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 Bayley returning to Raw, Damian Priest turning on R-Truth, and Royce Keys setting the Usos’ car on fire, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Liv Morgan
Liv Morgan lost the women’s world championship
to Stephanie Vaquer at a house show in Chile last night, thanks to crooked referee Becky Lynch. It’s doesn’t mean gloom and doom is on the horizon for Liv after losing the title in a screwjob in the babyface’s home country. In a case like this where the title change happens off TV due to the home country factor, I would normally expect the heel to have a decent chance to win the belt back on TV / PLE fairly soon.
However, now that Liv’s 147 day title reign is over, it’s pretty easy to look back on it and see that the whole thing amounted to a bunch of nothing, for the most part. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if WWE isn’t in a rush to put the belt back on Liv, especially with Becky and Vaquer both vying with her for that top spot on Raw.
Stock Down #2: Ethan Page
The promos on Raw indicate that WWE is positioning Ethan Page to be a top contender for Chad Gable’s Intercontinental title following Raw in Mexico City tomorrow night. However, Page’s match results tell a different story. He came up short in a Money in the Bank qualifying match this week, following losses in August against Dragon Lee and Je’Von Evans. Page’s last win on Raw took place in late July, which doesn’t give fans much reason to care about a Gable vs. Page title match right now.
Stock Down #1: Nikki Bella & Paige
WWE spent over one month building up to the grudge match between Nikki and Paige on SmackDown in Mexico City, just for the actual match to not even last three and a half minutes. Much of this feud has been like taking a time machine back to the Divas era circa 2013, and that now includes the women not getting any real time to wrestle.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Chelsea Green
Green successfully defended her WWE women’s title for the first time on this week’s SmackDown with a win over Nia Jax, and WWE’s web site no longer uses the word “interim” to refer to her status as champion. WWE could have vacated the title or booked Chelsea to lose after she suffered a broken orbital bone, but they are instead sticking with her for the long haul.
Stock Up #2: Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker
Following up Bronson Reed’s return angle at SNME, Bron Breakker and Reed asserted their dominance on Raw by taking out Oba Femi with several more spears and Tsunami splashes. Bronson capped it off by stepping on Oba’s fallen body while The Vision posed around him. Breakker would go on to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match later in the show.
There was a big uproar online about the moment when Oba shoved Bronson’s foot off of him, with a recent rumor indicating that the spot wasn’t planned and WWE wasn’t happy about what happened. I don’t know if Oba reacted that way to show he had some fight left in him, or if he was legitimately upset with Reed putting his foot on him without discussing it ahead of time.
I think it made a lot of sense for Reed to celebrate crushing the near-invincible Femi by putting his foot on him during The Vision’s victory pose. I mean, why wouldn’t a monster heel do that after being the only man alive besides Brock Lesnar who has manhandled Oba like that on the WWE main roster? The idea that Bronson needs to get a harmless gesture like that cleared ahead of time (because it potentially makes Oba look weak) is silly.
Think about it. Bronson and Bron obliterated this guy with their finishers the night before. Oba should have been off TV selling that beating, like we’ve seen before with Reed’s victims. Instead, Oba was right back on TV the very next night marching to the ring and taking on The Vision all by himself, until he inevitably succumbed to their powerful finishers yet again.
If Oba is allowed to potentially weaken Bronson’s finisher by not missing any TV time, then there should definitely be no issue with Reed putting a foot on him to celebrate another extreme beating. Nothing about that scene made Oba Femi look weak, including Bronson’s foot at the end. In fact, he should do it again the next time he destroys The Ruler, especially now that the incident has blown up into this big debate among wrestling fans.
Stock Up #1: Sami Zayn
The Last Real Good Guy shocked the world all over again on SmackDown in Mexico City when he defeated CM Punk to win the WWE championship. Sami Zayn’s second run with the WWE title will almost certainly last longer than nine days this time. After all, WWE has a Crown Jewel show coming up in early November, and it makes a lot of sense for Zayn to walk into Saudi Arabia for a champion versus champion match against Roman Reigns.
This is also a good time to be champ on SmackDown with so many top stars (Orton, Owens, Balor, GUNTHER, Punk, Rhodes) and Johnny Gargano gunning for the title, making it seem like the most important prize in the company. As it should be.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
