6 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's NXT (16 Sep)

1. Priest Blesses His Own Bread

NXT is a developmental brand. You forget that when you get drawn into discussions over ratings and Wednesday Night Wars but, at its heart, this is still the show that a billion-dollar corporation uses to develop talent for its flagship TV shows. It's why Bronson Reed scored a huge upset a few weeks ago, it's why Aliyah's had more TV time than Io Shirai in 2020, and it's why Damien Priest was handed a 20-minute main-event here.

As a vote of confidence in the guy, this was huge. Currently holding the North American Championship after a fairly middling 12 months on the brand, here he was being asked to fill the biggest shoes on the show, the very week NXT goes back head-to-head with AEW. As an opponent Thatcher is talented, but he's certainly not a draw, so this was all about Priest.

Questions over if he's delivered are for a wider-reaching article but, if nothing else, he proved that he's a worthy holder of the championship two years into his WWE career. He's not a star, and this definitely wasn't a star-making performance, but he's good enough to justify the faith being placed in him. In a ratings battle you don't ever want a 7/10 main-event but, in isolation this was a hard-hitting, engrossing contest that made it's mammoth run time fly by.