Adam Cole's NXT Championship Defences Ranked From Worst To Best
10. Seth Rollins (Monday Night Raw, 4th November 2019)
Inferior to the SmackDown equivalent it had to follow, a Monday Night Raw clash with dead-in-the-water babyface Seth Rollins was partial evidence against Adam Cole ever being called “up” to the main roster.
The match was so aggressively just fine that it actually suffered for it. There’s a point where Raw Rolls On(TM) in the middle because this is what happens on the red brand, with Cole so suddenly reduced to just another a warm body to break up the Monday monotony.
It didn't have a finish, which too felt fitting. Adam Cole matches almost always have them, even if they're loaded with Undisputed Era run-ins. Here, they rushed the ring when Rollins looked like he might have had a shot at winning. This didn't feel right at all - the NXT Champion stewards a brand that has tried to rebuild a that lost. Watching a title defence getting temporarily sucked into that vortex didn't make for a happy ending.