WWE Stock Report: John Cena is the ultimate company man

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 Crown Jewel 2023, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Giovanni Vinci

GUNTHER has teased for a while that he views Giovanni Vinci as the weak link in Imperium. This week it was Ludwig Kaiser shaking his head in disgust at Vinci after the latter was pinned in a tag team match against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Vinci is never going to receive a singles push in WWE, so if this angle is really leading to his split from Imperium, his future outlook is bleak.

Stock Down #2: Natalya

Natalya is on quite the losing streak on Raw, losing all five matches that she has competed in across the last seven episodes. This week she couldn’t even beat Chelsea Green, who seems to lose just about every singles match she is put in. In fact, based on the data at Cagematch, it looks like this was the first time Chelsea won a singles match since she returned to WWE at Royal Rumble 2023.

Stock Down #1: John Cena

John Cena was demolished by Solo Sikoa at Crown Jewel, losing their match clean after taking 10+ Samoan Spikes. John hyped up this match as a must-win because he needed to end his 2000+ day streak of never winning a singles match on WWE TV or PPV. But Cena lost and the streak goes on, which leaves fans with the impression that John is a shell of himself who can’t get the job done anymore. Cena is not advertised for any more WWE dates right now, so this could be the last we see of him for a while.

As a former face of the company, Cena ranks alongside past WWE top stars like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker when it comes to kayfabe accomplishments. It’s rare to see legends at that level returning to WWE to lose to a mid-card jabroni like Austin Theory or someone who is not established at the main event level like Solo Sikoa. Yet that’s exactly what John has done in 2023 because he is the ultimate company man for WWE.

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

Stock Up #3: Logan Paul

Logan Paul now holds championship gold in WWE after defeating Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio at Crown Jewel. If WWE and Paul can agree to have him work more dates going forward, he can use this title reign to become one of the most hated stars in the company.

Stock Up #2: Kairi Sane & IYO SKY

Kairi Sane returned to WWE at Crown Jewel, helping IYO SKY retain the WWE women’s championship over Bianca Belair. This angle was done in a way where it could easily lead to IYO breaking off from Damage CTRL now that she has Kairi by her side, especially after WWE commentators reminded us of the bad blood between Kairi and Bayley. It’s not a coincidence that IYO looked down on Bayley with slight disdain after accidentally hitting her in the match.

Stock Up #1: Solo Sikoa

As previously mentioned, Sikoa got the rub from John Cena at Crown Jewel. Solo can really benefit from a win of that magnitude after taking losses to LA Knight and Jey Uso during their respective feuds with Roman Reigns. It sounds like Roman might not be defending his championship for the next two months, which would mean WWE needs to rely more on Solo to carry The Bloodline story in the short-term.

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