Nakamura used to rank among the very best, but then he signed with WWE

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 the Sami Awards, Bray Wyatt’s miraculous escape from a burning box, and Bobby Lashley accidentally getting milk all over his suit, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Up #3: Street Profits

The Street Profits retained their SmackDown tag titles this week (Dec. 18) against Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins have now held championship belts around their waists for nine consecutive months. Their dominant run in 2020 can sometimes go under the radar given how tag team wrestling in WWE is mostly an afterthought, but they are easily one of the top success stories on the main roster this year.

Stock Up #2: Bayley

Bayley picked up her first win since August after raking the eyes of Bianca Belair. She may no longer be a champion, but Bayley won’t hesitate giving the finger to anybody who doubts her greatness.

Stock Up #1: AJ Styles

The Phenomenal One enters the WWE championship match at TLC 2020 on a high note. On this week’s (Dec. 14) Raw, he defeated Sheamus in a singles match, brutalized the vulnerable Celtic Warrior afterwards with a barrage of chair shots, and later beat the hell out of Drew McIntyre during an ascension ceremony. With Omos in AJ’s corner and Miz running around with a Money in the Bank contract, it looks like McIntyre’s hands will be full at TLC.

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

Stock Down #3: Lana

Lana found an innovative way to pin Nia Jax on Raw, which was an unexpected victory. But her celebration was short-lived, because she was then attacked and injured by Jax and Shayna Baszler. After being the focal point of a story with Jax for months, Lana is now off the TLC 2020 pay-per-view and appears to be out of the picture for a while.

Stock Down #2: Shinsuke Nakamura

Do you remember back in 2018 when Shinsuke Nakamura won the Royal Rumble match and had the most badass entrance at WrestleMania 34? The Nakamura of two years ago was able to hang in the same ring with AJ Styles for 20 minutes on a nightly basis. The Nakamura of 2020 can’t even last three minutes in a SmackDown ring with Otis.

Nakamura was once regarded among the most charismatic wrestlers in the world when he competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling. But then he signed with WWE, and now he’s a nobody.

Stock Down #1: Ricochet

Ricochet is one of the very few wrestlers in WWE who struggles against RETRIBUTION. He has now lost singles matches against Slapjack, Mace, and Mustafa Ali over the last six episodes of Raw. If T-Bar can complete the circle by also defeating Ricochet, maybe that really will be Ricochet’s last days of oblivion. Imagine how different things could be right now for Ricochet if he didn’t get squashed by Brock Lesnar just accepted MVP’s offer to join the Hurt Business a few months ago.

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

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