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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 WWE Payback 2023, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Ricochet
Some wrestling fans hoped that Ricochet’s SummerSlam feud with Logan Paul would help propel him to the next level, or at least give WWE confidence that Ricochet can be trusted with more high profile singles feuds going forward. But here we are one month later, and Ricochet is back to being irrelevant again on Raw after losing to the YouTube douchebag. Ricochet has spent most of his time wrestling on Main Event instead of Raw during this time, and last week he was just a quiet background player in a Seth Rollins segment on Raw. It really does look like his SummerSlam program was all about giving Logan Paul someone to beat, and not about elevating Ricochet.
Stock Down #2: Bronson Reed
Bronson had a winning streak going on from mid June to the end of July, which made it seem like a push was coming his way. But that’s not how it has worked out for the big man. He lost both of his Raw matches in August, including last week’s bout with Ciampa, and it’s pretty clear that protecting him is not a priority for WWE creative at the moment.
Stock Down #1: Austin Theory
Austin Theory’s rematch for the United States championship at Payback didn’t amount to much. He went down at the hands of Rey Mysterio in a forgettable match that nobody is taking about. It’s not a great sign when the best you can do with Rey is have a mediocre match, as Mysterio is one of the greatest workers of all time and still performs at a very high level.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Becky Lynch
The Man is suddenly on a roll, having picked up wins over the last week in gimmick matches against Zoey Stark and Trish Stratus. Now that Lynch is done with Trish, she can finally set her sights back on championship gold, whether that’s in NXT or on Raw.
Stock Up #2: John Cena
Cena is back in WWE for the next two months, and he’s already right in the middle of the action. He opened SmackDown by giving Jimmy Uso an Attitude Adjustment, and then served as special referee for a Payback match where he brushed shoulders with one of WWE’s hottest acts today, LA Knight. There’s even a rumor that Cena will be wrestling against Cody Rhodes soon enough. The bottom line is that WWE will try to put John Cena on TV as much as they possibly can while he’s available to them during the SAG