WWE Stock Report: Jaxson Ryker’s bad tweet isn’t working out so well for the Forgotten Sons

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 Jeff Hardy dousing Sheamus in urine, a decathlon between the Streets Profits and Viking Raiders, and Christian trying to motivate Edge for The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Up #3: Drew McIntyre

McIntyre has been booked to be nearly invincible since winning the WWE championship from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 in front of nobody. This week (June 8) on Raw he used his Claymore to neutralize Bobby Lashley’s full nelson. There’s little reason to think that Drew’s reign on top is coming to an end at Backlash.

Stock Up #2: Charlotte Flair

Charlotte Flair has defeated the Raw women’s champion, Asuka, on two consecutive episodes of Raw. Flair isn’t scheduled for a match at Backlash, but with Becky Lynch no longer part of the picture, it’s obvious that Flair is the one being set up for big things in Raw’s women’s division.

Stock Up #1: AJ Styles

Styles won Sami Zayn’s vacated Intercontinental championship on SmackDown this week (June 12), after a great match with Daniel Bryan. Once Styles was made a permanent member of the SmackDown roster he looked like a pretty good bet to win this tournament, and that’s exactly how it played out. With Braun Strowman’s lackluster Universal championship reign doing little to impress, the stage is set for Styles to become the centerpiece of the blue brand in short order.

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

Stock Down #3: Nia Jax

One consequence of all the Charlotte Flair television time on Raw lately is that Nia Jax now feels like an afterthought in her own championship storyline. Nia’s attempts to distract Asuka over the last couple of weeks feel more like WWE is just trying to stretch things out until Backlash in an uninspired way, rather than actually adding genuine intrigue to their match.

Stock Down #2: Kevin Owens

It looked like Owens was in a great spot when he defeated Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 36. But he dealt with an ankle injury in the aftermath, and now he is serving as part of a television feud for the guys who are actually being featured on pay-per-view. Maybe Owens will have to turn heel again after Apollo Crews and Andrade settle their beef over the United States championship at Backlash.

Stock Down #1: The Forgotten Sons

On the May 29 episode of SmackDown, the New Day appeared on A Moment of Bliss and specifically mentioned the Forgotten Sons as a team that stands out and was on their radar. The Forgotten Sons’ pre-taped promos were still airing on that episode too.

A couple days later, Jaxson Ryker posted a dumb, bad, and unempathetic tweet, and there has been no mention of the Forgotten Sons on SmackDown since. I believe the June 5 episode of SmackDown was taped before Ryker’s tweet, but this week’s episode was definitely post-tweet.

Big E and Kofi Kingston are now being set up for a program with Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. It looks to me like a case where 2 + 2 = 4 (pending Scott Steiner’s approval of my math), and the Forgotten Sons just lost their spot.

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