Adam Cole's NXT Championship Defences Ranked From Worst To Best
11. Velveteen Dream (NXT TV, 29th April 2020)
This wasn't good 2.0.
The generous term was "rusty" when Velveteen Dream looked more than a little off in his comeback clash with Roderick Strong just weeks removed from slapping The Undisputed Era man's wife and child on his trunks in an act of ambiguity that moved some to suggest he'd lost his cool.
That take was undone by Dream playing the long game with Adam Cole surrogate Strong to try and get what he came really for in the form of the NXT Championship, but a hugely disappointing television version of what could well have been the TakeOver: Tampa main event served as evidence that Dream wasn't (for now? for never?) it.
A lack of genuine atmosphere could be attributed to the empty venue per the early days of the global b*stard, but a total lack of drama at the finish could not. Dream was no more the guy here than he was at In Your House: TakeOver. This only marginally improved on that by not falling into another cinematic hole.