WWE Stock Report: Apollo Crews was actually better off with the accent

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 Becky Lynch earning a rematch against Trish Stratus, Ricochet laying out Logan Paul again, and Rey Mysterio reportedly suffering a legitimate injury on SmackDown, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Apollo Crews

Apollo’s return to the main roster has not gone well at all. He’s only competed in three matches on Raw since he was drafted nearly three months. Crews lost all of those matches, including this week’s bout against Damian Priest. Apollo has only won matches on Main Event during this time.

As far as Apollo’s push is concerned, it looks like he was actually better off with the Nigerian Warrior gimmick that he used on Raw and SmackDown circa 2021. If you recall, he even picked up a win over Big E for the Intercontinental championship at WrestleMania 37 while doing that character and the accent.

Crews eventually went down to NXT after that push dried up, but it doesn’t look like his time there did anything to help his chances of success back on the main roster.

Stock Down #2: Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green

Sonya and Chelsea were jobbed out in their very first match after becoming the new WWE women’s tag team champions. There’s really no shame in losing a non-title match to the duo of Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair, but this booking decision is a reminder that the women’s tag team championships are the least important belts in WWE, and that’s not changing any time soon.

Stock Down #1: Liv Morgan & Kevin Owens

Morgan and Owens were both written off TV with injury angles on this week’s episode of Raw. It sounds like this was done as cover for legitimate injuries that will keep both wrestlers out of action for at least a few weeks, causing both of them to miss SummerSlam.

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

Stock Up #3: Bronson Reed

Reed has won all four of his matches on Raw since the start of June, beating the likes of Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Tommaso Ciampa. Bronson doesn’t have a match at SummerSlam, but all of these wins could be the precursor to a significant push coming soon.

Stock Up #2: Karrion Kross

WWE isn’t quitting Karrion Kross just yet, despite a lot of bad booking for him throughout the last year. Kross was completely dominant in a quick win against Karl Anderson on last night’s SmackDown, with commentators even gushing over Karrion’s new finishing move, the Final Prayer.

Stock Up #1: LA Knight

Sometimes alarm bells go off when a popular WWE star is dumped into the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania, as it’s a sign that the wrestler’s push is fading or stalled.

However, LA Knight’s inclusion in the Mountain Dew Slim Jim Battle Royal at SummerSlam is actually a great thing for him. This feels like a case where Knight is cheered so loudly by fans that WWE needed to get him on the SummerSlam card, so they created a Battle Royal just for him.

In other words, it looks like I was very wrong when I said WWE is making LA Knight wait even longer for his push up the card.

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