10 NXT TakeOver: Portland Impulse Reactions
2. Adam Cole (c) Vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Overbooking done to perfection, Adam Cole's main event against Tommaso Ciampa was the last chance for the rabid TakeOver: Portland crowd to sit on their hands. Instead they could only cover their faces in horror as a parade of sickening neck spots but Ciampa's life and career back on the line as he desperately sought to reclaim what he'd never lost.
Cole's heel hold work here was top drawer - knowing just when to deploy his boy-popping spots without ever giving the crowd time to properly fall in love with him, the Undisputed Era was expert in a position of control and a total piece of garbage the second things went south for him.
A parade of run-ins was a case of WWE main event overbooking done very very well - Ciampa was suddenly a believable winner thanks to all the various obstacles he seemed destined to overcome. This was a match informed by the past as well as the present, including the fractured dominance of Cole's quartet. He'd cling on to his title in the most shocking of circumstances after an electric closing stretch.