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 Bobby Lashley’s return to Raw, Liv Morgan slapping Raquel Rodriguez in the face, and the Banger Bros. getting booked in a tag team tournament, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Xia Li
Xia Li and Tegan Nox both need wins right now as they try to climb the ladder in WWE. Tegan is the one who picked up the victory over Li this week (Jan. 13) on SmackDown, indicating that Li’s multiple wins in a gauntlet match from a few weeks ago weren’t actually the start of a push for her.
Stock Down #2: Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey has vanished from WWE television ever since she dropped the SmackDown women’s championship to Charlotte Flair. She has also been removed from WWE’s advertising for the 30th Anniversary of Raw. With Royal Rumble approaching in two weeks, it’s at least possible that Rousey is being left out of the singles championship picture altogether moving forward.
Stock Down #1: The O.C.
The O.C. is predictably losing its push now that their leader AJ Styles is out of the picture with an injury. Mia Yim is taking losses and beatings from Damage CTRL, while the Good Bros were the first team out in a tag team gauntlet match on this week’s (Jan. 9) Raw. This kind of booking will likely continue for the group until Styles returns.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Solo Sikoa
Solo Sikoa is a killer. He has adopted Umaga’s Samoan Spike to devastate the opposition in recent weeks, including a win over Dolph Ziggler on this week’s Raw. Sikoa also had the key table spot in The Bloodline’s beatdown of Kevin Owens last night on SmackDown.
WWE commentators are now bringing up the fact that Solo has not been pinned since he debuted on the main roster in September, which is a pretty big deal. His strong booking has gotten to the point where he pretty much fills in for the physical presence of Roman Reigns when the part-time Tribal Chief isn’t on television. WWE clearly has something special planned for Sikoa, as it’s hard to ask for a better main roster rollout than what he has received.
Stock Up #2: GUNTHER
GUNTHER achieved his most important WWE victory to date, defeating Braun Strowman on SmackDown to retain the Intercontinental title. In less than one year, GUNTHER already has the kind of credibility needed to get booked in matches with top stars like Brock Lesnar; it’s just a matter of when WWE decides to pull that trigger.
Stock Up #1: The Judgment Day
The Judgment Day dominated the final hour of Raw, defeating four other teams while running the gauntlet from start to finish. There are indications that WWE is interested in splitting up the unified championships, and that means The Judgment Day is suddenly a viable threat to beat The Usos when they challenge them for the Raw tag team titles.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
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