WWE Stock Report: Omos is finally dropped down the card

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 Hell in a Cell 2022 and all of its fallout, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Xia Li

Xia Li’s main roster run in WWE remains baffling to witness. Despite being called up in December, she’s only wrestled in three matches on television (and none on pay-per-view). Out of nowhere, WWE seemingly turned her heel a few weeks back with a taped promo where she said she was done protecting the weak. There was no follow up to that line, so it wasn’t clear where her story was headed.

On this week’s (June 10) SmackDown she was pinned by Lacey Evans in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. This is the first time Li has been pinned on the main roster. That means the floodgates are open for more losses to follow, and there is no momentum for whatever her current alignment happens to be.

Stock Down #2: Omos

Omos’ match at Hell in a Cell 2022 appeared to be a make-or-break moment for his push in the upper card. Omos lost the handicap match against Bobby Lashley despite having the numbers advantage on his side. WWE tried to help him save face with a quick squash against Cedric Alexander the next night (June 6) on Raw, but that win means nothing because Cedric is a jobber. Omos was then dropped down the card from a feud with Bobby Lashley into a story with Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode.

Omos needs experience sharing the ring with good workers, so WWE finally made a sensible adjustment in moving him into a lower card program with Ziggler and Roode. But the bottom line is that WWE tested the waters with Omos in the upper card over the last few months, and it didn’t work at all. We’ll see if he can bounce back from that failure.

Stock Down #1: Mustafa Ali

After losing nearly every week on Raw in the buildup to Hell in a Cell, Mustafa Ali was defeated by Theory at that event in a United States championship match. Ali was then dumped off to Main Event this week instead of being featured on Raw.

How much time is left on Ali’s WWE contract? The end date can’t get here fast enough.

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

Stock Up #3: Rhea Ripley, Finn Balor, Damian Priest

Finn Balor joined The Judgment Day on this week’s Raw. In a shocking swerve, he then helped Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley turn on Edge and kick the leader out of the group.

There’s some risk in removing the WWE Hall of Fame star from this relatively new faction, but there’s a good amount of upside here. Balor desperately needed to turn heel after WWE booked him into the ground as a babyface. Ripley won in the Raw main event and now has a future title match against Bianca Belair. Let’s just hope WWE stays away from the rumored spooky stuff with this group going forward, because the supernatural nonsense flops far more often than it succeeds.

Stock Up #2: Gunther

Gunther’s push on SmackDown continued when he defeated Ricochet to win the Intercontinental championship. Gunther has only been on the main roster for two months yet is already holding mid-card gold. That’s about as promising of a start as he could have hoped for.

Stock Up #1: Cody Rhodes

It’s not often that a wrestler who is injured and missing the next six to nine months actually elevates their stock, but that’s what happened to Cody Rhodes this week. He decided to wrestle with a torn pectoral muscle inside Hell in a Cell, and the end result was perhaps the most compelling WWE match of the year. Cody won’t be a factor in the short-term due to surgery, but he’ll be set up nicely as the top babyface in WWE for a potential WrestleMania main event spot when he returns.

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