The LWO are still a bunch of jobbers

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 Cody Rhodes beating up skidmark security, GUNTHER defending his gold against Xavier Woods, and Seth Rollins vs. Omos added to Backlash out of the blue, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Up #3: Bronson Reed

One week after going toe-to-toe with upper card wrestler Bobby Lashley on Raw, Bronson Reed now finds himself booked in a United States championship match with Lashley and Austin Theory at WWE Backlash. This is a pretty big step up from the previous weeks Reed spent beating up lower card guys like Elias and Mustafa Ali.

Stock Up #2: Solo Sikoa

On weeks where part-timer Roman Reigns isn’t on television, Solo Sikoa fills right in as the dominating badass of The Bloodline who rarely ever loses. He added two more wins onto his ledger this week, beating Rey Mysterio (on Raw) and Matt Riddle (on SmackDown).

Stock Up #1: Trish Stratus

Trish Stratus cut one hell of a promo on Raw this week (Apr. 17) explaining her heel turn on Becky Lynch and Lita. Trish established herself as not only a trailblazer for women’s wrestling in WWE, but also as the most important figure in WWE history. That’s quite a bold claim. Her upcoming feud with Becky Lynch could very well be the top women’s storyline in WWE between now and SummerSlam 2023.

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

Stock Down #3: Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre has disappeared from WWE television in the aftermath of WrestleMania 39. It sounds like he is out due to a health issue, but there are also rumors of his WWE contract negotiations not going so smoothly. It wouldn’t be surprising at this point if Drew was left out of next week’s WWE Draft.

Stock Down #2: Viking Raiders

Now that the WWE tag team titles are held by babyfaces Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, it seemed like a good time for the heel vikings to receive a push towards a title shot. But things haven’t gone their way at all this month, first coming up short in a tag team showcase match at WrestleMania 39, and then losing against Braun Strowman and Ricochet on last night’s (Apr. 21) episode of SmackDown.

Stock Down #1: Santos Escobar and the LWO

Fan nostalgia for the LWO is interesting given that the group never hit it big during their original run in WCW, where they were mostly booked like jobbers.

Things haven’t changed much for the LWO more than 20 years later. Santos Escobar and his crew have done nothing but lose ever since Rey Mysterio gave them the LWO colors back on March 31. More specifically, Escobar has been pinned to the mat on every single episode of SmackDown in April thus far. This follows a month of March where Legado Del Fantasma lost matches on all four episodes of SmackDown that they competed on.

With all of these losses piling up, the following message has been sent to WWE fans: Rey Mysterio needs a much better wrestler like Bad Bunny to have his back if he wants to win this war against The Judgment Day.

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