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Welcome back to the WrestleMania Stock report, where we take a look at where wrestlers were on the card last year and see how they fared coming into WrestleMania. Since Mania is their biggest show and serves as the end of their “season,” it serves as a good time to take a look to track wrestler’s trajectories in WWE. Whose status has gone up? Who’s taken a drop? Let’s take a look.
Charlotte def. Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch to be crowned Women’s Champion
Charlotte
It was the year of the Queen.
Coming into the last year, Charlotte was already impressive as champion. She had turned heel and was doing well with it. She entered WrestleMania the Divas champion and exited the Women’s champion. While the title may have changed, the story stayed the same: Charlotte Flair doesn’t lose title matches on PPVs. This continued until just a month ago.
She defeated Natalya at Payback, though with some fishy stuff involving Nature Boy super fan referee Charles Robinson. She retained again in a match against Nattie, this time with the help of her new protege Dana Brooke. She and Dana did lose a tag match to Sasha Banks and Bayley at Battleground, but of course in the tag match, the title was not on the line.
However, defending her title on Raw was a different story. She defended her title against Sasha Banks on the first episode of the brand split Raw and lost it. But when she rematched the Boss at SummerSlam, she won it back.
It looked like Sasha may have been injured, so Bayley (who debuted right after SummerSlam) stepped in. However, the Boss was able to compete as well and Charlotte retained her title in a triple threat against both the Boss and the Hugger.
The dreaded Raw title match reared its head and Sasha once again defeated Charlotte for the Women’s title, only to lose it back to her on PPV, this time at (and in) Hell in a Cell. Rinse and repeat with a Falls Count Anyway match on Raw and an Iron Man match at Roadblock.
At the Royal Rumble, Charlotte defeated Bayley, but Bayley would get herself a Raw title match and, with the help of Sasha Banks, she won. Not surprising. What was surprising was that, again with unknown interference from Sasha, Bayley defended her title successfully at Fastlane. Charlotte will challenge for Bayley’s title in a fatal 4-way elimination with Nia Jax and Sasha at WrestleMania.
Her spot on the card is the same minus the title, but Charlotte is still a star, getting more comfortable with her character as the year went on. Overall, her status is unchanged, but with her continued improvement and being the focus of the division the entire year, I’m giving a slight nod in stock.
Stock: Increase
Best Moment: Main eventing a WWE PPV inside Hell in a Cell
Worst Moment: Getting cheated out of her PPV win streak.
Sasha Banks
Luckily the story of Sasha was tied so much with Charlotte that it doesn’t need to be recapped. Because before Sasha started her feud with Charlotte, she was off TV. The rest of her story was intertwined with the Queen, outside splitting matches with Nia Jax.
The Boss and Charlotte are the only women on the Raw roster currently that were there last year. (Becky has since moved to SmackDown.) And with the division being so thin, her role from this year to last hasn’t changed much, though now she’s a former multi-time champion.
Stock: Unchanged
Best Moment: Her first title victory on Raw (and of course main eventing that PPV alongside Charlotte)
Worst Moment: Tapping out with 3 seconds left during the Iron Man Match
Becky Lynch
Everyone in this match held a championship this last year, including Becky.
Before being drafted to SmackDown, she had a feud with Emma, which was cut short due to Emma’s injury, and Natalya. It was all OK, but maybe a bit underwhelming.
However, when she moved to SmackDown, she won a six pack challenge to become the first ever SmackDown Women’s champion.
The Lass Kicker would eventually drop the belt to Alexa Bliss, but continue feuding with Little Miss Bliss into 2017. That was when Alexa brought Mickie James in to help with her Becky problem and those two feuded, splitting a series of matches. She’d get another title opportunity when Naomi was forced to relinquish her Women’s title, but came up short to Alexa once again.
She’ll be part of the “all available women” SmackDown title match this Sunday.
Becky is a tough call with stock, going from the marquee triple threat Women’s match to the “Let’s get all the women on the card match.” She had a more prominent role heading into WrestleMania 32 than she does right now, though much like Dean Ambrose, had a great middle of the year.
In my opinion, her stock took a subtle dip given the fact she’s in a match that’s designed to get everyone on the card. Yes, the laziness of creative (and having to adjust to Naomi’s injury) has to do with that. Though if Naomi were healthy, would she have been going one on one with Becky? Or would we be seeing the same match with a different champion?
Stock: Subtle dip
Best Moment: Becoming the first ever SmackDown Women’s Champion
Worst Moment: That time Alexa Bliss spray painted a yellow spine down her back
Undertaker def. Shane McMahon
Undertaker
Undertaker’s stock never changes. He will have a match at WrestleMania this year just like has done for years now and it will be a featured match. Last year was Shane. This year it’s Roman.
