WWE Stock Report: Cody Rhodes is much better off in WWE than AEW

[Liz]

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 WrestleMania Backlash and all of its fallout, a lot of fortunes were changed.

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

Stock Down #3: Liv Morgan

WWE didn't waste any time after Rhea Ripley joined The Judgment Day in booking her to beat the crap out of Liv Morgan on Raw. Given their history, this could have been a match that was saved for the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. It wasn't a squash, but Liv was soundly beaten in one segment and presented as a wrestler who isn't really on Rhea's level.

Stock Down #2: Drew McIntyre

At WrestleMania Backlash, Drew McIntyre had a chance to cement himself as the next challenger for WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. But his team (with RK-Bro) failed to defeat the Bloodline, allowing Roman to show up on SmackDown last night (May 13) and accurately state there's "nobody" left for him to face with Hell in a Cell looming.

Drew McIntyre is one of the nobodies Reigns was talking about. Unlike RK-Bro, McIntyre couldn't even be bothered to show up on SmackDown to confront The Bloodline, lending even more credence to Roman's words.

Stock Down #1: Sonya Deville

Deville has been pinned on three consecutive episodes of Raw. One of those losses was tantamount to a three-on-one handicap match where Sonya had the numbers in her favor. More recently, she was quickly squashed by a returning Alexa Bliss on this week's (May 9) Raw. Sonya was also fired from her authority figure role. That means she's back to being a regular wrestler on the roster, and a wrestler who is apparently very bad at winning matches.

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

Stock Up #3: The Judgment Day

At WrestleMania Backlash, Rhea Ripley joined up with Edge and Damian Priest as the newest member of The Judgment Day. Ripley sadistically destroyed Liv Morgan on Raw and could potentially find herself elevated to a championship feud with Bianca Belair this summer. The Judgment Day has a cool entrance, Edge has a new look, and WWE is serious about giving them a big push.

Stock Up #2: Cody Rhodes

Cody defeated Seth Rollins once again at WrestleMania Backlash. Given Bobby Lashley's loss to Omos on that same card, Drew McIntyre falling to the Bloodline, AJ Styles putting over The Judgment Day, Randy Orton wrapped up in the tag title scene, New Day struggling with BUTCH, and Finn Balor often booked like a jabroni, Cody already stands out as the number one men's babyface in all of WWE.

This is about as strong of a start as Cody could have realistically hoped for in his return to WWE. It also makes a huge difference that WWE audiences love to cheer for Rhodes, unlike his last year or so of being heavily booed as a babyface in AEW.

Stock Up #1: Ronda Rousey

Rousey won the SmackDown women's championship from Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania Backlash in her best showing yet since returning to WWE this year. With Flair indefinitely out of action and Roman Reigns having no opponents, Ronda will be heavily featured and a focal point of SmackDown going forward. In fact, she already successfully defended the title against Raquel Rodriguez.