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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 Sami Zayn welcoming Jey Uso to the Raw roster, Asuka’s return to SmackDown, and LA Knight taking a shot at Kevin Nash, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Austin Theory
It’s become clear this summer that Austin Theory isn’t the type of star that WWE thought he was when he beat John Cena at WrestleMania. Now that he’s no longer a champion, Austin’s job this week was to put over a real rising star, LA Knight.
Stock Down #2: Shinsuke Nakamura
A physically compromised Seth Rollins was willing to give Nakamura a rematch for the world championship on Raw, but for some reason Shinsuke declined the match. Instead of wrestling Seth for the belt, he ended up in a meaningless match with Ricochet that he didn’t even win. I’m not sure how this was supposed to convince fans that Nakamura is a credible threat to take the gold from Rollins.
Stock Down #1: McRiddle
The new team of Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle is off to a very rocky start. They lost again on this week’s Raw, this time against the Viking Raiders. There are signs that McIntyre will be turning heel soon, such as his unhappiness with Jey Uso and Kofi Kingston. That could end up being a good thing for Drew, but not so much for Matt Riddle or the future of this team.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Shotzi
One of the best ways to establish a repackaged wrestler is to book that wrestler to win a bunch of matches. Shotzi has pinned Bayley in consecutive weeks on SmackDown, so she’s off to a pretty good start with her new look.
Stock Up #2: Judgment Day
Now that The Judgment Day have the WWE tag team titles, the group has its sights set on taking over SmackDown. They defeated the Brawling Brutes last night and got involved in The Bloodline’s business with AJ Styles, perhaps because WWE is planning ahead for Survivor Series. The group also has its hands full on Raw, with JD McDonagh defeating Zami Zayn, Damian Priest getting a custom Money in the Bank briefcase, and Dominik Mysterio trying to convince Jey Uso to join them.
Stock Up #1: GUNTHER
GUNTHER beat Chad Gable in the main event of Raw and became the longest reigning Intercontinental champion of all-time. It seems pretty clear that GUNTHER will be headed to the main event scene soon enough, because he’s conquered everyone there is to beat underneath that level.
There you have it,