Adam Cole's NXT Championship Defences Ranked From Worst To Best

7. Akira Tozawa (EVOLVE 131)

The first televised defence of Adam Cole's NXT Championship reign didn't even occur on the black-and-gold brand, foreshadowing how his tenure with the title would elevate the belt and the brand. Matches like this one went some way to ensuring that too.

Encapsulating everything good about his working heel act, Cole's inability to put an otherwise-exhausted Tozawa away during a knackering finishing stretch resorted in him trying to throw the match out entirely with a disqualification defeat. That was undone by the arrival of former NXT Champion and future TakeOver opponent Johnny Gargano, who took a weaponised title belt away and forced him to get the job done alone.

Cole managed it the same way he did 10 other times - by actually summoning his vicious smarts. Dodging a double stomp from the Challenger, he wrapped it up with his Last Shot as former and future victim of the move 'Johnny Wrestling' watched from the floor.