10 Greatest Title Changes In NXT History
7. Adam Cole Becomes Inaugural North American Champion – TakeOver: New Orleans
For all of you pedants out there, this was a title change. The title changed from being held by nobody to being held by Adam Cole. Case closed.
At arguably one of the best TakeOver events ever, Adam Cole (Bay-Bay) outperformed five other men in a ladder match to capture NXT’s brand new title in a match that earned 5 stars from our lord and saviour, Dave Meltzer.
The match was more than deserving of this accolade, with more memorable spots than I have time to recount now. Some choice highlights included Ricochet doing a Shooting Star Press off of a falling ladder, The Velveteen Dream dropping an elbow from the tallest ladder in the world and Killian Dain and Lars Sullivan running roughshod over everybody. It was brutal brilliance.
In what was a pretty surprising victory, Cole climbed the ladder and retried the gold, crowning himself the first ever North American Champion. Later that night, with a little help from a newly-heel Roderick Strong, The Undisputed Era retained their tag team titles, meaning that The Era now held 2 of the 3 men’s championships in NXT. Now that is Undisputed.
This title win cemented Cole as a major player in NXT, as well as cementing the title as something worth winning, as Cole’s star power brought so much prestige to the belt.
The fact that it was won in one of the best matches in NXT history also happens to help.