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Nearly three months of Elevation episodes are behind us and some interesting trends have developed. How this may affect potential outcomes at Double or Nothing remains to be seen but certain talent have strong momentum on their side. Not everyone who wrestled on Elevation will be featured on the charts below, as talent had to have had at least three 1v1 matches to be considered.
Just like when we checked in after six episodes, Orange Cassidy got the most damage done with the least amount of effort. Every third strike of his resulted in his opponent falling to the mat. On the opposite end is Ryo Mizunami who relentlessly pummeled her opposition with very few power strikes in the mix. Cassidy will have to hope that his strategy of doing little and it all working out for him is affective against two world class athletes like PAC and Omega.
I did something a little different with regards to submissions. Instead of looking at the submission/minute rate, I took the total time of applied submissions and divided it by total ring time to get a percentage. This results in the percentage of a wrestler's ring time that they have a submissions locked onto an opponent. Jon Moxley has a commanding lead in this category as he spent over 6% of his ring time attempting to get the tap out. How this style ends up working against a high flying team like the Young Bucks should be an interesting contrast. It should also be noted that 2nd place in submissions is Dr. Britt Baker. I thought that Leyla Hirsch would be higher but she tends to get a quick submission when she locks in her arm bar.
Britt Baker is top when it comes to reversals. She very nearly has a reversal for every minute of action. When it comes to a championship opportunity like the one she has against Shida, a good reversal rate is going to serve Baker well. The stat that I was most pleased to discover was that the top three grapplers on Elevation all come from the Women's division. I don't see any reason to separate the genders when it comes to stat collection and it ss reveals like this that make it worth it. To be fair it's actually the top four spots at Leyla Hirsch was just outside the top three. Hirsch has been one of the standout performers on Elevation and it's going to be something to watch her improve and get more experience.
Another thing I noticed was that some performers are more likely to pull off a reversal than successfully execute a grapple. Danny Limelight and "5" have similar offensive styles and rely on strikes more than grapples. Mike Sydal was almost there as both categories tied at .33. I found it interesting that all three guys are quick, agile, flyers and it looks like this is a trend among that fighting style.
Taunts and fouls may not result in wins or losses in AEW, but I find it entertaining so I like to include both. Look who's leading in fouls! It's Britt Baker again! If her submission skills don't work, if she can't reverse her way out of trouble, she will cheat to gain an advantage. The taunts category looked like it was Orange Cassidy's all season, until episode 11 where Penta el Zero M had a match with 12 taunts. That skyrocketed him to the top of the leaderboard.
The tag team action on Elevation while not perfunctory, never felt like a major component of the show. Most rookie teams were just thrown together to work with the more established stars. The top two teams were both unbeaten during the last three months. Private Party (4-0) and Scorpio Sky/Ethan Page (5-0) were in my opinion the top teams, but the stronger competition was to be found over on Dynamite.
I'm looking forward to see where Elevation goes from here. With the return to live touring, and the addition of AEW Rampage this August, I doubt that I'll have over 2 hours of exhibition matches every Monday to look forward to much longer. After Double or Nothing I'm going to reset the stats and it will be interesting to see what stars stand out over the summer months.