Stock trends in WWE highlight rising talents and lingering struggles

"

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 R-Truth trying to reunite The Judgment Day, The Miz being factory reset to 2010 via Danhausen, and Jade Cargill’s wig falling off during her Queen of the Ring match, a lot of fortunes were changed. With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week: Stock Down #3: Finn Balor When GUNTHER recently moved to the SmackDown roster, he was immediately booked in a feud with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When Jacob Fatu moved over to Raw, he immediately main evented multiple PLEs against World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. When Finn Balor was traded to SmackDown, he was immediately…eliminated in the first round of the King of the Ring tournament, and completely forgotten about in the finish of the bout. That doesn’t exactly bode well for the notion that WWE has a big plan for Finn with this trade other than separating him from Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh for a while. Stock Down #2: LA Knight LA Knight talks a lot of trash about how he is going to beat World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns, but it’s hard to take the megastar seriously when he is eliminated in the first round of the King of the Ring by Roman’s henchman, Jey Uso. It’s just the latest entry in a series of high stakes matches like Elimination Chamber, Royal Rumble, and Money in the Bank where the megastar can’t get the job done. At this point, Knight doesn’t even seem like a worthy title contender on a filler episode of Sunday Saturday Night’s Main Event, let alone a major PLE like SummerSlam. Stock Down #1: Fatal Influence Fatal Influence made it clear that they plan to take over WWE, and commentator Wade Barrett said anybody who doubts them is a fool. Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid followed up on those lofty threats this week on SmackDown by losing a non-title match against WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Paige and Brie Bella. I guess taking over WWE is a lot harder than it looks. Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week. Stock Up #3: Chad Gable Gable’s apology tour and babyface redemption arc continued this week on Raw when he saved Rey Mysterio’s mask and suplexed the shit out of Rusev and Ethan Page. The fans in Paris loved Gable, which is a sign that he could potentially be in line for the biggest push of his WWE career after losing the Grande Americano mask at AAA Noche de Los Grandes. Stock Up #2: Jey Uso Roman Reigns told Jey Uso to go win the King of the Ring tournament and bring another world title home to The Bloodline. Uso took care of the first step of that process by winning his opening round match over Knight, Balor, and Royce Keys. With Seth Rollins also being bounced out this week, Uso is now the next most likely star to win the tournament if Oba Femi is screwed over by Brock Lesnar at some point. It’s not crazy at all to think that Jey could be challenging for Cody Rhodes’ WWE championship this summer, as the Tribal Chief continues to reunite his family and put The Bloodline in position to dominate WWE for multiple years again. And you know it’s just a matter of time until MFT falls in line behind the OTC, even if Solo Sikoa is resistant to the idea right now. We’re only in the 4th inning of The Bloodline story, after all. Stock Up #1: Sami Zayn The Last Real Good Guy in WWE has quickly become the most interesting part of GUNTHER’s story with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, to the point where he will now determine the fate of the title as the special referee for their rematch next week. In doing so, Sami Zayn has proven once again he belongs at the main event level in WWE, even if the people in charge never put that damn championship around his waist. There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?