WWE Stock Report: Promoting Lesnar fights with goofy comedy is a bad idea

Some places do power rankings. Here at Cageside, we do a stock report.

In this weekly series, we identify three Superstars (or groups of Superstars) who are on their way up, and three that are moving in the opposite direction. After a busy week that included Christmas-themed episodes of Raw and SmackDown, a lot of fortunes were changed.

With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:

Stock Up #3: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

Gallows and Anderson said they are one of the best tag teams in the world and are sick of being ignored on Tuesday nights. They backed those words up this week on SmackDown (Dec. 25) by pinning Cesaro with the Magic Killer in an 8-man tag team match.

Stock Up #2: Finn Balor

Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler both talk a big game, but Finn Balor is the guy picking up the wins. Balor’s victory over them in a triple threat match on Raw (Dec. 24) is once again a tease that big plans might be on the horizon for the Extraordinary Man with an extraordinarily bad nickname.

Stock Up #1: Rusev

Happy Rusev Day! Rusev is now the conquering babyface hero who dethroned the villainous champ on the greatest day of them all. And he has a damn sexy beard too.

Now let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:

Stock Down #3: Paul Heyman & Braun Strowman

WWE decided that the best way to promote Brock Lesnar’s upcoming match at Royal Rumble 2019 was to have Paul Heyman sing a song and then have Braun Strowman put antlers and a red nose on the advocate. Perhaps this kind of segment seems appropriate for a taped Christmas Eve show where Brock isn’t around and Braun can’t do anything physical. The end result though is that it took interest away from Lesnar versus Strowman rather than getting fans more hyped up for the championship fight.

Stock Down #2: Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura’s reign as United States Champion ended with a hell of a fight against Rusev. But considering that Nakamura failed so many times to secure the WWE Championship in the first half of 2018, and then had a very forgettable run with a mid-card title through most of the second half of 2018, it’s reasonable to wonder how quickly The Artist is about to slide down the card in 2019.

Stock Down #1: Bobby Lashley

Five months ago, Bobby Lashley was the guy who beat Roman Reigns on pay-per-view and could have been in line for a championship match with Brock Lesnar. And now he is losing matches against Elias and is nowhere near the main event scene. Lashley and Elias had an entertaining street fight on Raw, but that doesn’t mean it did any favors for the All Mighty superstar.

There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?