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 Miz addressing his relationship with Dexter Lumis, Mustafa Ali losing two matches on TV, and LA Knight paying the price for slapping Bray Wyatt in the face, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Shayna Baszler
Better things should be coming Baszler’s way now that she’s aligned with Ronda Rousey, but her old kryptonite came back to bite her in the ass on SmackDown last night (Nov. 18) when Shotzi pinned her by rolling her up from behind. I don’t know if anybody out there has been keeping track of how many TV matches Baszler has lost via roll-up variations over the last couple years, but she must be near the top of the list as far as non 24/7 title matches are concerned.
Stock Down #2: Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin picked up the win, but he was largely dominated by Akira Tozawa in a singles match on this week’s (Nov. 14) Raw. This is the same Tozawa who has been established for years as a comedy jobber and is frequently pinned with minimal effort by three second roll-ups backstage. Yet not only did Akira survive in the ring with Corbin for well over three minutes, but he was actually the aggressor who scored most of the offense in the match.
Corbin’s newest gimmick as the modern day wrestling god was already struggling to gain momentum, and this booking did him no favors on that front. It’s easy to see right through the new nickname and recognize this isn’t a wrestling god; it’s just the same old bland Baron Corbin we’ve been watching for years.
I’d argue that talking on the mic was one of Corbin’s more entertaining skills in pro wrestling, but he doesn’t even really get to do much of that anymore either now that JBL is his hype man. WWE is trying to heat him up with a steady diet of babyfaces to beat, but it’s just not working.
Stock Down #1: Matt Riddle
Remember when Matt Riddle was so close to beating Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal championship earlier this year? Remember when Matt Riddle main evented Extreme Rules against Seth Rollins in a Fight Pit match last month? Do you remember when it looked like Riddle had a chance to be elevated to the main event scene on Raw as a singles wrestler?
Well, Matt Riddle is now spending his time on Raw playing bongos and losing against Chad Gable.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Austin Theory
Theory needed some major rehab after last week’s angle where he was a giant moron who failed with his Money in the Bank contract. WWE didn’t waste much time trying to pick him up from that booking. He’s now a bearded angry man with a chip on his shoulder, and he snapped on both Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins on Raw. In fact, he left Seth laying in the ring to close out the show.
Stock Up #2: Mia Yim
Mia Yim’s return to WWE is off to a good start. She picked up a win over Tamina in her first match back in the promotion, and then she rejected Damage CTRL’s offer for War Games. Yim instead decided to join Bianca Belair’s team and has a good spot secured on the Survivor Series card.
Stock Up #1: Kevin Owens
There was a lot of concern over the status of Kevin Owens following reports of a knee injury he sustained at a house show over the weekend. There are still details about his knee issue that we do not know, but what we do know is that he was able to show up in the final segment on SmackDown and take out Roman Reigns with a stunner. After several weeks of being off WWE television, Owens is back and finds himself right in the middle of a War Games main event at Survivor Series.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
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