUGE exceptions) would be 'Taker and Cena, but is Vince's true ability being able to recognize a hot hand and run with it, an ability that has diminished substantially over the last few years? How many true-blue, tippy-top babyfaces would you say he's actually made over the years?

I would dispute that Vince didn't make Hogan into a tippy top babyface, actually. The Hogan match formula changed drastically at the end of 1984 and became the money-making machine we know today, for example. But in general it's always been a major weakness for him.

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