WWE Stock Report: Next time choose better tag team partners than Ricochet and Mustafa Ali

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 the debut of WWE ThunderDome, Randy Orton punting Shawn Michaels, and Braun Strowman crashing the Firefly Fun House, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Viking Raiders

The Viking Raiders didn’t fare too well this week. First, Ivar lost a match against Angel Garza on Raw. This came off like a tune-up match for Garza as he gets ready to compete against the Street Profits for the Raw tag team titles at SummerSlam. Second, Erik was put to sleep by Dolph Ziggler on Raw Underground. Granted, it was probably the best fight on Raw Underground this week, but it’s probably not a good thing for a wrestler to be choked out in an underground fight club by career mid-carder Dolph Ziggler.

Stock Down #2: Mickie James

After an absence that lasted more than a year, Mickie James finally returned to WWE television on this week’s Raw. She proceeded to have her match completely overshadowed by Seth Rollins bickering with Samoa Joe at the commentary table. James then lost her match by count out. Nothing about this booking suggests that Mickie will be given a push as part of her return.

Stock Down #1: Ricochet & Mustafa Ali

These poor saps wrestled in a 6-man tag team elimination match on Raw this week (Aug. 17), and of course they were the first two guys eliminated in the match, leaving their tag team partner Apollo Crews to fend off three guys all by himself. What a bunch of jobbers. Cedric Alexander should jump on MVP’s recruitment pitch ASAP.

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

Stock Up #3: Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura

Not only did Cesaro & Nakamura successfully defend their tag titles against Lucha House Party on this week’s (Aug. 21) episode of SmackDown, but the post-match angle suggested that a breakup could be coming soon for Kalisto’s crew. The pickings are already slim when it comes to future babyface challengers for Nakamura and Cesaro, so they’re looking very secure right now as the top tag team on Friday nights.

Stock Up #2: Shayna Baszler

Shayna Baszler has spent the last couple weeks kicking ass on Raw Underground and tapping Bayley out on Raw. Baszler is lined up to face the Raw women’s champion coming out of SummerSlam, and she is a leading candidate to challenge for the Women’s tag titles at Payback.

Stock Up #1: Jeff Hardy

You can’t debut a concept called the ThunderDome without a title change, and Jeff Hardy was the man who brought home the gold when he defeated AJ Styles for the Intercontinental championship. Hardy’s booking has been strong, with a memorable win over Sheamus in a Bar Fight last month, and now a championship win over the Phenomenal One. Jeff is currently the top babyface on SmackDown, and he can certainly be a factor in the Universal championship scene whenever WWE is ready for a change there.

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