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 Ronda Rousey returning to WWE television, Beth Phoenix hitting her finisher on Dominik Mysterio, and Lita helping Becky Lynch win a steel cage match, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Sonya Deville
One week Sonya Deville is challenging Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown women’s championship, the next week she is serving as fodder in a tag team match for Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan as they tune up for Elimination Chamber.
Stock Down #2: Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss has been absent from WWE television the last two weeks after losing a Raw women’s championship match against Bianca Belair at Royal Rumble 2023. It’s not clear how much longer she will be off TV, but the timing of this absence brings into question how she figures into creative plans for WrestleMania 39, if at all. Alexa missed out on last year’s show, and some of her fans are taking this as a strong indication that it will happen again this year.
Stock Down #1: Baron Corbin & JBL
Baron Corbin was already a losing loser who always loses coming into this week’s Raw, so it was hardly surprising when Dexter Lumis beat him in a match. JBL completely buried Corbin afterwards, telling him he is nothing more than a turd with channel-changing heat. Just like that, their partnership is over, and JBL isn’t expected to be on WWE TV much going forward. Corbin desperately needs another repackaging if he hopes to recover from this booking.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Madcap Moss
Madcap Moss pinned Rey Mysterio in a four way match on SmackDown to become the number one contender to GUNTHER’s Intercontinental title.
Moss will absolutely get his chest chopped to smithereens and lose that title match, but this is at least a chance for him to go out there next week and show what he can do in a meaningful match with a top guy. Just look at how much Sheamus got over by having great matches with GUNTHER last year.
Stock Up #2: Jey Uso
Jey Uso might just be the most interesting man in WWE right now. He returned to SmackDown this week at the last minute to help his brother retain the tag team titles, and then he shared a moment backstage with Sami Zayn that is setting up a big angle for Sami’s match with Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber.
Jey is a very relatable character who is caught up in a tense family conflict, and there is a huge amount of anticipation to see what decision he will make when forced to choose between Sami and Roman.
Stock Up #1: Paul Heyman
Roman Reigns is a part-timer who wasn’t around this week, so it was up to Paul Heyman to carry the load of two different main event storylines on his back. And that wasn’t a problem at all, because the wiseman is the best talker in the business.
Heyman’s promo with Cody Rhodes on Raw was an emotional and compelling segment that quickly turned Cody’s WrestleMania story into must-see television. Heyman was also a key part of all the drama going on with Sami Zayn and the Usos on SmackDown. Paul spied on a backstage conversation between Jimmy and Jey Uso, caught Jimmy telling a small lie when he asked him about the conversation, and then left an interesting cliffhanger about what Jimmy might see when he stays home and watches Elimination Chamber next weekend.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
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