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With Full Gear in the rear-view and Revolution not until March, it's time to check-in on Dark: Elevation and Dark and see who has been standing out on AEW's YouTube shows. I tracked 69 singles matches over the last eight weeks and then focused on the stats of workers who were featured at least twice. Below is the raw data.
Strikes
I wasn't surprised to see Ryo Mizunami with the most total strikes per minute as her corner flurry of chops is one of my favorite spots in wrestling. John Silver landed the most strikes overall which is helped by having the most Dark ring time (20min21sec). Average Strikedown rate (the percentage of strikes that result in an opponent falling to their knees or off their feet) was the most interesting to me as Anthony Ogogo chalked up an impressive nearly 70% rate. Second place went to Brandi Rhodes which I'm sure the Internet Wrestling Community would have terrible takes on. It's fine, she's not challenging for the belts so let her do her thing I say. ThunderRosa is always in the top of the rankings somewhere on these lists and she comes in third for this mid-season.
Grapples
John Silver again dominates in the total column, this time for grapples. Ruby Soho took the lead for grapples per minute which is interesting as she looks strong heading into her TBS title shot on the Dynamite TBS debut. Average Offense (1 point per all offensive maneuvers) went to Ryo Mizunami, no doubt helped by the aforementioned corner chops. John Silver and Emi Sakura round out the top three on average offense.
Reversals
Aw yeah, Fuego del Sol is #1 in our hearts, and he's #1 in average reversal rate and total number of reversals. On a per minute rate Ruby Soho took the lead and I'm looking forward to see if and how reversals come into play against Jade Cargill.
Tag Teams
I've been watching Dark and collecting stats for over 10 months now and I've come to the conclusion that tracking tag team action on Dark hasn't produced any interesting trends or information. Teams come and go and there hasn't been any huge break-out performances that warrant a long-term observation. I've also run into weeks where I don't have the time to watch every match between Elevation and Dark so something has to go and unfortunately that's the tag-team matches. Moving forward these recaps will focus on 1-1 singles matches only. My hope is that I will be able to track every remaining singles match this season.
That said, Proud & Powerful were the clear top tag-team in the past eight weeks. They average almost a double team maneuver per minute of in-ring action and they were 3-0 in their matches. One of my hopes for 2022 is that Santana and Ortiz get a run with the Tag Team Championship Belts as they are dynamic talents.