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 some SNL guys declaring for a WrestleMania battle royal, United States champion Samoa Joe losing yet another match, and Triple H jobbing to an envelope, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Ricochet & Aleister Black
Aleister Black and Ricochet defeated the Raw tag team champs (The Revival, in case anybody forgot) once again in a non-title match this week (Mar. 25) on Raw. Their exclusion from the current list of participants in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal could be a hint that Ricochet and Black have a real chance to bring home tag team gold on the biggest wrestling show of the year.
Stock Up #2: Charlotte Flair
It’s good to be The Queen. Charlotte Flair was handed yet another championship match out of thin air, and she cashed in by defeating Asuka for the SmackDown women’s championship. Believe it or not, this was Charlotte’s first televised win of 2019.
Stock Up #1: New Day
Each member of the New Day had to bust their ass and overcome insurmountable odds in order to get Kofi Kingston into the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35. The powerful visual of these three partners embracing each other in the aftermath of their latest gauntlet match victory says it all.
Now let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Carmella, Naomi, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville
These four superstars were originally advertised for a number one contender’s match on SmackDown to determine Asuka’s challenger at WrestleMania, but that’s not what happened. Their match was canceled and they were all quietly dumped into a filler battle royal at WrestleMania 35. So much for SmackDown being the land of opportunity.
Stock Down #2: Asuka
Two months ago, Asuka was on top of the world when she forced Becky Lynch to tap out at the Royal Rumble. It’s been nearly all downhill since then for the Empress of Tomorrow, and this week’s (Mar. 26) out-of-nowhere loss of her SmackDown women’s championship made it clear that Asuka does not figure prominently into this year’s WrestleMania plans. She’s now been demoted to a ‘Creative Has Nothing For You’ battle royal and is somehow a complete afterthought on the grand stage.
Stock Down #1: The Riott Squad
Asuka was at least able to take the fight to Charlotte Flair and almost win. The Riott Squad wishes they received that kind of booking. What they got instead were three consecutive singles matches on Raw where two of their members lost in 85 seconds or less, and the other one (Ruby) was on the verge of tapping out when the 85 second time limit expired. This was a complete burial right here, and it looks like it will continue next week when the trio is fed again to the three WrestleMania main eventers. Someone’s got to make the headliners look like stars, but getting wiped out this quickly makes it seem like the Riott Squad are a bunch of losers who don’t even belong on the roster.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?