Smarks bow down to the King

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 four 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 outcome of last week's voting, the results of which make up our annual competition for Performer of the Year.

Remember, the Standings are for the previous week's nationally televised and internet streaming pro wrestling shows -  the Feb. 29 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, Tuesday's TNA Impact, Wednesday's Lucha Underground, WWE NXT and ROH TV,  Thursday's SmackDown, and any other internet streaming wrestling that aired from Feb. 28 - Mar. 5, 2016.

Make YOUR mark, smarks!

We'll forego the usual "what they did to get into the top ten" because, well, you voted for 'em... so you pretty much know, right?

As someone who's fascinated by wrestling as a weird exercise in marketing and consumer behavior - almost more than any other facet of the business or art form, the re-packaging of NXT as the cool company and "your" promotion (that just so happens to be owned and operated by that other company you complain about all the time) has amazed me for a while. And I knew that some of that was rubbing off on Triple H.

But as a long-time fan who endured Raw through the mid-Aughts, remembers how the Summer of Punk turned into a feud between he & Kevin Nash, watched in disbelief as won two-out-of-three against Brock Lesnar (correction - Brock won the series, with Haitch's win coming on the biggest stage, WrestleMania... the point still stands), then, just last Spring, pinned Sting... I never thought I'd see the day that the Game would be unironically embraced wholeheartedly by most internet fans.

We've been running the S3 here at cSs for almost four whole years now. I've gotten pretty good at guessing how they voting will go, at least for #1. I thought for sure the post-Fastlane week would belong to Shane O'Mac, with the resurgent Lunatic Fringe having an outside shot due to his being the chosen one of the 'smart' set this Mania season.

And because of one man, it wasn't even close.

As my colleague Keith Harris pointed out, we live in a world where a major internet "dirt sheet" ran an expose declaring it be a "golden age of independent wrestling" mentioned WWE 22 times without bringing up New Japan.

What a time to be alive.

The S3: 2015-16, Week 48

1. Triple H
2. Shane McMahon
3. Dean Ambrose
4. Brock Lesnar
5. AJ Styles
6. Kenny Omega
7. Kevin Owens
8. Becky Lynch
9. Jack Evans
10. Sasha Banks

Points in our weekly Standings determine our annual list - full details on rules and scoring HERE.

Paul Heyman's guy muscles in front of your favorite YouTube gaming channel host, but otherwise, we're watching the Prizefighter cruise to the finish line.

The S3 Performer of the Year - through the Week Ending Feb. 27

1. Kevin Owens - 255 points
2. Seth Rollins - 177.5
3. Dean Ambrose - 140.5
4. Roman Reigns - 126
5. John Cena - 117
6. Cesaro  - 116.5
7. Becky Lynch - 104
8. Sasha Banks - 90
9. Brock Lesnar - 74
10. Xavier Woods - 69.5

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Remind yourself what did it for you last week with Cageside's sections for Raw, Impact, NXT,Smackdown, Lucha Underground, New Japan and ROH (or your own notes from other stuff you watched), then let us know what moved you.

And whoever it was that impressed and entertained you, remember to thank Hunter for it, because I'm sure he was somehow responsible.