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 TLC 2019 and all of its fallout, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Sonya Deville
Sonya Deville was briefly hyped up by commentary before quickly tapping out to Carmella in a singles match on SmackDown (Dec. 20). This seemed like a decent time to start that long-awaited push for Sonya, but it looks like that push still isn’t happening any time soon. Sonya would have been far better off as part of Mandy Rose’s ham storyline with Otis on that night.
Stock Down #2: The Miz
The Miz said he was fighting for his family at TLC, and he responded to that noble claim by losing in the shortest match of the night and then completely disappearing from the ring so that Daniel Bryan could show the audience what true fire looks like. It certainly appeared that Bryan’s hair being ripped out meant way more to him than fighting for his own family meant to Miz.
WWE tried to help Miz save face by giving him a submission victory over Dolph Ziggler in a tag team match on SmackDown, keeping the Miz in contention for the Fiend’s Universal championship. But if the Miz couldn’t even deal with Fun House Bray in a non-title match, there’s no reason to take him seriously as a threat to The Fiend’s title. Miz is a total pretender in next week’s number one contender match against King Corbin and Daniel Bryan.
Stock Down #1: Roman Reigns
After being embarrassed multiple times in a storyline involving a dog mascot, shrinking testicles, poop bags, and dog food, the big payoff for Roman Reigns enduring all that humiliation was...a loss to King Corbin at TLC. Reigns has now lost on pay-per-view this year in separate matches against Erick Rowan, Shane McMahon, and Corbin. Corbin needed an army of goons to help him win, but that’s usually how it goes with Roman Reigns anyway, and the audience seems bored of it. I’m not sure that anybody looked good coming out of this one, especially the guy who has previously been established as a perennial WrestleMania headliner.
Now let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are the only tag team on Raw that the Viking Raiders can’t handle. The best tag team in the world fought the Raw tag champs to a double countout at TLC, and then convincingly defeated Erik and Ivar in a longer match the next night on Raw (Dec. 16). The O.C. is now walking around with both a giant trophy and also a big win over the seemingly invincible tag champs.
Stock Up #2: Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan returned at TLC with a new look, and he was fully determined to kick Bray Wyatt’s ass and smash his face in with a cartoonishly oversized mallet. Later in the week Bryan had the fans completely behind him doing the “Yes!” chant, and he satisfyingly shed his heel persona from the past year. Remember when Daniel Bryan was briefly the face of the company in the first half of 2014? That can happen again, if Vince McMahon is listening.
Stock Up #1: Asuka
For the second year in a row, Asuka climbed a ladder to victory in the main event of TLC, getting the better of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Becky’s promo on Raw the next night also did a hell of a job at restoring Asuka’s past reputation as an unstoppable force in the women’s division. Becky claimed that the decision-makers in WWE are trying to protect her from Asuka, who is the one woman that Lynch cannot defeat. Right now it doesn’t sound like Becky Lynch is ready for Asuka, and their story is set up to be the most interesting angle on Raw.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?