WWE Stock Watch: Ranking 10 Superstars Who Are Moving Up or Down (May 9)

What goes up must come down.

If you're at the bottom, the only way to go is up.

All right, enough with the cliches.

You know the drill with the WWE Stock Watch by now—I analyze five superstars who are moving up in the WWE and five who are moving down.

Let's take a look at who's doing what in this week's edition.

Note: These rankings take into account last week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown and this week's Monday Night Raw.

5. Stock Down: Sheamus

I know that Sheamus got a big victory on SmackDown, but things took a turn for the worse on Raw.

After getting pinned by Chris Jericho in tag team action, Sheamus was nailed by Randy Orton with an RKO, and then it was announced that he would have to defend his World Heavyweight Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match at Over the Limit.

So, in a matter of mere minutes, the Great White lost a match, found himself having beef with Orton and essentially earned two more No. 1 contenders, which means that the odds aren't exactly in his favor to leave Over the Limit as champion.

Things were going really well for Sheamus before Monday night, but now?

Eh, not so much.

5. Stock Up: Dolph Ziggler

For the first time in what seems like forever, Dolph Ziggler's stock actually didn't drop this week.

He's been booked horribly and lost a lot of matches lately, but he finally picked up a victory in a short three-minute match against Kofi Kingston on Monday's Raw.

Sure, Ziggler's beaten Kingston numerous times before, but considering that Kingston's now a tag team champion, this victory could help Ziggler and Jack Swagger get a tag team title shot down the road.

If not, at least Ziggler did something other than lose or wrestle on Superstars this week.

4. Stock Down: CM Punk

CM Punk would probably like to forget about what happened on Monday night.

Even though it was a 2-on-1 handicap match, Punk still lost to Lord Tensai and Daniel Bryan after getting sprayed in the face with the ridiculous green mist.

After the match, he was attacked by Bryan, who put him in the Yes Lock and then celebrated his assault.

While Punk has certainly had worse nights, losing a match and then getting attacked afterward isn't exactly something that's going to make your stock creep up.

Punk is down at the moment, and it'll be interesting to see if his reignited beef with John Laurinaitis costs him even more in the long run.

4. Stock Up: Brodus Clay

The Brodus Clay squash-fest continues to roll on.

I, for one, am getting pretty bored with seeing "The Funkasaurus" in matches that last only a few minutes every week, but the creative team apparently isn't.

Clay got an easy count-out victory over Jack Swagger on SmackDown. Then, he beat The Miz in another short match on Raw.

The squash matches aren't really doing it for me, but regardless, Clay keeps on piling up more wins.

That's never a bad sign for a WWE superstar.

3. Stock Down: Natalya

I honestly didn't think that Natalya's stock could get any lower.

Turns out, I was wrong.

She continued to get buried this week when she lost in quick fashion to Divas Champion Layla on SmackDown, and then once again on Raw, when she lost in tag team action to Layla and Kelly Kelly.

What an incredible waste of the most talented active Diva on the WWE's roster.

3. Stock Up: Randy Orton

Randy Orton has been steadily climbing up the WWE totem pole, and he continued his ascension once again this week.

The Viper picked up a big victory over Cody Rhodes and Kane on last Friday's SmackDown, and even though he lost in tag team action on Raw, what happened afterward was more important.

After Sheamus inadvertently Brogue-kicked Orton during their Raw match, Orton returned the favor by nailing Sheamus with an RKO post-match, showing that Steve Austin-like "I'll hit my finisher on baby faces or heels" mentality that he's been lacking recently.

It was then revealed that Orton would get a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship at Over the Limit, as that match is now a Fatal 4-Way.

I don't know about you, but blasting the World champion with an RKO and then getting a future title shot sounds like a pretty good night to me.

2. Stock Down: The Miz

Damn, someone in the WWE must really hate The Miz, huh?

He's been booked about as terribly as ever recently, and even though he's had random shining moments (his win at WrestleMania, his win on last week's Raw, etc.), he comes across as a complete loser just about every week.

Although The Miz gave Brodus Clay his longest match yet on Monday's Raw and was actually in control for most of it, he still lost and still looked like a jobber.

I'm honestly not sure what's going on with The Miz, but the only logical explanation is that he has some massive backstage heat.

Guys don't just suddenly take a drastic drop down the card, but that's exactly what The Miz has done.

2. Stock Up: Lord Tensai

Lord Tensai is apparently John Laurinaitis' new right-hand man, and it seems to be working for him.

For the second straight week, Tensai appeared in the main event segment of Raw, this time teaming up with Daniel Bryan to defeat CM Punk in a 2-on-1 handicap match.

A little reminder for everyone: In a five-week span, Tensai has defeated both Punk and John Cena.

Whether we like it or not, that's a pretty solid indication that Lord Tensai is going to stick around the main event scene for a while and get a sustained push as one of Raw's top heels, especially while Brock Lesnar is out.

1. Stock Down: Cody Rhodes

What the WWE is doing to Cody Rhodes absolutely infuriates me.

On last week's SmackDown, he once again lost after getting nailed with the WMD by The Big Show. Then, on this week's Raw, he cowardly walked away from his Intercontinental Championship match with Show.

Why? Why? Why?

Why must the WWE continue to book Show so strongly and make Rhodes look like a pansy?

For the life of me, I can't understand this booking philosophy, and it's absolutely maddening to see a guy like Rhodes get buried in favor of an aging veteran like Big Show.

Anybody got any explanations? Because unless creative has some master plan to immediately build Rhodes back up, this is just stupid.

1. Stock Up: Chris Jericho

This was probably the best week that Chris Jericho's had since his return.

For the most part, all he's done since coming back in January is lose (though he's brilliantly managed to remain over and relevant despite all the losing), but he picked up his first major victory this week after hitting Sheamus with the Codebreaker and pinning him in tag team action on Raw.

The victory itself was obviously huge for Jericho, but what resulted was even more important: Jericho now finds himself challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship at Over the Limit.

Jericho has had a hard time picking up wins so far in his latest WWE run, but that big victory will apparently catapult him into another big feud for another World title.

Not bad for someone who's spent his entire WWE return putting others over.

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.