Dot Net Awards: 2009 Best Babyface

Dot Net readers voted on a variety of 2009 awards throughout January and February. We will be revealing the winners throughout the weekend. The following are the poll results of the Best Babyface category.

Best Babyface
(1) Jeff Hardy: 30 percent
(2) AJ Styles: 13 percent
(3) John Cena: 11 percent
(4) Christian: 8 percent
(5) Shawn Michaels: 7 percent
Others: 31 percent

Rich Twilling's thoughts: This is actually a tough one to pick this year. I am going to go with a surprise pick and give the award to Shawn Michaels. Michaels is the quintessential babyface and is loved everywhere he goes (except Canada). To me, John Cena gets too many boos to place in this category. Jeff Hardy won this category with those who voted on the website, but he didn't have as good of a year in 2009 as he did in 2008. Although he hasn't been a babyface for long, I give Kurt Angle the second spot and Triple H third place. Say what you want about Hunter, but he is damn popular with the live crowds. If ROH got behind him, I could see El Generico winning this award in 2010 or 2011.

Jason Powell's thoughts: I disagree with Rich's pick of HBK. Shawn and Hunter sold a lot of merchandise, but they spent too much time clowning around for my liking. Shawn has the ability to be the best babyface, it's just that he wasn't put in position to shine. Hardy gets my vote for being a merchandise juggernaut and someone that 99 percent of the fans seemed to get behind each time he wrestled.

Cena gets the No. 2 vote from me. He has his detractors, but either they stopped going to the shows or they reduced in numbers, because the boo birds weren't as loud as they have been in the past. Cena remains the babyface star of the top brand in wrestling. Despite what I wrote about DX, Triple H should be somewhere on this list. I like Christian as much as the next guy, but Hunter would run top him in a popularity poll amongst casual fans any day of the week. Honorable mention to Undertaker. It's not the typical babyface character, but it remains insanely popular with the masses.