Greg DeMarco’s Three Stars Of The Night: WWE NXT (6/16/2026)

WWE NXT is firmly en route to the Great American Bash, and a loaded broadcast on the CW took us several big steps closer. But who stood out?

WWE NST came to us from the Performance Center in Orlando on June 16th, another packed episode featuring a loaded women’s tag team main event, main roster legend Nattie in action, and a Takeover-worthy #1 contender match.

All that…and who stood out?

The Third Star: Kendal Grey

Look, I might be biased. I get it. But if Kendal Grey is on an episode of WWE NXT, wrestling, she’s got a very very very good chance of making this list. The fact that she’s #3 says a whole lot about the other two who made it above her this week.

But when Kendal was in the ring, she crushed it. She’s believable, she’s over, and she can straight up work. Those comments are going to become a broken record. Remember, 6 months ago she was making her NXT statement in the Iron Survivor Match, nearly coming out of nowhere.

Now she’s battling one of the biggest stars in all of NXT, and you can make a strong argument that she should win.

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The Second Star: Kelani Jordan

Same match, different talent. The three names on this week’s list weren’t ones I needed to labor over, but the order was. Especially the top two.

Kelani Jordan is literally Miss Consistent…until she becomes Mrs. Hayes, anyway. She has every single tool to be a big star, and might actually be the Becky Lynch of this crop of women (the same Becky Lynch who never won the NXT Women’s Championship while actually on the NXT roster).

The main event match on this how (Lola Vice & Kendal Grey vs. Zaria & Kelani Jordan) didn’t need to be carried, and yet it still feels like she did just that. Even after the match, she was standing out. Not because she was standing tall, either. She truly stood out.

Must Read:
Mitchell’s WWE Evolve Results, Review, & Reaction!

The First Star for WWE NXT: Tavion Heights

Several months ago I watched WWE NXT, and Tavion Heights was being interviewed in the crowd, delivering a promo for a reason I don’t even remember.

What do I remember? A promo that WAS NOT GOOD.

Fast forward to June 16th. Tavion Heights is a good talker–a believable character–and he’s one of the two best in-ring performers in NXT (the other being Tony D’Angelo). He and Jackson Drake put on a match that will never fully be appreciated. And as much as Jackson played his role, Tavion was the star.

There are precisely zero good reasons why this man won’t be a star.

Zero.

Who are your Three Stars of WWE Evolve?
Comment on social media @ChairshotGreg, @ChairshotMedia,
and use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

In hockey, a game’s “Three Stars Of The Night” 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.