6 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dark (Nov 17)
3. The Little Things
Wrestlers who impose their individual styles and personalities on their squashes are those who come off the strongest on AEW Dark, with Ricky Starks, Leyla Hirsch, and Thunder Rosa falling into this category this week.
Starks is always impeccable, and once again stood out as a wrestling nerd's wrestler in his win over Travis Titan. Hirsch, meanwhile, was bullish and controlling against Tesha Price, who couldn't handle the grappler's strength and fell to an armbar after an impeccable springboard Moonsault press. Against the debuting Lindsay Snow, Thunder Rosa was giving, allowing her tattooed opponent plenty of openings without sacrificing her own rub, coming off the decisively stronger fighter after the match-winning Fire Thunder Driver.
Dark's squashes are never going to be as routinely one-sided as some would like, so the wrestlers need to find different ways of standing out. Hirsch, Starks, and Rosa crushed it in this department.