WWE Stock Report: Becky Lynch is no Roman Reigns

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 Bobby Lashley’s response to Goldberg’s crazy death threats, Xavier Woods moving one step closer to becoming King of the Ring, and a contract signing between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Up #3: Zelina Vega

Prior to the Queen’s Crown Tournament, Zelina Vega lost almost every single match she competed in since returning to WWE in July. But with her win last night (Oct. 15) on Supersized SmackDown against Carmella, Vega has qualified for the finals of the tourney and has a chance to win the crown.

Stock Up #2: Finn Balor

Similarly, Balor has recovered from his terrible ending at Extreme Rules to make the finals in the King of the Ring tournament. He will face either Jinder Mahal or Xavier Woods in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel on Oct. 21, which means Finn is the favorite to go all the way.

Stock Up #1: The Usos

The Usos are on a roll, once again defeating the Street Profits on SmackDown to retain the tag team titles. They also main evented Raw against Drew McIntyre and WWE champion Big E. Jimmy and Jey are not as untouchable as their bloodline’s Tribal Chief, but their relationship with Roman Reigns has helped them once again become the top pushed tag team in WWE.

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

Stock Down #3: Becky Lynch

This wasn’t a good week for finding obvious Stock Up or Stock Down candidates, which means even a minor thing can qualify someone for the top three. That’s what happened with The Man this week.

Before Becky Lynch left WWE due to pregnancy in 2020, she was the top star in the company. She returned two months ago at SummerSlam 2021, immediately pinning Bianca Belair for the SmackDown women’s championship and turning heel. Some fans thought it was a sign she could be booked as the Roman Reigns of the women’s division, with a never-ending title reign and beating everyone in her path.

We might be headed for a very long stretch with Lynch as champion, but last night’s episode of SmackDown introduced two major differences between Becky and Roman. One, she suffered a pinfall loss; Roman hasn’t been pinned since he returned to WWE as a heel in August 2020.

The second difference is that while Becky was sitting on the ring apron in frustration following her defeat, she was quickly cast aside like a jabroni while Adam Pearce demanded the crew members set up a table in the ring for Roman’s contract signing. Can you imagine any other past top star in WWE, like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, or John Cena taking a back seat like that to the next segment coming up?

Becky Lynch might still be the top women’s star in WWE, but she’s no Roman Reigns.

Stock Down #2: Kofi Kingston

Do you remember when Kofi Kingston was built up as a credible challenger for the All Mighty WWE champion Bobby Lashley back in July? Now Kofi is losing to Jinder Mahal on Raw.

Stock Down #1: Matt Riddle

Riddle was completely annihilated by Omos on this week’s (Oct. 11) Raw, showing zero traces of being competitive against the big man. WWE should be using Riddle’s partnership with Randy Orton in RK-Bro to position him in the upper card for whenever they split up. Instead, this kind of booking makes Riddle look like a pretender who is riding Randy’s coattails to success, rather than someone who can hang on his own at the top of WWE.

It also begs the question, if Omos and AJ Styles really want to win back the Raw tag titles at Crown Jewel, why would they ever allow the weak link Styles to tag in? Nobody on Raw can beat Omos.

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