Too Soon For Ricochet To Take The Title

Up until the go home episode of NXT Adam Cole vs Ricochet had the least build of all the matches on the Takeover Brooklyn 4 card.

However, on NXT this week there was a very well-produced video package that has increased my excitement for the match. One thing that stood out is they mentioned this is the first time Cole is defending the North American Championship on a Takeover. Before this I could have seen Ricochet walking away with the title but the more I think about it Cole needs to retain.

Despite consistently defending the title on the live events and even defending at the UK Championship Tournament and in Evolve, Cole has had very few defences on NXT TV. The only one I can think of is his defence against Oney Lorcan. If Cole just walks into Takeover and loses the title after barely defending it, just proves that he’s everything Ricochet says he is. Which in my opinion, would make him look pretty weak and seem like an undeserving champion.

If Cole does retain I don’t think it will be clean. I can see Cole having the feet on the ropes or grabbing the tights to get the win. This gives Ricochet a legitimate claim to a rematch where he will finally take the title. I think Undisputed Era need something coming out of this show, since I don’t see Strong and O’Reilly walking out with the tag titles.

This also allows NXT to avoid a troop that they have been guilty of in the past which is the Indy star who comes in and just takes a championship way to early. This nothing against the wrestlers themselves but they come in and have some good matches they get very little in the way of storylines. It happened with Drew McIntyre, Shinsuke Nakamura and I don’t want it to happen to Ricochet.

The heelish nature of how Cole would win wouldn’t hurt Ricochet and would give him a story for the fans to invest in. He mentioned in the video package how close he came to winning the title in New Orleans before Cole pushed him off the ladder. This would be another part of that and make Ricochet the underdog.

Ricochet has already lost on NXT, being pinned before Chicago by Lars Sullivan. That loss didn’t hurt him because it was part of the story they were telling. Ricochet only lost because Dream turned on him setting up their match and it gave Sullivan a big win to justify challenging Black for the NXT Title. This is similar to what I think should happen because the loss would just be on chapter of an ongoing story.

Ricochet said himself in a recent interview that one of the things he wants to do in NXT is to be part of a story rather than just being put in dream matches like he was when he was on the indies. So if they went the way I think they should I think Ricochet would be up for that.