Adam Cole's NXT Championship Defences Ranked From Worst To Best
9. Johnny Gargano (TakeOver: Toronto)
It seems a bit unfair to be so critical of this specific match in this specific list, but it's the only one of the otherwise-awesome Adam Cole/Johnny Gargano trilogy to actually qualify as Cole title defence.
Getting far too wrapped up in its own bullsh*t, the two-out-of-three falls did more to arm those taking aim at this precise match formula than fans that just wanted a strong and sensible payoff to an epic feud. Instead, the not-that-creative creative team forced the epic and the expense of the sense.
Cole and Gargano worked hard over the first two falls, but two absorbing matches at the prior two TakeOver's had just about fulfilled everything the wrestlers themselves realistically could in normal circumstances. Perhaps Triple H and Shawn Michaels believed they were giving them a way out by locking them in that Ambrose Asylum-adjacent weapons cage match for the final fall, but - as was the case in their drab 2004 feud - the opposite occured.
A worthy (if a little repetitive) finale was reduced to artless weapons work and empty danger, undermining a legendary series and the middling TakeOver: Toronto show as a whole.