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 Drew McIntyre’s suspension left in place after he refused to apologize, The Creeds aligning with Chad Gable to beat up Bo Dallas, and Logan Paul signing the contract for a US title match against LA Knight at SummerSlam, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Bronson Reed
Bronson talked a bunch of trash at Sheamus over the last couple of weeks, painting him as a has-been from a past era of WWE. He then proceeded to lose the match against Sheamus; the Celtic Warrior didn’t even need to use his Brogue Kick finisher to beat this guy.
Stock Down #2: Braun Strowman
Strowman lost clean against Damian Priest on this week’s Raw. The main objective here was to give Damian a big win before his world title defense against GUNTHER at SummerSlam. However, the other message sent is that Braun is no longer the main event level wrestler he used to be during his previous run with WWE, where clean losses were a rare thing for the big SOB.
Stock Down #1: Zelina Vega
Earlier this month, Vega challenged Liv Morgan for the Women’s World Championship on Raw. Two weeks later, she can’t even last 70 seconds in a loss to Sonya Deville. Yeah, there was interference right away that led to her downfall, but this isn’t the kind of booking WWE gives someone who is going to be pushed up the card.
Vega posted this message on social media a couple days after her very quick loss to Deville:
All my life, I’ve heard that my height holds me back. Today is no different. But there’s just so much you can prove here and there.
I’ve gotten to touch the ball but never actually hold it.
Give. me. the. ball. If I drop it F**K me, I’ll fall back..but I’m ready to settle this.
— ZV (@ZelinaVegaWWE) July 17, 2024
Zelina has now lost all four matches she’s had on Raw since being drafted to the red brand less than three months ago. It doesn’t look like WWE is giving Zelina the ball anytime soon, so maybe she’s right about her height problem.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Andrade
Andrade followed up his performance at Money in the Bank with a win over Carmelo Hayes on SmackDown. It wasn’t too long ago when Hayes was selected in the first round of the WWE Draft while Andrade was picked in the fourth round, so this result was far from a lock. It could be a sign of a bigger push and more TV time coming for El Idolo.
Stock Up #2: The Bloodline
Jacob Fatu and The Bloodline once again dominated the SmackDown main event segment, decimating Cody Rhodes and his friends. Fatu’s unstable presence has added the extra layer of danger that WWE commentary has been hyping up for this new version of The Bloodline, and it really does feel like nobody can control them at this point.
Stock Up #1: Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan & Dominik Mysterio
The complicated relationship between these three wrestlers was the main focus of this week’s Raw. It’s all perfectly building to a highly-anticipated championship match between Morgan and Ripley at SummerSlam where Dominik will almost certainly play a key role in determining who wins.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
