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 WWE’s launch on ESPN with Wrestlepalooza, a lot of fortunes were changed.
With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:
Stock Down #3: Motor City Machine Guns
Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin briefly escaped WWE catering for a backstage segment with R-Truth on SmackDown where Truth explained to them how they can watch Wrestlepalooza on the ESPN App.
Yeah, it’s just a harmless comedy bit, but it’s also a reminder that WWE has no creative direction for MCMG. They are now relegated to being the jabronis who need to find a way to watch WWE PLEs on their phones, because they aren’t good enough to make the cut for those shows.
It’s harder to buy into WWE’s claim that John Cena is the greatest of all time given the way he was so easily mauled by Brock Lesnar at Wrestlepalooza.
Cena’s next date with WWE isn’t until the Crown Jewel event in Australia on October 11, so he’s vanishing for a few weeks. The idea of Cena coming back to immediately do a rematch with Brock for redemption doesn’t sound intriguing at all. If the idea is to instead book Cena’s next match against someone else, he won’t be around on WWE programming for a proper build to maximize interest in it.
In WWE’s effort to somewhat protect Drew McIntyre in defeat at Wrestlepalooza, Ryan Tran was booked to look like an incompetent referee. The most glaring example happened late in the match when he put his hands on McIntyre and stood in his way, delaying Drew’s Claymore attempt on Cody Rhodes on the outside. Those extra seconds gave Rhodes enough time to move out of the way, which led to Drew injuring his leg and losing the match.
Tran did pretty much the same exact thing on the Sept. 12 episode of SmackDown when he stood in front of Randy Orton to delay his punt attempt on McIntyre, which quickly led to Orton losing that match.
That’s two main event matches this referee ruined by getting in the way of wrestlers who did nothing illegal. He was also out of position for a visual three count that Drew had on Cody earlier in the match at Wrestlepalooza. I think it’s especially underwhelming for a bad referee judgment call to end WWE’s first ever PLE main event in this so-called new era on ESPN.
Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:
Stock Up #3: Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed
The Brons had a great week where they picked up wins over LA Knight and Jimmy Uso on Raw, Fraxiom on SmackDown, and The Usos at Wrestlepalooza. If WWE ever remember that the world tag team championship exists, it’s pretty clear these guys should be the number one contenders for the gold, and even favored to beat current champions Finn Balor and JD McDonagh.
If that’s not the direction that Breakker and Reed are headed in, they can still go forward with the bragging point that they now have a win over arguably the greatest tag team in WWE history.
Stock Up #2: Stephanie Vaquer
If anything about Wrestlepalooza screamed out “new era” for WWE, it was Vaquer winning the vacant women’s world championship by defeating IYO SKY. They had the best match on the show, the fans were super into it, and Vaquer looked like a big star in the process. Her “Devil’s Kiss” is quickly becoming one of the most popular moves in WWE, and she also has a very cool Spiral Tap finisher to along with it.
Stock Up #1: Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman
Brock Lesnar returned to the ring at Wrestlepalooza for his first WWE match in over two years, and he completely dismantled John Cena for a very lopsided victory. The Beast also reunited with Paul Heyman, who always finds a way to be a fixture in WWE’s main event storylines.
It’s not all that long ago when Cena was running around with the WWE championship around his waist, and he’s pretty much the only guy who found a way to beat Cody Rhodes in a singles match since WrestleMania 40 in 2024. Seeing how Lesnar just beat the shit out of John and made it look easy, it’s obvious in kayfabe that Lesnar should be challenging for the WWE championship ASAP. He’s certainly a more dangerous challenger than Drew McIntyre, at the very least.
There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?
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