I’m not sure anyone can beat s/h right now, but I surely enjoy seeing baby russian pairs really making a move this season. Quite a confident move from juniors to seniors, and B/K are really establishing themselves as one of the leading pairs. A lot of them are still VERY young, with time and improvements bigger marks will come.
And that's why all this talk about dumping T/M is frankly pure delusion. The baby teams are doing fantastic but they still got A LOT of learning and growing to experience. Remember they are still in their teens and the majority of pairs don't start hitting their stride (and become top contenders) until their mid-20s.
Right now the only team Russia has that can realistically (on paper and on ice) compete head to head with S/H is T/M. PERIOD! The future for Russia is set (baring any terrible happenings, knock on wood) but if they want world titles now (and they do!) they have to keep backing T/M. The other teams like it or not still have to pay their dues nationally and internationally.
T/M is a curious thing ... they were very consistent .. there body didn't change that much and they didn't really have competition in russia .. and them they begin to fail
Remember S/K were suppose to be the #1 for the last quad and in Korea but injury and troubles forced them out quickly. T/M were forced to handle the burden as Russia #1 far sooner then expected. They never got to experience much time as the supporting act. So they just weren't mentally ready to handle the pressure and still haven't learned how to. It's kind of like all those Russian men of the past ten years who have the talent but got crushed by the expectations put onto them too soon. Things possibly might have been different if S/K had been around till 2018 and T/M start as the #1 in this quad, or S/K still around and T/M fighting to overtake them.