10 Wrestling Matches Booked Out Of Spite
6. Adam Cole Vs Matt Riddle (WWE NXT, October 2nd)
It was the black and gold brand's biggest match at the time (and it proved to be one of the show's best ever too), but Adam Cole Vs Matt Riddle on the October 2nd 2019 episode of NXT was representative of something much bigger than the NXT Championship.
A certified TakeOver headliner in the pre-AEW era, the match was built up for that specific time because WWE were keen to try and marginalise their new competition from the off.
This was Night One of a new wrestling and the mandate was clear - Dynamite was to be challenged not with a show that gradually built to the biggest matches, but with the biggest matches, and all the time.
Predictably, the show couldn't keep doling out these massive matches on a weekly basis, not least considering how it flew in the face of Triple H's rather measured approach to the show over its peak years. The increased desperation was clear within the first year of a supposed war that ended up being something of a massacre.