The S3: Vote for Best Performer of the Week Ending Feb. 10th and Last Week's Winner

Everybody who comes to Cageside Seats has an opinion about what's going on in pro wrestling - the Smark's Shoot Standings (S3) are where YOU let us know YOURS.

Cast a vote in the comments. Give us the three performers you think entertained or impressed the most in the last week, and feel free to talk about why. And/or vote for your top performer in our poll.

We also have the results of last week's voting, and how that effected our annual competition for Performer of the Year.

Remember, the Standings are for the previous week - the February 4th episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, Wednesday night's WWE Main Event, the Thursday February 7th broadcast of TNA Impact Wrestling, and the WWESmackDown that aired on Friday the 8th.

Make YOUR mark, smarks!

To paraphrase fellow New Yorker Alicia Keys, even on twitter, this man is on fire:

The NFL can't afford me! RT; @anthonymontalvo DidPaul Heyman book the Superbowl?

- Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) February 4, 2013

You'd be surprised how (Orton) hard it is to find PG tweets on @HeymanHustle...

• The man who is definitely not in that backstage Shield video of Vince's continues to be money whether working with CM Punk or Brock Lesnar. Two men who coincidentally(?) follow him in the number two and three slots of last week's results.
• Last week's voting was kind of insane, you guys. 21 performers received weekly standings points, and several more received support in the poll. Where folks fell and who made the cut came down to fractions of a point in a couple of cases.
• For instance, Randy Orton's victories over two titleholders landed him less than half a point behind Punk, and exactly half a point in front of Chris Jericho, who rode his returning goodwill and talent past our usual disdain for smarmy WWE babyface schtick.
• Braveheart facepaint to draw Scottish heel heat in the UK? It's your world, Mr. Daniels.
• Big Show, Dolph Ziggler and Ryback earned spots by doing what they've been doing for months, and doing it well.
• I think I'll have a longer post on the topic if the trend here and from weekend house shows continues, but it looks like WWE and Tensai have backed into something that crowds dig with a throwaway comedy segment from the Vegas Raw.

The S3 - Week Ending February 3

1. Paul Heyman
2. Brock Lesnar
3. CM Punk
4. Randy Orton
5. Chris Jericho
6. Christopher Daniels
7. Big Show
8. Tensai
9. (tie) Ryback
9. (tie) Dolph Ziggler

Show jumps back ahead of Antonio Cesaro in this week's "bottom half of the annual S3" musical chairs act. What's more amazing to me (and what you can't see here, but will be able to soon if I can get my act together and pull a full list in the next couple of weeks) is that Jericho and Lesnar are lurking right outside of the top ten. I'm not sure what it says that they can work four to six months out of the year and still earn more love than 90% of the roster. But it says something.

The S3 Performer of the Year - through the Week Ending January 3rd

1. CM Punk - 246 points
2. Daniel Bryan - 174
3. Dolph Ziggler - 149.5
4. Austin Aries - 134.5
5. AJ Lee - 133.5
6. Damien Sandow - 122.33
7. Alberto Del Rio - 92.25
8. Big Show - 86
9. Antonio Cesaro - 82.5
10. Bobby Roode - 79.5

So there you have it - another week in the books. If new readers would like a breakdown of voting and scoring, it's in last week's edition. Those looking for reminders of the week up for consideration in this week's S3 should head to the sections and hubs for things like playlists from WWE's Raw, Main Event, Smackdown and TNA's Impact.

Thanks as always for your support and involvement. See you next week!