Dolph Ziggler draws the short straw

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 Logan Paul knocking out Seth Rollins, Chad Gable picking up a win over Baron Corbin, and Rey Mysterio’s HOF announcement being ruined by his shitty son, a lot of fortunes were changed.

With that in mind, let’s see whose stock decreased the most this week:

Stock Down #3: Dolph Ziggler

WWE has decided to dust off Omos for a match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 39. One of the consequences of this decision is that Omos needs to squash wrestlers on Raw again in order to be built up for the fight. Some poor babyface had to draw the short straw for that job this week, and it turned out to be Dolph Ziggler, who was squashed in less than one minute.

The truth of the matter is that the squash doesn’t do much for Omos. This isn’t the 1980’s, so a higher percentage of WWE fans see through the smoke and mirrors and understand that Omos is a terrible wrestler. The end result is that Dolph looks like a total chump who is barely more effective in the ring than a random local talent.

Stock Down #2: Raquel Rodriguez

Raquel Rodriguez has vanished from WWE television following her loss at Elimination Chamber. She did team up with Liv Morgan for a dark match at last night’s (Mar. 10) SmackDown taping, so I guess there’s a slim chance she can make the WrestleMania card in a tag match, but the clock is quickly running out.

Stock Down #1: New Day

Kofi Kingston was pulled from a Fatal 5-Way match on SmackDown due to injury, and the latest rumor indicates he will be sidelined for five weeks. That means he will miss out on a match at WrestleMania 39. And if he’s not competing on that card, Xavier Woods likely won’t be either.

Now let’s see whose stock increased the most this week:

Stock Up #3: Johnny Gargano

Gargano is on a bit of a roll in 2023, most recently picking up a win over Finn Balor on this week’s (Mar. 6) Raw. Finn is lined up for a match against Edge at WrestleMania, so that’s a noteworthy notch on Johnny’s belt. Maybe Gargano’s momentum is driven by his return angle on NXT during the HBK / Waller face-off, but we’re at least seeing signs that Triple H has plans to push Johnny once we get beyond WrestleMania.

Stock Up #2: John Cena

John Cena returned to WWE this week and utterly destroyed United States Champion Austin Theory on the mic. Cena was completely dismissive of the idea that Theory belongs in the same ring with him at WrestleMania. The point was made clear that John is one of the greatest wrestlers in WWE history, while Theory is a wannabe.

Stock Up #1: Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso

Jey Uso was heavily featured in the main event segment of both Raw and SmackDown this week, highlighted by his superkick on Sami Zayn that showed Jey is loyal to The Bloodline. Meanwhile, Cody finally got physical with The Bloodline this week, exchanging blows with the Usos on SmackDown after saving Zayn on Raw. Oh, and WWE made sure to have Cena hug and fully endorse Cody on Raw, just in case you didn’t get the message by now that Rhodes is a top guy in WWE.

There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think changed the most this week?