Undertaker did show up a couple other times this year. Once it was to tell all the SmackDown guys he’d bury them alive if they didn’t beat Raw. Then he’d make it known he’s actually not a SD guy. He was eliminated at the Royal Rumble by Roman Reigns, which started their current feud.
Stock: Unchanged
Best Moment: Telling the SmackDown stars he’d bury them alive if they didn’t win the Survivor Series match despite claiming not being a SD Live talent.
Worst Moment: Getting eliminated from the Rumble by Roman
Shane McMahon
Shane McMahon is also a featured talent. Last year he was brought in because they had no one healthy to face Undertaker at WrestleMania. Of course, he lost.
Despite losing to Undertaker and therefore losing the right to run Raw, the next night, he was allowed to run Raw anyway. Soon Vince made him and Stephanie co-GMs. However, when the brands split, Shane moved to SmackDown.
He was part of the Raw vs. SmackDown Survivor Series match where he hit his head hard on a Roman spear and needed to be helped back.
Recently, he has had trouble with talent AJ Styles, who attacked him backstage and put his head through a car window. Just a little bit of trouble. These two will fight at WrestleMania.
Stock: Unchanged
Best Moment: Getting to run Raw despite not earning it
Worst Moment: Getting his head rammed through a window of a car that happened to have a camera ready to film it
Triple H
Triple H fits in the category of Undertaker and Brock that his stock doesn’t change as much as those around him. This big difference between this year and last? Last year he was champion.
Not being champion is enough for a slight stock drop but the rest of the story is the same. The Game is the big heel facing a former Shield member at the show of shows. This year, it’s Seth Rollins, who he screwed out of the title just after SummerSlam.
Stock: Slight Decrease
Best Moment: Getting to have multiple long winded promos lately, which we know he loves
Worst Moment: Losing his title to Roman at 3 in the morning eastern time
Roman Reigns
The Big Dog won the WWE title last year and successfully defended it against AJ Styles in a series of really fun matches. However he’d lose it to the returning Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank.
This coincided with a 30 day suspension.
When he returned, he failed to reclaim the title in a Shield triple threat match, being the man pinned in that match.
Then he focused on a feud with Rusev for the United States title, which he won. After securing that, he’d move on to the Universal title and a feud with Kevin Owens. He would fail to win the title due to interference from Braun Strowman.
At Fastlane, Roman would face Strowman and give the monster among men his first lost. Now he’s facing Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Even in a year where he took a quick detour through the midcard post suspension, Roman is always featured. A match for the title and a match with Undertaker are almost of similar status. Reigns is clearly one of the most important parts of the Raw roster. That hasn’t changed this year.
Status: Unchanged
Best Moment: Eliminating Undertaker from the Royal Rumble
Worst Moment: Getting suspended (though that suspension beard sure was sweet)
OK, now let’s crunch some numbers.
- We looked at a total of 61 wrestlers who were on the WrestleMania card last year.
- 10/61 (16%) are no longer with the company, whether you’re looking at retirement (Brie and the Dudleys) or being released, whether requesting it like Cody and Swagger or not requesting it like Sandow.
- For comparison, no one on the show between WrestleMania 31 and 32 left the company.
- 8/61 (13%) are injured, though that’s including many wrestlers that may be returning soon such as Summer Rae, Erick Rowan, and Tamina. That’s pretty much the same number as the year prior (17%) however there were more established names on that list.
- 10/61 (16%) had unchanged stocks. That could be OK for someone like Roman Reigns, who is always a focus, featured talent like the Undertaker, or vets like Big Show. It’s not good if you’re the Ascension.
- 16/61 (26%) had decreased stocks.
- Some of the steepest drops were Kalisto and maybe Ziggler. There aren’t many steep drops and much of that is likely due to the brand split. This year more people ended up leaving the company too, opening spots on the card for other talent to fill.
- 18/61 (30%) had increased stocks.
- Big jumps came for Bray Wyatt, the Miz, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, and Braun Strowman. The larger increases for some is also likely secondary to the brand split.
- There were more spots and opportunities for people stepping up due to the extension. Only reason both Styles and Owens got to be champion at the same time was due to the brand split. It gave Bray and Strowman opportunities as well.
Well, there it is, folks. This is how all the talent at WrestleMania 32 fared this year. Sound off below. Do you have any predictions for the trajectory of current talent in the next year? What do you think were the best and worst moments for talent this year? Let us know.
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Sound off below.