Sami Zayn pushes for main event status following WWE interference

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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 CM Punk fighting Kevin Owens for the first time ever, Rey Mysterio putting over Chad Gable, and The Judgment Day’s numbers game getting the better of Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer, a lot of fortunes were changed. With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week: Stock Down #3: Tiffany Stratton One week after losing the women’s United States championship to Jacy Jayne, Tiffany Stratton did the job this week on SmackDown against Lash Legend. The loss moves Tiffy Time further away from title contention, as she appears to be moving into a supporting role behind interim WWE’s women’s champion Chelsea Green. Hopefully the idea is to turn Stratton heel as part of this story, because she doesn’t have much going her way as a babyface right now. Stock Down #2: Lyra Valkyria Do you remember on July 18 at Saturday Night’s Main Event when Lyra Valkyria beat Bayley and possibly sent her packing from WWE programming? The follow up on that was for Lyra to lose her next match on this week’s (Aug. 17) Raw against Sol Ruca. This seems to indicate Lyra isn’t getting a big push in her new heel role. Stock Down #1: Giulia Giulia couldn’t even get a win this week against low card henchwoman Michin on WWE’s C-show Main Event. Blake Monroe then beat the hell out of Giulia during her entrance on SmackDown and left her laying, because The Glamour understandably felt like Giulia wasn’t a big enough star to warrant a debut match against her. The bottom line is that Giulia is a total jabroni right now and going nowhere in WWE. Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week: Stock Up #3: Lil Yachty There have been rumors for a while about Lil Yachty eventually wrestling in WWE, and that’s kinda sorta what’s happening next month at Sunday Night’s Main Event when he steps in the ring (for up to five minutes) against very tall United States Champion Baron Corbin. This is Lil’s big chance to show WWE that he can play a more important role on the shows going forward instead of just being Trick Williams’ hype man. Stock Up #2: Sami Zayn After being screwed over one too many times this summer, Sami Zayn found a way to make the WWE championship match between CM Punk and Kevin Owens on SmackDown all about himself by interfering at the end. Zayn ultimately took out both men and held up the title, making it clear that he will be a major part of SmackDown’s main event story with Punk and Owens going forward. Now that Sami has had a 9-day taste of being WWE champion, he refuses to slip down the card and do nothing while the perceived money players fight over his belt. It sounds like WWE has another Saudi Arabia PLE (Crown Jewel) coming up in November, so Sami’s current push at this level should continue on until at least then. There’s certainly a viable scenario where he could even walk into Crown Jewel as WWE champion. Stock Up #1: Solo Sikoa Solo Sikoa was the star of the show on this week’s Raw when The Usos delivered him to the Tribal Chief, only for Solo to take out Roman Reigns with the Samoan Spike. Sikoa got a huge pop from the live fans and came off like a total badass during this part of the segment. He even mocked Jey’s “Yeet” gesture when attacking him at ringside. Solo has mostly been treading water in WWE since losing Tribal Combat against Roman Reigns over 18 months ago, and this is the exact moment he needed to break out of that rut. There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?