WWE Stock Watch: Analyzing Who's Up and Who's Down After Extreme Rules and Raw

It's only Tuesday, but it's already been a wild week in the WWE.

On Sunday, we witnessed a great Extreme Rules pay-per-view, one that I thought was even better than WrestleMania 28, and on Monday, we were treated to a wild episode of Raw.

A lot of things changed on these shows, as we have new champions, new No. 1 contenders and new feuds brewing as we head to this week's Smackdown.

But before we get there, let's take a look at which stars are moving up after Extreme Rules and Raw and which stars are moving in the exact opposite direction.

Here is this week's WWE Stock Watch (May 2nd edition).

5. Stock Down: John Cena

John Cena may have won his match against Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules, but it didn't come without a price.

He had the living crap beat out of him throughout the duration of the match, and though he may have technically won it, I'm not sure he really walked out of it as the winner.

To make matters worse, an already "injured" Cena was attacked by John Laurinaitis, Lord Tensai and Sakamato at the end of Raw, and it looks like the GM of Raw and Smackdown has it out for Cena for some reason.

As if Cena's brutal beatdown from Lesnar wasn't bad enough, he's now got Laurinaitis and Tensai to worry about.

Rough week for "The Champ."

5. Stock Up: Randy Orton

Randy Orton has been the victim of some pretty atrocious booking over the last few months, but the WWE finally got it right this week.

Orton beat Kane in a good Falls Count Anywhere match at Extreme Rules on Sunday, and he then followed that up with a short and sweet victory over Jack Swagger on Monday.

I'd say that Orton's been pretty patient, as he's been forced into this awful feud with Kane, and hopefully, his Extreme Rules win will officially allow him to move on to something bigger and better.

Orton has built up some solid momentum lately, and he looks poised to make his mark on SmackDown in the coming months.

4. Stock Down: Brock Lesnar

I know, I know—Brock Lesnar looked like a monster both at Extreme Rules and on Raw when he beat the crap out of John Cena and broke Triple H's arm.

But still, Lesnar was unable to get the victory over Cena on Sunday, and his beatdown of Triple H resulted in him being escorted out of the building.

Now no one seems to be sure what's going on with Lesnar or when we'll even see him back on TV, thanks in part to his contract that has him working a limited number of dates.

Although Lesnar came across as an unstoppable heel throughout most of his match with Cena, he was, in fact, stopped when he lost, and right out of the gate, he has lost a lot of momentum after failing to win his first match back.

4. Stock Up: R-Truth and Kofi Kingston

Seemingly out of nowhere, R-Truth and Kofi Kingston stepped up to challenge for and win the WWE Tag Team Championship on Monday night.

It was a very random title match, but given the way Epico and Primo have been booked lately, you could tell that a Truth/Kingston win was likely.

Now Truth and Kingston can go from forgotten and underused mid-carders to the faces of the tag team division, which is certainly a better position to be in.

The WWE has actually put forth some effort into rebuilding the tag team division over the last several weeks, and Kingston and Truth should be at the forefront of the tag team wrestling revival.

Good for both of those guys.

3. Stock Down: Kane

It wasn't exactly a wonderful week for Kane.

He lost his Falls Count Anywhere match against Randy Orton at Extreme Rules, and then on Monday's Raw, he failed to beat The Great Khali quick enough in the Beat the Clock Challenge, a match that was one of the worst of the year to date.

Since WrestleMania 28, Kane has gone from looking like a guy back on his way up to looking like a guy back on his way down.

His Extreme Rules loss to Orton leaves his spot near the top of the card up in the air, and given his two matches this week, he comes across as just another wrestler as opposed to The Big Red Monster.

3. Stock Up: Sheamus

Even though he won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 28, Sheamus didn't get a chance to impress the world in the process.

Luckily for the Celtic Warrior, though, he got that chance at Extreme Rules. And he delivered.

Sheamus and Daniel Bryan put on one hell of a performance in their 2/3 Falls match, proving why fans wanted to see these two go at it so badly at WrestleMania in the first place.

Not only that, but Sheamus managed to walk away still the World Heavyweight Champion.

I don't know about you, but I'd say that's a pretty successful night.

2. Stock Down: Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho wrestled one hell of a Street Fight against CM Punk at Extreme Rules, but storyline-wise, he's had a really bad week.

Y2J lost that match on Sunday, and on Monday's Raw, he lost the opportunity to regain his No.1 contender's spot when he failed to beat The Big Show quickly enough in the Beat the Clock Challenge.

I still get the feeling that Jericho might get involved in Punk's feud with Daniel Bryan, but for now, Jericho looks like he's stuck in no-man's land.

If he's not Punk's No. 1 contender and/or not feuding with him, then what is there for him to do?

2. Stock Up: Daniel Bryan

Even in defeat, Daniel Bryan still manages to be on a roll.

He and Sheamus turned out a phenomenal showing in their 2/3 Falls match on Sunday, and although Bryan lost, he was still incredibly over with the crowd.

Bryan's ridiculous popularity undoubtedly resulted in what we saw on Raw the next night, when he made the jump from No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight title to No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship by winning the Beat the Clock Challenge.

Bryan hasn't missed a beat, as he's gone from challenging for one of the WWE's top prizes to the other one, and, of course, we now have a dream Punk vs. Bryan match set up for Over the Limit.

It's really good to be Bryan right about now.

1. Stock Down: Dolph Ziggler

Why does the creative team hate Dolph Ziggler so much?

As if leaving this guy without a legitimate feud wasn't bad enough, he was then forced to job to Brodus Clay at Extreme Rules, and on Monday's Raw, he was, well, not even on the show.

Where was he? Relegated to Superstars for crying out loud.

I have no idea if Ziggler has some sort of backstage heat or anything like that, but clearly creative simply isn't behind him at the moment.

Let me rephrase that: Creative hates him at the moment.

1. Stock Up: CM Punk

Ever since he was able to overcome Mark Henry a couple of weeks back, CM Punk has been like a new man.

After triumphing over the World's Strongest Man, he was able to do the same over Chris Jericho at Extreme Rules on Sunday.

And, oh yeah, did I mention that it happened in a phenomenal match? Yeah, it did.

Punk was able to extend his WWE Championship reign to nearly six months now, and it doesn't look as if anyone is posed to end his run anytime soon.

He appears to be in a firm position as the holder of the WWE title, and it's going to take a lot to take that belt from him.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.