WWE Stock Report: Vince McMahon has unleashed the real AJ Styles

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 Apollo Crews winning a Battle Royal, the New Day officially declaring for the Royal Rumble match, and Triple H challenging Seth Rollins to step up, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler was outclassed by the Scottish Terminator inside a steel cage on Raw this week (Dec. 31). A future singles push for the Show Off doesn’t really seem likely in this new era of WWE.

Stock Down #2: Naomi

Naomi finally has a storyline on SmackDown. However, it appears that her role will be to put over Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. Naomi’s push has tremendously weakened since her days as SmackDown women’s champion back in early 2017.

Stock Down #1: Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy lost his feud with Randy Orton in the fall and is currently on the losing end of a feud with Samoa Joe. Considering the long line of highly talented singles heels on SmackDown, it makes sense to use Hardy in this role. But as the losses pile up, Jeff’s stock will continue to go down.

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

Stock Up #3: Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre utterly destroyed Dolph Ziggler inside a steel cage on Raw. It looks like Drew has put an abrupt end to that feud and now has his sights set on winning the Royal Rumble match.

Stock Up #2: AJ Styles

Mr. McMahon’s motivational speech to the Phenomenal One last week is already paying dividends. The real AJ Styles has arrived and he’s kicking ass, outlasting four other elite superstars to earn a WWE championship match against the new Daniel Bryan at Royal Rumble 2019.

Stock Up #1: Becky Lynch

John Cena returned to SmackDown this week (Jan. 1) and seemingly passed the torch to The Man. Becky Lynch teamed up with John to take out Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega in a tag team match, but Lynch made sure to take the spotlight from Cena by tossing him out of the ring and forcing Vega to tap out to the Dis-Arm-Her.

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