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 a gutter ball from Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose telling Seth Rollins to slay the beast, and the Usos as guests on McMiz TV, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Lucha House Party
This was yet another week where Elias was involved in a terrible segment on Raw, this time with the Lucha House Party. Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, and Kalisto delivered typically poor WWE comedy, and it ended with Kalisto being a gullible fool who was laid out with a guitar shot. Like with Jeff Jarrett and Road Dogg the week before, I don’t think anybody really came out of this segment looking good.
Stock Down #2: Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch told Triple H and Stephanie McMahon that she didn’t trust them, yet she still allowed them to humble her in front of the world when she apologized for her actions from the prior week. She was briefly booed by the audience for apologizing, shook the hands of the two people she didn’t trust, and was then immediately screwed over by another McMahon. This entire Becky injury/apology storyline was used as an awkward ploy to shoehorn Charlotte Flair into the main event of WrestleMania, and this week it was to the detriment of Lynch.
Stock Down #1: NXT call-ups
The four recent NXT call-ups collectively had a very rough week. Heavy Machinery and Lacey Evans were nowhere to be seen on either Raw or SmackDown, while Nikki Cross and EC3 lost their matches on Raw (Feb. 11) against Ruby Riott and Dean Ambrose, respectively. Heavy Machinery is probably fine, because Otis’ antics work well in the mid-card. However, Nikki Cross will be quickly established as nobody special if the losses persist, and EC3 will continue to get no response from the audience until WWE lets the guy finally cut some promos. Then there is Lacey Evans, who has been completely off the grid since the Royal Rumble event. It always seemed like an uphill battle for these new stars to get a big spotlight on the road to WrestleMania, and thus far that’s how it is playing out.
Now let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: The Revival
After numerous failures in December and January, The Revival finally captured the Raw tag team titles this week by defeating Chad Gable and Bobby Roode. These four superstars put on the best match of the night during another lackluster episode for the red brand.
Stock Up #2: Charlotte Flair
Charlotte Flair is now officially part of the main event of WrestleMania. She received a strong endorsement from Vince McMahon on Raw and then shoved it in the audience’s face on SmackDown. It’s clear that The Queen will be the most hated heel in the company over the next two months.
Stock Up #1: Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston stole the show on SmackDown this week (Feb. 12) by lasting roughly an hour in a gauntlet match and refusing to lay down for AJ Styles towards the very end. Kingston was initially just a late replacement for the injured Mustafa Ali, with no chance to win the WWE Championship. Now he is the suddenly the most talked about wrestler out of all six participants at Elimination Chamber.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?