For 51 Sundays (plus one Saturday before and one Monday after WrestleMania), Cageside Seats has asked you to tell us about your favorite performances in pro wrestling. In record numbers, you Cagesiders answered the call.
Ladies and germs, smarks and casuals, here's the full, final, official S3 for 2019 - 2020:
Wish I had time to do some fancy graphs like I used to back in the early days of this thing - if anyone wants to take a stab at analysis, let me know and I can email you the full spreadsheet I use to keep track of it week-to-week.
And here are some quick thoughts as we close the book on our eighth year...
11 on down
- The “main roster”-to-NXT mix was pretty similar to past years, but five of the top twenty were non-WWE performers. I know that’s a lot more than last year, and it’s probably a record. And that’s with AEW only having weekly television for about a third of the voting period. This next year should be very interesting.
- While Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho kind of count, it takes a long time for a full-time member of New Japan’s roster to make the cut. They missed the end of the year due to the pandemic, but I doubt it would have changed much. They still fared much better than Impact and ROH.
- Every year, there's someone who has an early run which keeps them in the top ten most of the year, but whose push fades and they end up not getting a lot of votes later. Call it the Damien Sandow Award. But for the first time, that didn’t really seem to happen in 2019 - 2020. Some folks stalled - Bayley and R-Truth come to mind - but they hung around the same position because no one really passed them. The top 15 or so was remarkably stable.
- Personally, one of my favorite things about this is the weird, coincidental (?) ties which either make perfect or no sense. This year, I’m smitten with the pair tied for 48th.
10 - Keith Lee
NXT’s Moment Maker started making moments in the fall, and stepped up big-time on big stages to claim a top ten spot. Most of his points came from several big weeks: WarGames, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and his North American title win. If he gets booked that way more consistently? You might say the heights he could reach in the Standings are Limitless (except he can’t really get any higher than first place).
9 - Sasha Banks
Nearly all of The Boss’ points came from her return and Clash of Champions/Hell in a Cell program, when WWE fooled us into thinking she might become a main event fixture again on Raw. If she does get that spot back this year? A girl might push ‘em all out the way.
8 - Kevin Owens
Most of the love for KO came in the first part of the year when he turning face/heel/face like Big Show because Kofi Kingston needed a challenger. His Stone Cold run, and especially the Seth Rollins program on Raw, never really caught on with our voters in a major way.
7 - Bayley
6 - Daniel Bryan
Similar story here for both. They consistently showed up on ballots, but only on enough of them to earn points during title wins (for the former Hugster), marquee programs (DB’s with Roman Reigns & Bray Wyatt), and turns (for both).
5 - Seth Rollins
The Architect-turned-Messiah is a weird one. He was doing okay to start the year as the babyface Universal champ, but his feud with Baron Corbin (which coincided with lots of poorly received interviews) looked like it had tanked his hopes of becoming a two-time S3 winner... and maybe his career. But his late 2019 character reboot re-energized him, and caught on with our voters.
4 - Finn Bálor
Second fourth place finish in a row for the Irishman. There was buzz for his NXT relaunch, but especially given how much time he spent not appearing on television, I doubt he’s here with reliable support from his biggest fans.
3 - Jon Moxley
There were a few points this year where it looked like Mox might catch fire and make a run for the top. But his most popular stuff was happening intermittently in Japan. And partly due to the “prevailing circumstances” and partly due to the chase being more fan than the aftermath, he hasn’t placed much since winning the AEW World title.
2 - Bray Wyatt
My man proved me wrong and came back with a gimmick that was so smart, WWE still isn’t quite sure what to do with it. That led to some baffling decisions, like making him Universal champ, then having his lose the belt to a Hall of Famer who can only work five minute matches. Booking more than anything else cost him votes, which cost him the title of Performer of the Year. Which once again went to...
1 - Becky Lynch
Just gonna repeat what I wrote a few weeks back before segueing into our procedural question:
“WWE clearly values her as one of their top stars, and they’re still clearly the biggest game in town, so that makes her one of the biggest stars in the business. She’s held the top title in her division on their flagship show for the entire voting period. That’s a feat.”
I think our weird little system has picked a worthy, logical choice for eight years in a row. And contrary to what some people thought when I brought this up before, I personally remain a huge Bex fan. But I do think we have to ask...
Should we continue to allow assigning all of a comment ballots points to one performer?
For those unfamiliar, our Standings feature a poll you do not have to log in to participate in, but the scoring is weighted toward comment votes, which you obviously do have to log in to submit.
On a comment vote, you vote can vote for your four favorite performers of the week. The person in first gets four points, the person in second gets three, and so on. We have always allowed voters to assign all four ballot positions, and the ten points which come with them, to one performer.
Many wrestlers have benefitted from this. Becky Lynch - who again is a totally deserving S3 winner this year, and who very well might have won without ballots awarding her all ten points - received quite a few this last year. So did Bray Wyatt, and Seth Rollins, and when he was eligible, Finn Bálor. In previous years, we had plenty of comments that read “1 - 4 Sasha Banks”.
The question to you, dear Cagesiders, is should this continue. I believe there are arguments both ways, which I brought up when first raising this issue here. So I’m asking for your help. This poll has the most feasible options offered by regular voters, as well as the option to just keep the current rule in place.
Poll
In 2020 - 2021, The S3 should...
This poll is closed
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29%
Continue to allow voters to assign all ten comment ballot points to a single performer
-
46%
Only award four points (for first place) to a performer when they’re the only name on a ballot
-
10%
Award five points (for first and fourth place) to a performer when they’re the only name on a ballot
-
6%
Award seven points (for first and second place) to a performer when they’re the only name on a ballot
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8%
Assign ten points to a performer not listed on the poll who’s the only name on a ballot, but five or seven when a performer who is on the poll is the only name on a ballot
For fun, use the poll below to make a prediction as to the 2018-19 winner (I’ll also score comment votes as usual if folks want to submit those). Last year, you correctly predicted a two year reign for The Man!
Can she three-peat? Could an AEW performer become our first non-WWE winner? Let us know what you think!
Any other questions, concerns, screams or cries? Use the comments for those, too!
See you on Sunday for Season Nine of The S3!
Poll
Who will have the best year’s worth of performances between WrestleMania 36 and WrestleMania 37?
This poll is closed
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10%
Jon Moxley
-
19%
Bray Wyatt
-
15%
Becky Lynch
-
1%
Braun Strowman
-
2%
Chris Jericho
-
14%
Drew McIntyre
-
5%
Velveteen Dream
-
0%
Cody
-
2%
Seth Rollins
-
1%
Bayley
-
3%
Charlotte Flair
-
3%
Kevin Owens
-
2%
Kenny Omega
-
0%
Finn Bálor
-
5%
Keith Lee
-
3%
Darby Allin
-
2%
Adam Cole
-
4%
Other (specify in the comments)