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What It’s All About
We hear it all the time from the commentary desk: “Styles Make Fights.” But what does that mean in practice? Welcome to the 7th SMF, where we will be exploring that idea by using my SMF Interactive Dashboard to preview a fight scheduled for the following night's AEW show.
For more details on how this interactive tool works, please take a glance at the "Styles Make Fights" introductory post!
I want to emphasize: please feel free to play around with the interactive dashboard, it’s really neat!
Wednesday Night:
Round 2: Nyla Rose vs Dr. Britt Baker, DMD
Last time I said that when Nyla and Britt face a real challenge like they would against one another, they normally slow down and rely on dirty tactics. Let’s see what they in fact did:
As you can see, Britt went to that well of working slower and relied on cheating. Meanwhile, Nyla moved her emphasis away from fouls and even more to strikes and throws. I know she’s had her ups and downs, but Nyla Rose is looking pretty unstoppable right now,
Tomorrow Night:
Round 2: Riho vs Thunder Rosa
Riho versus Thunder Rosa is the flipside of what we got on Wednesday night: this time two beloved fan favorites face off-- the prototype of a wrestling classic. Both competitors fight to win fair and square, but they go about it in very different ways. Riho is the elusive flier, always fighting from underneath. While Rosa is the dominating badass who keeps control from bell to bell.
Although Riho is not accustomed to countering an opponent who plays fair, I believe that Riho’s slipperiness will be even more disconcerting for Rosa. Also, at first glance their win records look comparable, however: ALL of Riho’s matches have been against stiff competition, while none of Rosa’s wins have been.
I think that Rosa is much more the underdog of this match than the chatter seems to acknowledge. If she can overcome Riho, it will be an inflection point for her, demonstrating once and for all that her style is effective against top contenders.