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 Tamina pinning Bayley, Charlotte Flair defeating Liv Morgan, and a face-to-face confrontation between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Sonya Deville
There was a lot of anticipation for the first singles match between Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, and Sonya is the one who pulled out the win on this week’s (May 8) episode of SmackDown. Sonya has been killing it on the mic, and now she’s winning in the ring too.
Stock Up #2: Jeff Hardy
Jeff Hardy returned to WWE this week (if you conveniently forget about his return match in March against King Corbin) by beating the hell out of Sheamus and reminding everyone watching that he’s still kind of a big deal.
Stock Up #1: AJ Styles
Styles returned from the dead to win a gauntlet match and qualify for the Money in the Bank corporate ladder match. Not only is he qualified for the ladder match, he may very well be the favorite to win the whole damn thing.
Now let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Shayna Baszler
This week’s Raw opened with a promo segment where each of the three women competing at Money in the Bank got a chance to talk trash at each other. Baszler’s “opera non verba” retort came off very flat, especially next to Asuka, who is a ball of energy and immediately becomes the focus of attention for any segment that she is in.
Money in the Bank is going to be a crucial night for Baszler. The return of Nia Jax risks displacing Baszler as the dominant ass kicker among the women on Raw. When that is combined with Baszler’s loss to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36, it turns Money in the Bank into a match that Baszler can’t afford to lose.
Stock Down #2: Angel Garza & Austin Theory
Garza and Theory aren’t booked for Money in the Bank, so they’ve been taking a bunch of losses. In fact they have been losers on three consecutive episodes of Raw, and they were both pinned by Humberto Carrillo this week (May 4).
It’s not the worst thing in the world for Theory, who in some sense is lucky to be getting any exposure at all on Raw right now. But Garza oozes charisma and should be doing better than this. As the losses pile up, the shrinking audience is trained to think he’s nobody special.
Stock Down #1: Ricochet & Cedric Alexander
I was such an idiot for including these guys on the Stock Up side last week and saying there was actually a glimmer of hope for them.
Since being squashed in a WWE championship match at the end of February, Ricochet has been pinned by dudes named Brendan Vink and Riddick Moss. It’s as apparent as ever that Ricochet is going nowhere fast in WWE.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?