WWE Stock Report: Getting paid big bucks to squash WWE’s active roster is a sweet gig

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 Kurt Angle falling victim to The Fiend, Buddy Murphy stating that Rowan is the person who tried to murder Roman Reigns, and R-Truth showing up to a gynecologist’s office to reclaim his 24/7 championship, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Ali

WWE followed up on Ali’s notable win over Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura by having the ambitious babyface take a clean loss to Dolph Ziggler on this week’s (Aug. 6) SmackDown. It’s understandable why WWE wanted to get Dolph a win before his big match with Goldberg at SummerSlam, but there must have been someone else on the roster who could have been used in that spot besides Ali. This booking just makes Ali look weak while also implying that his chase of the Intercontinental championship isn’t a big deal.

Stock Down #2: Trish Stratus

Trish Stratus has briefly returned to WWE for a dream match with Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam. That sounds great on paper, but in practice it really hasn’t worked out just yet. Trish’s promos seem lifeless, she didn’t even get in the ring to wrestle during her tag match on Raw this week (Aug. 5), and the slap she dished out to Charlotte Flair the following night was on the weak side. None of this means that her match at SummerSlam is doomed, but it has at least lowered expectations by a notch or two.

Stock Down #1: Seth Rollins

After being obliterated by Brock Lesnar one week earlier, Seth Rollins limped out on Raw to confront the Beast, only to have his ass handed to him again. Seth didn’t come off like a sympathetic babyface here; he looked more like an idiot who should have known better. The promo he cut afterwards was devoid of emotion and not remotely captivating. Seth’s limping to the ring with a chair in hand was ridiculously exaggerated and hard not to laugh at. If the goal of this segment was to get people interested in watching Seth Rollins challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal championship at SummerSlam, then it was a giant failure. Seth simply looks like a guy who shouldn’t be in the same ring with the champ.

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

Stock Up #3: Andrade & Zelina Vega

Andrade had a fantastic match with Rey Mysterio on Raw and emerged victorious, with an assist from Zelina Vega. There are rumors that some powerful people backstage are high on Andrade and this could be the start of a big push for the talented duo. Considering that Andrade has been on the main roster for well over a year now with no sustained push to show for it, it feels like this could be his make or break moment.

Stock Up #2: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross

When Bliss and Cross initially formed a team, it appeared to be the same old story where Alexa fools a gullible star into trusting her, with the primary goal of exploiting that person to further her own career. Maybe this story will eventually head in that direction, but for now Alexa and Nikki are both standing tall as the new WWE women’s tag team champions. It’s not surprising at all that Vince McMahon is pushing Alexa Bliss to a championship once again, but the best part of this booking is that it has helped Nikki Cross become a prominent character on WWE television each week.

Stock Up #1: Goldberg

Based on the reaction Goldberg got when he returned to Raw, you never would have known that he stunk up the joint in his last match at Super ShowDown. It looks like Goldberg will have a chance to redeem himself by squashing Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. Even more, Dave Meltzer has suggested that Paul Heyman might be interested in using Goldberg as a special attraction a couple times each year. Getting paid big bucks to occasionally return and squash WWE’s active roster sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

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