3 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT

1. Scrappy Anniversary

NXT has not built any stars.

That was the stark reality coming out of this match and facing yet another marquee main-event. Balor vs Cole for the NXT Championship could have happened the first week the show arrived on the USA Network and, if anything, both men are less relevant to the brand than they were then. Not more.

Don't get me wrong, Keith Lee was a star here and one who emerged majestically over the winter of 2019, survived the chaos of 2020, and felt like one of the reasons to tune into this show every single week. But all of that, apparently, was to sacrifice at the feet of Karrion Kross so he could be moved into a tank top on Raw. As is stands, right now, NXT has not built any stars. Or at least, none it can use.

Cameron Grimes, Rhea Ripley, Damien Priest, Bronson Reed, Tegan Nox, Dexter Lumis, Candice LeRae, Dominik Dijakovic, Shotzi Blackheart, Timothy Thatcher, all wrestlers who have either emerged or debuted on the USA Network, and none of them a genuine main-event prospect in September 2020. Instead, you've got Balor, Cole, Ciampa, and Gargano, the four men who closed out week 1, and none of which are a bigger deal now than they were then.

Even Io Shirai, who's probably having the best year of anyone in NXT, has been in the women's title picture since late 2018.

As ever, (and as you'll read later) NXT gets away with this purely via the quality of the matches they're able to put on, but the one year USA Network Anniversary only a fortnight away, its inability to create new stars is a big, big worry.