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 GUNTHER declaring himself the next King of the Ring, Carlito revealed as Dragon Lee’s mystery attacker, and night one of the WWE Draft, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Cedric Alexander
Alexander was obliterated and squashed by Bron Breakker in about 15 or 16 seconds on last night’s episode of SmackDown. Whenever a main roster member is put in this kind of spot instead of a local enhancement talent, it makes it seem like that wrestler has no business being in WWE.
Stock Down #2: Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark
Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark were on the bubble coming into night one of the WWE Draft, in terms of potentially being selected in the televised portion of the draft. There was a chance one of them could be picked among the 16 televised selections, but they would need some help from either no NXT names making the cut, or mid-carders like Andrade, Ricochet, or Alpha Academy being passed by. It turns out that one of those things broke in their favor, and so they were dumped into the dreaded online supplemental round with mostly low card wrestlers like Ivar, The O.C., Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn, and Cedric Alexander & Ashante “Thee” Adonis. This draft position certainly doesn’t bode well for their WWE push, at least in the short term.
Stock Down #1: Giovanni Vinci
It looks like Vinci was finally kicked out of Imperium after Ludwig Kaiser turned on him and GUNTHER was happy about how it all played out. It’s hard to imagine that Vinci will get a singles push in WWE, so being booted out of Imperium is one of his worst-case scenarios.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Bron Breakker
In addition to squashing Cedric Alexander, Breakker was the sixth overall draft pick. That he was taken over stars like The Bloodline, AJ Styles, and LA Knight is a pretty great sign for his WWE push in 2024.
Stock Up #2: Carmelo Hayes
Hayes was off the board even earlier than Bron as the third overall draft pick. He was selected before longtime WWE main event stars like Randy Orton and Seth Rollins. Carmelo was also immediately booked in a main event match on SmackDown against WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes, to give him a taste of what’s to come.
Stock Up #1: Becky Lynch
When Rhea Ripley had to vacate the Women’s World Championship due to injury and WWE announced a Battle Royal to determine the next titleholder, it looked like a chance for someone new to step up and become the face of women’s wrestling on Raw, However, WWE went the safe route and brought Becky Lynch in to take that spot. The Man is once again the top women’s star on Raw, and nobody else in the division is all that close to her level, pending the results for night two of the draft.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
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