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 returning to set up a WrestleMania match against Seth Rollins, old man CM Punk powerbombing Roman Reigns through a table, and the announcement that John Cena is already coming back to host WrestleMania 42, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: New Day
Penta retained the Intercontinental championship against Kofi Kingston on Raw this week, in a match where Kofi and Grayson Waller were not on the same page. Afterwards, Penta announced a ladder match for his belt at WrestleMania 42 that includes Rusev, Je’Von Evans, JD McDonagh, and Dragon Lee. Former WWE Champion Kingston isn’t in the ladder match, which would have been his best (and only) chance to make the WrestleMania card.
Stock Down #2: Carmelo Hayes
The bullshit way Carmelo Hayes lost the United States title left the door open for WWE to later add him to the championship match between Sami Zayn and Trick Williams at WrestleMania. That door was seemingly closed this week on SmackDown when Hayes lost the rematch, and the post-match angle was all about Trick, Sami, and Lil Yachty. If Melo wants to make the cut for WrestleMania, he’ll probably have to head over to Raw and see if the rumor is true about more wrestlers possibly being added to that Intercontinental championship ladder match.
Stock Down #1: Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton
The WrestleMania main event program between WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton was in a very good place after Randy’s surprise heel turn a few weeks ago, and it should have been easy from there to lean on their history to tell the rest of the story. However, WWE decided to blow it all up this week on SmackDown when Pat McAfee revealed himself as the mystery caller who has been advising Randy to kill everything in WWE.
The WWE champ looked real bad getting taken out by McAfee without putting up the slightest bit of resistance. And even though Randy is aligned with Pat, The Viper’s long-awaited return to the main event of WrestleMania has now been ruined. The new story for this match is that WWE business sucks with Cody on top, today’s wrestlers aren’t as cool as those from the Attitude Era nearly 30 years ago (keep in mind that Randy is not from the Attitude Era either), and Cody is starting to hear voices in his head that will presumably help him become a killer like Orton. This is mostly bad and dumb, especially with McAfee as the focal point of it all.
When fans look back on this WrestleMania main event match years from now, there’s a good chance that the stench of McAfee as the mystery caller will be the first thing they think about, as opposed to whatever Cody and Randy actually do between the ropes when the bell rings.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week.
Stock Up #3: Roxanne Perez
The WrestleMania feud between Liv Morgan and Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer needed a little kick in the ass, and it got it this week in the form of Roxanne Perez. She returned from injury on Raw at Madison Square Garden to help Morgan beat the hell out of the babyface champ, adding some intrigue about how Vaquer will overcome the numbers game of The Judgment Day in her title defense at WrestleMania 42.
Stock Up #2: The Vision & IShowSpeed
Austin Theory and YouTube douchebag Logan Paul won the world tag team championship this week thanks to IShowSpeed accidentally screwing everything up for The Usos and LA Knight. Now that Jelly Roll’s match with Kit Wilson is over with on SmackDown, it looks like IShowSpeed is getting WWE’s celebrity match at WrestleMania in a probable 6-man tag with The Vision against Knight and the Usos. If Speed doesn’t play his cards right, he may just end up in another viral moment with his next major bump in a WWE ring.
Stock Up #1: Pat McAfee
Even though Pat McAfee’s return angle has been harshly criticized as a giant dud, the bottom line is that the former NFL punter will now be featured as one of the biggest stars on the road to WrestleMania 42. There are rumors going around about TKO CEO Ari Emanuel being behind this decision, and WWE’s deal with ESPN also being a factor. If true, all of that bodes very well for McAfee’s prominence in WWE going forward. He is the next Sylvester Stallone, after all.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
