WWE: Ranking The Top 10 Female Superstars of 2017

9. Bayley

I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that the WWE have issues with getting Bayley over as a babyface, because she’s just so dang good. Her work in NXT was beyond fantastic, and she could have been much higher on this list if it weren’t for a botched feud with Alexa Bliss. That feud involved Bayley, a grown woman who has competed in some bad-ass matches in her career, being a afraid of a kendo stick. It also gave us the infamous “This Is Your Life” segment, featuring two random actors who fell in love with each other on screen and had nothing to do with a current wrestling storyline.

All of this atrocious booking led to Bayley being booed in Toronto, and Vince McMahon pretty much hit the panic button after that. Bayley has only made sporadic appearances on TV since then and hasn’t been in any major storylines.

That said, they kind of did this with Bayley in the past, because she took a backseat to Charlotte and Sasha Banks during that feud at the end of 2016. After Charlotte and Sasha finished feuding over the Raw Women’s Championship, Bayley entered the title picture in early 2017. Although she ended Charlotte’s undefeated PPV streak at Fastlane in unclean fashion, it was still a big moment. Bayley also retained the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 33 in a great Fatal Four-Way contest.

But it was her championship victory over Charlotte on Raw that received plaudits and for very good reason. After Asuka vs. Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, it was probably the best women’s match in WWE in 2017. As a matter of fact, WWE ranked the Feb. 13 battle as the 21st-best match of the year.

Bayley also had a strong match at Payback against Alexa Bliss when she dropped the Raw Women’s Championship, and even in a down year, she’s still proven that she is easily one of the best female workers in the company.