Cageside Community Wrestler Rankings, Season 12: Week 1 results & Week 2 vote

Everybody who comes to Cageside Seats has an opinion about what's going on in pro wrestling - Wrestler Rankings 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 the Cageside Cup, given to our Performer of the Year.

This week, we’re voting on nationally televised and internet streaming pro wrestling shows that took place April 9-15 — Raw, Elevation, Dark, NXT, Underground, Dynamite, Powerrr, ROH TV, Impact, SmackDown, Rampage, Level Up, New Japan Capital Collision, and the various things I’m no doubt forgetting.

But first, here’s the outcome of last week’s voting, and how those results changed our annual competition for the Cageside Cup.

The champs are here.

• They’ve been in the news for all kinds of reasons lately. I’m pretty sure they’re atop your Rankings cause they’re real good pro wrestlers who just won a promotion/brand’s Tag belts for the 10th time in their careers.
• The new IWGP World Heavyweight champ doesn’t have quite that resume, but he did just use his New Japan Cup win to beat Okada to become the new IWGP World Heavyweight champ, and that’s worth a lot of votes.
• A successful title defense and the latest act of heinous villainy from a couple old favorites round out our first Top Ten of the new “season”.
• “The hottest free agent in professional wrestling” debuted in AEW and took sixth.
• Rhea’s kayfabe man’s continued terrorizing his old man in WWE, landing him two spots ahead of the AEW World champ Konnan says he might be a better heel than.
• The Tribal Chief may not hold him in high esteem right now, but we’ve always got time for Main Event Jey.
• Riho brought the fight, but as you may have heard, the AEW Women’s champ hit harder.

The CCWR: 2023-24, Week 1

1. (tie) Cash Wheeler
1. (tie) Dax Harwood
3. SANADA
4. Mercedes Moné
5. Bryan Danielson
6. Jay White
7. Dominik Mysterio
8. Jey Uso
9. MJF
10. Jamie Hayter

Points in our weekly Rankings determine the ongoing annual one — which will determine who wins the Cageside Cup next April.

Being week one, the year-to-date Rankings are identical to what you see above. But as we get farther away from WrestleMania 39 and closer to 40, the Year Ten Top Ten will be posted in this space every Sunday (and I am to generate a complete version featuring everyone who’s earned annual points every few months... didn’t happen often last year, so let’s see if I do better this year).

Ready to do it again? Since we changed things up a bit for the new “season”, here’s the full primer again...

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Cageside Community Wrestler Rankings & The Cageside Cup:

Anyone who wrestled or appeared on a televised or streamed show during the preceding seven days is eligible for a spot on your ballot. Beyond that, the criteria for voting is entirely up to you. It can be because someone impressed you, or because you believe something happened that changes their standing in their promotion or the business. Maybe they entertained that week, or maybe they’re your favorite every week. We invite you to explain your selections, but that’s not mandatory.

We’re a fan blog. You’re fans. There are all kinds of fans with all kinds of tastes and preferences. We don’t judge.

This year, the only way to vote is via the comments.

On a comment “ballot”, you now have five slots. If you place one performer in each, first place is assigned 5 points for the week, second 4, third 3, second 2, and fifth 1.

You can list more than one wrestler per slot, either as a tag team or a tie between unrelated performers. If you have people tied in any one slot, those performers will split the points assigned to that slot. For instance:

1. Liv Morgan
2. The Acclaimed
3. KUSHIDA
4. Grayson Waller
5. Deonna Purrazzo

Gives Liv 5 points in the tallying of that week’s Rankings. Anthony Bowens & Max Caster get 2 each (splitting the 4 points assigned to a second place vote), while KUSHIDA gets the 3 points for third, NXT’s audacious Aussie champ receives 2 for fourth, and the Virtuosa picks up 1.

On the other hand, you can assign more points for a tie by having the tie replace one of your other slots, like so:

1. Liv Morgan
2. The Acclaimed
4. KUSHIDA
5. Grayson Waller

In this instance, the scissoring duo each receive 3.5 points for the week, as they will split the 4 points for second and the 3 points for third. The legendary Junior Heavyweight then gets 2 for fourth, and the fifth place Waller scores 1.

You can not put the same wrestler in multiple slots. Even if your ballot looks like this:

1 - 5 Liv Morgan

You’ll still only WATCH HER receive the 5 points for first place. The remaining points for that ballot are forfeit.

The annual Rankings are calculated in a similar fashion. Finishing first in the weekly Rankings is worth 10 points in the Cageside Cup Standings... down through tenth being worth 1 point. Ties split the points assigned to the rankings between the number of people tied. So if one week, Hikaru Shida, Trick Williams, and Komander tie for seventh, they each get 3 points — splitting the 4 for seventh, 3 for eighth and 2 for ninth three ways.

Clear as mud? Remember, feel free to ask questions below. Now..

Let’s have those ballots! We’ll take it from there, and see you back here in a week for the results and another vote!