WWE Stock Report: Who's Up & Down from WrestleMania 31 to 32 (Part II: The Andre)

Welcome to part 2 of the yearly Stock Report, looking at the status of the WWE competitors over the last season. While WWE doesn't have any break, since WrestleMania is the conclusion of many of the major angles during the year, it acts as the season finale. So we'll take a look at everybody who was active this time last year and see how they fared over this last season.

Today, we start tackling the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The Andre is so large that we will split it in two. This is mainly getting split by order of elimination. Since Hideo Itami was not a main roster member at the time and this was his only ever appearance on a main stage show, he will not be getting evaluated. Also, the New Day, Cesaro, Tyson Kidd, Jimmy Uso, and Los Matadores were all in this match. leaving us only 22 men to take a look at and not a full 30.

The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Curtis Axel

Last year this time, Axel was finding a minor groove with his "never eliminated from the Royal Rumble" gimmick. That ended up turning into a full on Hulk Hogan cosplay and eventually lead to a Mega Powers gimmick with Damien Sandow. Unfortunately, then Hogan’s racism surfaced, WWE distanced themselves from Hulk as much as possible, and Axel had nothing for the rest of the 2015.

He re-emerged in 2016 as part of the Social Outcasts and has delivered on some epically bad promos, which I believe is part of the gimmick. He picked up a win against R-Truth along the way.

Axel seems to be pretty much exactly where he was last year, but needed to work to get there.

Stock: Static

Best Moment: Finding his way back on TV with the Outcasts

Worst Moment: Hogan’s racism

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Adam Rose

For a guy who was pretty much a jobber all year, Rose went through multiple phases. He had a short run with Rosa Mendes as his girlfriend/valet. He did the party pooper gimmick. He did the dirt sheet-esque Rose Bush. And then finally, he teamed up with the Social Outcasts. Even though they are a jobber faction, the Outcasts are featured more than any of Rose’s single’s personas this year.

Stock: Very, very, very mild increase

Best Moment: Nicknaming himself the Radical Mongoose

Worst Moment: The Rose Bush. All of it.

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Fandango

Fandango did very little of note this year. He lost to Jericho recently in a "WrestleMania 29 rematch," but he was just there to get beat. Looks like he'll be back in the Andre.

Stock: Dropped

Best Moment: There was a moment in Britain this year where they were all into Fandango-ing one last time.

Worst Moment: Losing to Jericho despite Jericho being distracted at the end of the match. Then after Jericho denied their WrestleMania 29 match ever happened.

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Alex Riley

Alex Riley spent most of his time prior to injury in NXT this year and wasn’t on main roster WWE at all. Not that he really was prior to WrestleMania 31, but at least he was on that card. (If he shows up again in the Andre this year, I'd consider his stock static.)

Stock: Mildly Dropped

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Zack Ryder

Much like Riley, Ryder’s moments of note came in NXT this year as part of the successful duo of the Hypo Bros, alongside Mojo Rawley. While I would argue that his overall company stock has increased because he has found purpose in NXT, this series is just focusing on the main roster, where he has done little. He lost a US Title Open Challenge to John Cena and an NXT Title Open Challenger to Kevin Owens on SmackDown.

Out of no where, Ryder has been added to multi-man intercontinental ladder match (likely in lieu of injured Neville). He actually defeated Chris Jericho on the Raw prior to Mania, albeit with distraction from AJ Styles.

Stock: Very mild increase

Best Moment: Beating Chris Jericho. (Runner Up: The cast of Entourage trying to help him to win the US title, although unsuccessfully.)

Worst Moment: Losing his two title matches

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Bo Dallas

Bo Dallas was coming off a long injury coming into Mania 31. Much like Adam Rose, Bo went through a couple of phases last year. He feuded with Neville as part of Neville’s introduction to the main roster. They tried a more aggressive Bo Dallas later in 2015 where he seemed to enjoy beating the hell out of R-Truth but that didn’t go anywhere either. He eventually found a home with his new best friends the Social Outcasts where he has at least been featured more consistently.

Stock: Mild Increase

Best Moment: Straight up owning Flo Rida in a rap battle.

Worst Moment: Getting murdered by Brock Lesnar. (Runner Up: The failure of Boo Dallas.)

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Sin Cara:

Sin Cara’s WrestleMania 31 was the end of one Sin Cara, and the Raw after Mania was the dawn of another. The next day, the Lucha Dragons, the NXT team of Sin Cara and Kalisto, debuted. Both men spent the year in the tag division, though they were never featured too prominently. However they were featured way more than Sin Cara the single's competitor.

They were part of the Elimination Chamber tag team match. At SummerSlam, they were part of the four way tag team title match, which the New Day won. They feuded with the Cosmic Wasteland alongside Neville. The were also unsuccessful gunning for the tags titles at TLC against the New Day in a triple threat match that also featured the Usos..

During the fall, Sin Cara was out with an injury and Kaliso worked his singles career and even won the US championship. While Kalisto is billed against the Ryback at WrestleMania. Sin Cara finds himself in his own title match at WrestleMania: The seven man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship.

Stock: Increased

Best Moment: Re-debuting as part of the Lucha Dragons

Worst Moment: Getting injured

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Mark Henry

Mark Henry was around all season, even taking part of the Elimination Chamber match for the Intercontinental title, but was never a main focus. He was on TV filling in spots in random matches but never had any real feuds. He won a pre-show multi-team tag match at the Royal Rumble alongside Jack Swagger, allowing the team to qualify for the Rumble match. Henry did not last long in the Rumble itself; however, as he was eliminated in less than a minute by the Wyatt Family. In February, he teamed with the New Day, but that was short lived, which followed with a brief feud with them as well.

Henry will be back in the Andre this year.

Stock: Unchanged

Best Moment: Winning a shot to compete in what could be his final Royal Rumble

Worst Moment: Lasting less than a minute in said Rumble

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The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)

Prior to WrestleMania last year, the Ascension started on the main roster with terrible 80s style promos and getting buried by commentary immediately. So by the time Mania role around, their stock was pretty low already. This year did not see any increase.

They defeated the new Mega Powers (Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow) in the Powers first match. Their biggest (only) thing of note this season was a bit of time with Stardust as part of the Cosmic Wasteland. The Wasteland beat the team of the Lucha Dragons and Neville on the Survivor Series kickoff show, but gave the win right back on Raw.

These guys are in the same spot as they were last year on the Mania card.

Stock: No change

Best Moment: Their brief run as the Cosmic Wasteland

Worst Moment: Being rather forgotten all year

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Heath Slater

This summer, Slater tried over and over again to try to respond to John Cena’s US Open Challenge but kept getting beaten to the punch by other competitors. In a year with little action note, he still placed 8^th in the fan vote for Superstar of the Year, which lead to a fantastic sit down interview with Michael Cole.

Riding that momentum, Slater put together a team consisting of fellow low card wrestlers Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, and Adam Rose calling themselves the Social Outcasts. Their first night, Slater got a win over Dolph Ziggler. While most of their time is spent losing to other teams, they are still on TV often. Slater is back in the Andre Battle Royal this year.

Stock: Moderate increase

Best Moment: Beating Dolph Ziggler (Can you guess what Dolph’s Worst Moment is going to be?)

Worst Moment: Continual failure in answering John Cena’s Open Challenge. Hit Slater’s music, already!

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