Favorite “genuine” babyface moments

[Friday Night SmackOwn]

The Usos’ forfeit last night had me thinking of the other times in WWE where babyfaces truly acted like good guys and how awesome it is when that happens.

Like that time a bunch of faces helped Daniel Bryan fend off the Shield when they were beating him down.

Any others?

[Deleted]

My memory's iffy on the exact details but wasn't John Cena going to be added to the WWE title match at TLC 2011 until the GM told him that the only way Zack Ryder could get a US title shot on the same show was if Cena gave his own opportunity up? Which he did, so the main event ended up just being unk/Miz/Del Rio and Ryder went on to win the US title.

[Perd]

Not WWE, but when Juventud Guerrera eliminated himself from the cruiserweight battle royal, so that Dean Malenko (disguised as Ciclope) could finally get his hands on Chris Jericho. Everything about that was perfect.

[Tenshigure]

Mar 27, 2019 13:04:11 GMT -5 Perd said:

Not WWE, but when Juventud Guerrera eliminated himself from the cruiserweight battle royal, so that Dean Malenko (disguised as Ciclope) could finally get his hands on Chris Jericho. Everything about that was perfect.

For reference:

[Tenshigure]

My personal favorite: Austin saving Stephanie from The Undertaker when he had abducted her and trying to marry her to gain mower power in the WWE. He was under no obligation to do anything as he was reviled by Vince, but Vince pleaded him for help.

The image of him mowing down Ministry members and ultimately rescuing her with Vince coming out and thanking him was fantastic storytelling:

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

Mar 27, 2019 13:12:42 GMT -5 Tenshigure said:

My personal favorite: Austin saving Stephanie from The Undertaker when he had abducted her and trying to marry her to gain mower power in the WWE. He was under no obligation to do anything as he was reviled by Vince, but Vince pleaded him for help.

The image of him mowing down Ministry members and ultimately rescuing her with Vince coming out and thanking him was fantastic storytelling:

The best part was Ken Shamrock putting the ankle lock on Christian (?) and demanding the location of Stephanie

[Diamond Cutter Out of Nowhere!]

Mar 27, 2019 13:06:14 GMT -5 Tenshigure said:

Mar 27, 2019 13:04:11 GMT -5 Perd said:

Not WWE, but when Juventud Guerrera eliminated himself from the cruiserweight battle royal, so that Dean Malenko (disguised as Ciclope) could finally get his hands on Chris Jericho. Everything about that was perfect.

For reference:

This show is one of my all-time favorites. Love that it was referenced.

[Hit Girl]

Not WWE but Goldberg having enough of the NWO's shit and spearing the hell out of them.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

To be honest I'm not sure I have seen a better one than the Usos one. One of the greatest story points I've seen in wrestling. What babyfaces.

[arrogantmodel]

Mar 27, 2019 13:12:42 GMT -5 Tenshigure said:

My personal favorite: Austin saving Stephanie from The Undertaker when he had abducted her and trying to marry her to gain mower power in the WWE. He was under no obligation to do anything as he was reviled by Vince, but Vince pleaded him for help.

The image of him mowing down Ministry members and ultimately rescuing her with Vince coming out and thanking him was fantastic storytelling:

Concrete evidence that you can have a goofy storyline but make it compelling as hell. It's not that hard! Why do we get the dumbest shit ever these days?

[fw91]

Cena gives up a world title opportunity so Ryder can get a us title shot. Of course he made out with Eve later...

[Citizen Snips]

Charging into 3 vs 1 odds to save a still-not-quite reformed Macho Man with a classic "Oh, it's ON!" expression

For that matter, Liz' save of Macho Man at Mania 7. She's never EVER shown a desire to throw hands, yet charges the ring to throw a former Women's Champion out on her ass to save a man who's treated her like garbage for 2 years...all in the name of love.

[TGM]

[Friday Night SmackOwn]

The Shield rescuing Bryan from Evolution on the Raw after WM30.

[spagett]

Roddy Piper resisting the dark side at Mania 8 and staying babyface by deciding not to cheat.

I know deciding not to cheat would generally not be such a babyface moment but the way they pulled it off was just brilliant. Seeing people in the crowd pleading with Roddy not to turn heel, Piper himself showing the turmoil he was going through to resist his old heel ways.

And then after he throws the bell out and eventually loses clean, you expect him to maybe regret not cheating but instead he hugs Bret and helps him up the ramp just solidifying that he had changed and was a genuine babyface now.

Such a simple story, we need more stuff like that.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Mar 27, 2019 18:37:36 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Cena gives up a world title opportunity so Ryder can get a us title shot. Of course he made out with Eve later...

Yeah, but it's Eve. You can't blame a man for not resisting when she kisses you.

He did manage to avoid all the backlash from that. Eve was a slut, despite not being Ryder's girlfriend, and Cena escaped.

[Deleted]

Mar 27, 2019 20:10:23 GMT -5 spagett said:

Roddy Piper resisting the dark side at Mania 8 and staying babyface by deciding not to cheat.

I know deciding not to cheat would generally not be such a babyface moment but the way they pulled it off was just brilliant. Seeing people in the crowd pleading with Roddy not to turn heel, Piper himself showing the turmoil he was going through to resist his old heel ways.

And then after he throws the bell out and eventually loses clean, you expect him to maybe regret not cheating but instead he hugs Bret and helps him up the ramp just solidifying that he had changed and was a genuine babyface now.

Such a simple story, we need more stuff like that.

Similarly to this, when Sami Zayn won the NXT Championship from Neville after briefly considering using the belt as a weapon, but ultimately deciding to do the right thing.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 27, 2019 20:23:19 GMT -5 @notoriousnd22 said:

Mar 27, 2019 20:10:23 GMT -5 spagett said:

Roddy Piper resisting the dark side at Mania 8 and staying babyface by deciding not to cheat.

I know deciding not to cheat would generally not be such a babyface moment but the way they pulled it off was just brilliant. Seeing people in the crowd pleading with Roddy not to turn heel, Piper himself showing the turmoil he was going through to resist his old heel ways.

And then after he throws the bell out and eventually loses clean, you expect him to maybe regret not cheating but instead he hugs Bret and helps him up the ramp just solidifying that he had changed and was a genuine babyface now.

Such a simple story, we need more stuff like that.

Similarly to this, when Sami Zayn won the NXT Championship from Neville after briefly considering using the belt as a weapon, but ultimately deciding to do the right thing.

On this note, Goldberg getting a hold of Hogan's weightlifting belt and throwing it down, even though it was more or less not even considered cheating considering how often it was used in Hollywood's main event matches. It's one of things that defined the Goldberg character to me, since he almost never used any sort of dirty tactics, even in retaliation to others' cheating ways.

[warriorthug4edge]

One of the things that I really liked about the way the Usos forfeited was that they didn't just lay down or walk out...they gave the speech as Big E was recovering from being put through the table, so he actually had time to get ready when the inevitable Bryan/Rowan moment happened. It showed some smarts, IMO.

[BatPunk]

That one time London and Kendrick came to HHH’s aid.........