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 Becky Lynch ending her boycott of Raw, Asuka pulling out a win over Rhea Ripley, and the women in the Judgment Day not getting along, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Rayo Americano
El Grande is the only real star in the Americano operation. Rayo reminded fans of that when he did the job for free agent Je’Von Evans on this week’s episode of Raw.
Stock Down #2: Cody Rhodes
WWE Champion Cody Rhodes gave a big speech last week on SmackDown, trying to be a badass while saying he is the law and that GM Nick Aldis works for him. It was quite a contrast on this week’s episode when Cody stood in the ring and did nothing about it while Drew McIntyre verbally tore him apart on the mic. Drew even went after Cody’s family, taking a shot at his dead father, Dusty, before laying out Rhodes with a Claymore.
The reason why Cody was helpless to do anything about it is because he’s not above the law; he would have been stripped of the championship if he put a finger on Drew, so he wisely obeyed the law and didn’t act on his impulses. In doing so, though, his tough talk from the week before was exposed as being all bark and no bite.
Stock Down #1: Jade Cargill
Jade Cargill won the WWE women’s championship from Tiffany Stratton on November 1 on a broadcast of Saturday Night’s Main Event. According to the data at CageMatch, Jade has defended the title zero times on WWE programming in the 55+ days since then, unless you count a house show title defense in Baltimore last night. Jade’s match next week on SmackDown against Michin is being promoted as a non-title match, so her streak of zero title defenses on TV, PLE, and SNME might extend for a while into 2026. It will be hard to get fans to care about Jade’s title reign if they never see her defend the belt.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week.
Stock Up #3: Austin Theory
This week’s episode of Raw was all about Austin Theory explaining his actions as the mystery masked man, and the debate within The Vision about whether or not to let him join the group. Austin refused to take a backseat in that conversation, asserting himself as the team leader when he fought alongside Bronson Reed in the main event. He even pinned WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio to end the night. Now, some folks may argue that Theory’s work in the ring didn’t stand out compared to the other stars in the match, but it’s clear that WWE is giving him plenty of rope to try to get fans invested in his latest push.
Stock Up #2: Joe Hendry
Hendry made his SmackDown debut in a comedy segment for the holidays where he humiliated The Miz with a song about his inadequate testicles, before beating the A-Lister’s ass in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight. It might be easy to roll your eyes at the running joke about Miz’s tiny balls, but it sure looks like Hendry could become a fixture on the blue brand now that the show is moving back to three hours to begin 2026.
Stock Up #1: Carmelo Hayes
Carmelo Hayes defeated Ilja Dragunov on SmackDown to become the new United States champion. Hayes has been doing much better in WWE ever since he turned babyface, and now he finally has main roster gold to show for it. It looks like this is the start of the biggest push that Melo has received ever since he was called up from NXT.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
