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Here we are at the nine month mark for AEW Dark: Elevation! Leading into Full Gear I wanted to focus on AEW's YouTube series and see if we can get some insight into what is sure to be a monumental PPV. The data below covers matches from AEW Dark: Elevation from September 6th through November 8th. I've also included data from four episodes of Dark Classic as there were several weeks where Elevation simply didn't have enough matches to produce useable data. I am featuring performers who appeared at minimum of three times across the shows I watched. Below is the master data for this period.
Strikes
Tay Conti faces off with Britt Baker for the AEW Women's title at Full Gear, and for the past three months Conti has been using the talent of Dark as her training bag. Her per/minute rate of 5.17 is a sizeable lead ahead of 2nd place Thunder Rosa (3.40).
Strike-downs
It's no surprise that power wrestlers like Lance Archer and Nyla Rose have the highest per minute average, but when you look at average strike-down rate (% of strikes that result in a strike-down) and it paints a different picture. Kazarian and QT Marshall average over 30% of their strikes knocking down their opponents.
Of note: Tay Conti had zero strike-downs in her matches. None. I expect to see this number increase in her title shot against Baker.
Grapples
Here we go, Conti's back in the #1 spot. Like with strikes she has a commanding lead in the per minute numbers with 3.34, over second place Lance Archer (1.49). Archer's number would be higher if only he waited until the opening bell to start throwing his opponents around.
Reversals
I like that QT Marshall is the leader for average reversal rate. Being a slippery heel, it makes sense that he's good a reversals. As for the per minute rankings, Thunder Rosa (1.03) just barely edges out Kazarian (1.01). I hope that the younger talent of AEW are watching every Kazarian match as the "Elite Hunter" is a tremendous worker and very inventive.
Total Offense
If it isn't clear yet, Tay Conti has been the MVP of the past three months of Dark. Total offense per minute is hers to claim as well, as she scored 8.81 points per minute. It should be noted that Conti's average match time was 1min5seconds, but this just meant that she delivered a lot of offense in a short period of time. Second place goes to Thunder Rosa (5.77) while Lance Archer (4.84) rounds out the top three.
Tag Teams
As I've said before, the tag team division on Dark is mostly thrown together teams. That said, two teams were featured several times and made enough of a showing that it should be noted. FTR (4-0) and Proud and Powerful (5-0) both had strong showings. Between the two I can say that Proud and Powerful are the top team as they led in every category if we are looking at a per minute bases. This included the double team rate/minute where Proud and Power measured 1.18 moves/minute to FTR's .54. I was hoping this would be the category that Chaos Project would win but they weren't even featured on any of the episodes I recorded.