Dot Net Awards: 2008 Best Babyface

Dot Net readers voted on a variety of 2008 awards throughout January. The results will be posted today. The following are the poll results of the Best Babyface category.

(1) Jeff Hardy: 40 percent
(2) Shawn Michaels: 20 percent
(3) John Cena: 8 percent
(4) C.M. Punk: 7 percent
(5) Undertaker: 4 percent
Others: 10 wrestlers split 21 percent of the vote.

Rich Twilling's thoughts: I am voting for this based on not only crowd reaction, but how the performer played the babyface role as well. I feel it would be wrong to omit one of the two characteristics. To me, Jeff Hardy wins this award. Fans wanted very badly for him to win the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. After his suspension, he received the loudest crowd reactions out of anybody. When he won the title, he came full circle and the fans were right there for every step of his underdog fight. Michaels and John Cena are a close second and third.

Jason Powell's thoughts: I wanted to give the award to John Cena because he's the poster boy of WWE, but Jeff Hardy had a sensational year. The fans rallied behind him when he returned from the Wellness Policy suspension, and rode the roller coaster as WWE repeatedly teased that this would be the month he would finally win the big one. When he finally captured the title, it was one of the feel-good moments of the year. By the way, stupid me forgot to include Triple H on the list of nominees. I don't think the voting would have been significantly different, though, since only one person wrote to point out my error.