WWE Stock Report: There’s good reason to think Rollins will beat Big E

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 a gimmick change for Damian Priest, Brock Lesnar being fined one million dollars, and Mustafa Ali expressing frustration with WWE fans, 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

You may have missed this if you blinked, but the Viking Raiders were chasing after Reggie’s jobber gold last night (Oct. 29) on SmackDown. When Erik & Ivar were drafted to SmackDown, it was a chance for a fresh start and maybe a serious run at tag team gold. That’s still possible, but this isn’t exactly the kind of start on Friday nights that will put them on that path.

Stock Down #2: Liv Morgan

Liv Morgan is really good at wrestling in three minute matches and losing. She did it again this week (Oct. 25) on Raw when she was quickly pinned by Carmella.

Stock Down #1: Naomi

One week ago on SmackDown, an authority figure made a decision that Brock Lesnar didn’t like, so Lesnar kicked his ass. The fans were quite happy to see this ass kicking.

On that very same episode, evil authority figure Sonya Deville told Naomi to get the hell out of her face, and Naomi quietly complied without objection. That’s not a good way for a babyface to get over. Surely Naomi would come back with a better strategy this week and finally get the better of Sonya, right?

Not really. Naomi was a sucker who fell for another one of Sonya’s abusive schemes. The end result is that Naomi was choked out by Shayna Baszler. This is how it goes for Naomi whenever she is on television, so she has gone from sympathetic babyface to someone who just can’t get the job done. Naomi cut a fiery promo after her latest failure, but there’s no reason to think the next time will work out any better for her.

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

Stock Up #3: Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss

Luck continues to shine bright on these two dopes as they picked up another win over Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs in a Halloween themed street fight on SmackDown. Corbin’s lengthy run as king came with many main event level matches, and while the Happy gimmick hasn’t gotten him there yet, Corbin’s name stands out among the barren wasteland of SmackDown’s upper card men’s heels not named Roman Reigns.

Stock Up #2: Shotzi

Shotzi’s singles run began this week on SmackDown when she wrestled against Charlotte Flair and then turned heel on Sasha Banks. While there are some understandable concerns about Shotzi’s gimmick being better suited for a babyface than a heel, I’d argue Shotzi is already better positioned than many non-Horsewomen wrestlers such as Liv Morgan, Toni Storm, Natalya, Carmella, and Doudrop. Hell, when’s the last time Liv got to hang in the ring for 10 minutes or give a beatdown to someone at the level of Flair and Banks?

Stock Up #1: Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins won a ladder match in the main event of Raw to move on from his loss against Edge and earn a future shot at Big E’s WWE championship. It’s not crazy at all to think Rollins can win the title if WWE wants to pursue a match between Rollins and Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. Seth and Roman have obvious history together from their days in The Shield, and he talked trash on Roman earlier in the night.

We have seen the WWE championship change hands on television just before Survivor Series in 2017 (Styles over Mahal), 2018 (Bryan over Styles), and 2020 (McIntyre over Orton). WWE is very willing to change that title on a whim in order to book the champion versus champion match that makes the most sense on the brand warfare themed Survivor Series event.

Does Rollins vs. Reigns make more sense than Big E vs. Reigns at Survivor Series? I don’t think it does, but I’m not the one making these decisions.

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