Some places have power rankings. Here at Cageside we do a stock report.
In this weekly series, we’ll profile three Superstars (or groups of Superstars) who are on their way up, and three who are heading in the opposite direction. After a busy week that saw Kevin Owens announce a heel turn against Cody Rhodes, CM Punk challenge Drew McIntyre to a strap match, and Pat McAfee make his final appearance in WWE for a while, a lot has changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stocks fell the most this week:
Stock Drop No. 3: The Last Testament
I need to see Karrion Kross get a big win before I’m convinced that WWE creative actually has plans to push him. He’s very good at talking rubbish, but he rarely backs it up with a win in the ring. That happened again on Raw when New Day and Odyssey Jones defeated The Final Testament. Sure, maybe everything Karrion touches will eventually rot, but if this is the end of his feud with New Day and they split up in a few months, that’s not going to suddenly raise his standing in the eyes of most fans. Kross actually needs to win major matches for fans to see him as a serious threat in WWE.
Stock Drop No. 2: Bayley and Sami Zayn
These are two former champions who need to find a new direction now that they’re out of gold. In Sami’s case, it looked like he could chase tag team gold with Jey Uso, but now Jey is focused on a tournament with the Intercontinental Championship on the line. In Bayley’s case, she just hasn’t had much to do with creative plans since losing her belt at SummerSlam.
Stock Drop #1: Pure Fusion Collective
I had this group in this spot last week because they had a terrible new name. Despite this, they had a chance to win women’s tag team gold on Raw this week. Of course, that didn’t happen because, contrary to what they claim, they don’t run the women’s division on Raw. Shayna Baszler went down in the match, which is nothing different than what she usually did before this group was formed. Sonya Deville needs to come up with something new ASAP if she wants to reverse the group’s sharp decline.
Now let’s see whose stock rose the most this week:
Stock No. 3: LA Knight
Fans just love this guy. Knight successfully defended the US Title against Santos Escobar on SmackDown, potentially imploding Legado del Fantasma, and the megastar is already hoping to defend the belt again next week in an open challenge in Berlin. LA Knight is a hot commodity and now that he’s finally a champion in WWE, there’s no stopping him.
Stock No. 2: Sheamus
Despite his injured hand in kayfabe, Sheamus was able to use all of his crafty veteran experience to hit Pete Dunne with a Brogue Kick and defeat him in a singles match on Raw. It was another cracker from Sheamus, who despite being 46 years old is one of the hardest workers on the WWE roster. The “burger after burger” joke no longer applies to the Celtic Warrior, as he returns to WWE in 2024.
Stock No. 1: The Bloodline
The Bloodline continues to decimate the WWE tag team division on SmackDown. They did this by defeating the Street Profits in a title match and then once again destroying former champions DIY after the match. There is a new weak point here now as Solo Sikoa dropped Jacob Fatu’s tag team belts to Tonga Loa, but there is still not a single team on SmackDown that is currently making The Bloodline sweat.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Which stock do you think moved the most this week?
