WWE Stock Report: Asuka is being dragged down by the gross Flair drama

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 Royal Rumble 2021 and all of its fallout, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan was the favorite to win the 2021 men’s Royal Rumble match. But not only did he fail to do that, he also tapped out to Cesaro on last night’s (Feb. 5) episode of SmackDown. Over the last month, Bryan has lost two matches against Cesaro, one match against a tired Shinsuke Nakamura late in a gauntlet, and he also came up short in the Royal Rumble.

One week ago, it appeared that Bryan had a decent chance to compete in the main event of WrestleMania 37 against Roman Reigns. But these results say that he doesn’t even belong in the conversation.

Stock Down #2: Asuka

Asuka hasn’t had an interesting Raw women’s championship feud in months, and her current booking leaves a lot to be desired. She was recently outclassed by spooky Alexa Bliss on two consecutive episodes of Raw. Then on this week’s (Feb. 1) episode, Asuka was distracted by Ric Flair’s theme music, which led to her being pinned after walking into Naomi’s butt.

With Asuka and Flair losing the women’s tag titles at Royal Rumble, and then losing again on Raw, this might be Asuka’s chance to walk away from the gross drama going on with the Flairs and Lacey Evans. But that still leaves her stumbling after weeks of being a bit player in other wrestlers’ weird storylines.

Stock Down #1: Carmella

It’s not a good sign when a wrestler debuts a new gimmick and then goes on to lose all of their pay-per-view matches. That’s exactly what has happened with Carmella since returning to WWE in November 2020. She lost against Sasha Banks at both TLC 2020 and Royal Rumble 2021, and then had the shortest survival time in the women’s Royal Rumble match.

On last night’s episode of SmackDown, Carmella’s sommelier Reginald even insulted her while talking trash to Bianca Belair, when he said, “You know damn well you can’t beat Sasha. You can’t even beat Carmella!”

Ouch.

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

Stock Up #3: Damian Priest & Bad Bunny

Damian Priest made his main roster debut at Royal Rumble 2021, where he eliminated Kane, The Miz, and John Morrison. More importantly, he was paired up with Bad Bunny on Raw the following night, leading to a victory in a match against Miz. With rumors going around about Bad Bunny training for a match at WrestleMania 37, Priest’s main roster rollout can thrive if he maintains this partnership with Bad Bunny.

Stock Up #2: Bianca Belair

Bianca Belair’s strong push in January was capped off with a victory in the 2021 women’s Royal Rumble match. The EST of WWE is now in line for a high profile championship match in her first WrestleMania ever.

Stock Up #1: Edge

Edge’s return to WWE was announced less than a week before Royal Rumble 2021. He went on to win the whole thing, starting from the number one position. Edge will now very likely get a championship match in the main event of WrestleMania 37. He also finished his Randy Orton feud by pinning The Viper on Raw. With Edge appearing on all four WWE shows this week and wrestling in two main event matches, he’s suddenly become the centerpiece of WWE television during the most important time of the year.

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