Ranking Tommaso Ciampa's 10 Greatest NXT Matches

One great thing about Ciampa is that he doesn’t really need to change that much up to play either babyface or heel. Either which way he’s still a grizzled, ferocious fighter willing to do anything for the win; he’ll just fit into the storyline accordingly.

Here, taking on long time NXT champion Adam Cole, he’s about as purely babyface as we’ve seen him. Cole and his Undisputed Era stable had rocked up to NXT and turned it on its head, and perhaps Ciampa was the guy who could end his reign.

Spoiler: he couldn’t, but he puts on an amazing fight to close this final TakeOver prior to the pandemic. It’s a sprawling epic with no dud spots that mostly steers clear of the latter day Black and Gold propensity for too many improbable kick outs (though there’s some of that).

To say Ciampa fights the odds is an understatement. Aside from withstanding a reverse slam onto the announce table (terrifyingly stiff even without his history of neck issues), he has to fight off the rest of Cole’s faction, and even scores a visual pinfall towards the end of the match. He’d have reunited with Goldie were it not for the poetic but sickening intervention of Johnny Gargano, who clocks Ciampa for the Cole win.