Bayley and the 4 Other Worst Possible Heels on WWE's Current Roster

You can't blame Bayley for mulling over a heel turn.

WWE has mismanaged her character. She hasn't been able to recreate the magic she had as NXT champion. She's sputtering despite her natural appeal.

When Bayley appeared on The Steve Austin Show, she mentioned the possibility of straying from her current babyface role. "I always told myself too if I were to ever be heel I want to make myself so miserable because that's one of the most hateable things, I think," she said. 

Taking on a villainous persona isn't the answer to her issues, though.

Bayley is among the Superstars on the WWE roster who would most struggle to transition from babyface to heel. Some wrestlers are just born to play the good guy. Count Bayley and Sami Zayn among that group.

Their looks, their real-life backgrounds and likability make the following wrestlers the least likely WWE talents to flourish as heels.

5. Rich Swann

Rich Swann has a 500-watt smile. He's a ball of energy and gets the crowd going by boogieing in the ring.

And as Nick Irving of ESPN.com wrote: "He is genuinely entertaining and someone the crowd can naturally get behind as a face."

Consider too that his real-life story is of the inspiring underdog variety. As he explains in the video above, his father and mother both died when he was young. He used wrestling as an escape route from a dark life. That's all babyface material.

How do you root against a guy like that?

WWE could drum up any kind of fictional backstory for him it wanted, but too many folks know who the real Swann is. He's effervescent and winsome, a guy you'd want to party with. Trying to push all that aside to make him a heel would be unwisely going against the grain. 

4. Kalisto

When Kalisto began wearing an eerie red and black mask earlier this year, there was a clear disconnect between his look and his character. The mask was demonic; Kalisto is a courageous underdog.

Like Rey Mysterio before him, Kalisto is the kind of wrestler who appeals to kids because of his high-flying ways and colorful attire. He looks like a superhero. He fights uphill like the luchador equivalent of Rocky.

The King of Flight would flop as a heel for all those reasons.

He's not good enough on the mic to sell a villainous character on that end. He's best off when he's getting the fans to chant "Lucha!" along with him and putting on a gutsy performance against a bigger opponent.

He's the David in a world of Goliaths—and David is inherently the figure one roots for in that story.

3. Mojo Rawley

To make Mojo Rawley a heel, you'd first have to get him to stop smiling. And that may prove an impossible task.

The powerhouse of The Hype Bros is a perpetually energetic spark plug. He teems with enthusiasm. In the ring, he looks like a kid bouncing around a playground with a grin stretched across his face.

We have seen flashes of a more serious Rawley, but his natural state is a cross between "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. 

As a heel, he'd have to trade in his excitable persona for something less fitting for him. It would be hard to take him seriously should he start acting vicious and heartless. He's the guy who makes friends with everyone on the team—not some merciless brute.

2. Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn is a babyface to the core. WWE would be making a mistake trying to go against that. 

No one on the roster today plays the babyface-in-peril role better than Zayn. He wobbles around the ring in dramatic fashion, making great theater out of getting knocked around. With all the pathos he can create that way, it would make zero sense to switch things up with him.

He's affable and endearing, an underdog and a natural good guy. And as A.V. Club writer Kyle Fowle put it: "Zayn is everything that's good and pure about wrestling."

A heel turn would put Zayn in a position to fail.

The Underdog from the Underground trying to replace his aw-shucks charm with something menacing wouldn't work. Zayn would be hard to buy as a scoundrel who despised fans and took shortcuts to win. Zayn the heel would be robbed of so much of what makes him great.

1. Bayley

Bayley is Ricky Steamboat. She's Luke Skywalker. She's Goku.

The former Raw women's champ is the pure-of-heart protagonist who makes the ideal foil for the world's villains.

Bayley's strength is her connection with the crowd. She generates sympathy. She appeals to young fans. Kyler James of Fightful called her "the perfect babyface."

As a heel, she would be completely out of her element. Her strengths would be dulled. 

With women like the monstrous Nia Jax, the callous Alexa Bliss and the smug and severe Emma on the roster, there's no need to try to force things with Bayley in a darker role. There is no one in WWE more naturally suited to be a babyface.

A heel turn would be a misguided last-ditch effort to make up for poor booking.