But if you see how much he improved once he hit college it is easy to see he truly hit a new level. I'm not saying he dominated Red in college but the matches they had at that level you could clearly see he had leap froged Red. That's no small feat considering Red's obvious success on the highschool level.
If not for covid we may have seen Lee vs Pletcher 3 in the NCAA finals and seen Lee pick up his first title there instead of the following year against Eierman. Last point to make on this, although I believe 141 was too big for Stevan Micic to wrestle Lee also avenged his loss to Micic. If these wins aren't showing "unlocked potential" I don't know what does, Nick went from "almost there" to "not goona catch him" against these opponents.