Three Stars Of The Night: 205 Live (6/12) & NXT (6/13)

A look at the Three Stars of The Night for this week’s WWE Network programs: 205 Live and NXT!

The Third Star:
EC3

Kassius Ohno is a fantastic professional wrestler. But he’s no EC3. And that’s how good EC3 is.

The One Percent gimmick actually isn’t a gimmick at all. EC3 truly is that good, and he’s just waiting for the right program to elevate his game in NXT. In the meantime, matches with the likes of Ohno are great, but we need something meaty for EC3 to do.

The Second Star:
Mustafa Ali

They call Mustafa Ali the heart and soul of 205 Live, and he continues to prove why.

I personally wanted Ali to win the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania, leading to a heel turn for Cedric Alexander. Obviously I was wrong, and not just in my prediction. Ali and Alexander are now both mega faces, and their positioning allows guys like Buddy Murphy and Ali’s 205 Live opponent this week Tony Nese to excel on the heel side.

Others given consideration:
Aleister Black, Lars Sullivan, Lucha House Party, Drew Gulak, Jack Gallagher, Brian Kendrick, Bianca Bel Air

And now…a distinction usually reserved for the top performer of the night…the first star!

The First Star:
Pete Dunne

When Pete Dunne beat Tyler Bate for the WWE United Kingdom Championship at the 2017 edition of Takeover: Chicago, I…well, I wasn’t happy. I am a huge Tyler Bate fan.

But damn, this Pete Dunne thing has worked out, hasn’t???

All Pete Dunne does is deliver a great story in the ring each and every time out. Yes, he can work–he can work with the best of them. But the key word I said is story. Wrestling is storytelling, and Pete Dunne does his work within the structure of the story? He’s one of the best going today.

His match with Kyle O’Reilly was yet another great example of Dunne telling a story in the ring. The UK Championship isn’t the end for Dunne, it is merely the beginning.

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Who are your three stars of the Network? Comment on social media @ChairshotGreg, @theCHAIRSHOTcom, and use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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In hockey, a game’s “three stars” represent the top three performers of the night. For more clarification, I defer to this Pittsburgh Gazette explanation:

“The tradition dates to the 1936-37 season, when Imperial Oil became the principal sponsor of Hockey Night in Canada radio broadcasts and was seeking a way to promote one of its products, Three Star gasoline. The idea of doing so by selecting the top three performers in a particular game purportedly came from a Canadian advertising agency.

Many clubs do recognize the player with the most three-star selections with an award or trophy, usually in conjunction with a corporate sponsorship, at the end of the season (or sometimes, each month). All six Canadian franchises, for example, have an affiliation with a well-known brewery.

The NHL keeps track of its own three-stars-of-the-night selections, but that is done on a league-wide basis. The league employs a system that awards 30 points to a first star, 20 to a second star and 10 to a third – a running total can be found on the league’s website – but it does not present an award based on them.”

In hockey tradition, the first star represents the best of the three, but all three are considered to be receiving a high honor.