Mcleod: The Simple Storytelling Of Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole

Adam Cole has embraced being an old school heel champion, and it’s opened up a world of possibilities for his feud with Johnny Gargano, according to Scott Mcleod.

One of the great things about NXT is the ability to properly showcase the majority of it’s stars despite only being an hour a week. Even only getting a brief glimpse of someone gives all you really need. Two examples of this on NXT this week with a Matt Riddle training montage and the latest installment of Adam Cole’s BAY BAY Championship Celebration Tour.

Last weeks we saw Cole getting on a private jet to defend the title at download but this week was even better. We had Cole going to Gargano’s fathers pizza place where he hangs a picture of himself on the wall before telling the same trainees Gargano tried to inspire in the lead up to Takeover they should give up.

Considering that Gargano and Cole’s first match in New York was very much a last minute thing they’ve turned this it a good story. They did everything they could in the last couple weeks before to make this seem like a main event with men talking about why they deserve to be NXT champion.

Their 2 out of 3 falls match was of course amazing with them building until their third fall with kick outs galore. Cole had a legit claim to a rematch having pinned Gargano clean in the first fall and wanted the him to prove he could beat him in a straight one on one match.

I didn’t think the Takeover 25 match was as good but still a strong match. Given the talent of both men it would be difficult for them to have a bad match. The latter half was especially great with Cole teasing using the Undisputed Era only to take advantage of the leg giving out to pick up the title.

I love the difference in the way both men carry the title with Gargano being a man of the people going back home to try and inspire up incoming wrestlers. Whereas Cole is surrounded by a group and takes a private jet to his title defences. Very similar to when Ric Flair would take on the likes of Dusty Rhodes or Ricky Steamboat.

This something NXT  does really well which is building great stories out of simple ideas. A problem I have with most main roster stories is that they go to over the top to find a reason for people to feud rather than two people just don’t like each other.

The main theme of Gargano and Cole’s feud is two men who want to be at the top of NXT and to do so they need to be NXT Champion. However they go about in completely opposite ways which is what puts them at odds and sets them apart from each other. While they both came up through the indies Gargano is proud to work for the title while Cole just expects to be champion.

I’ve gone from not being sure if they should have second match to now I need to see the rubber match after seeing what Cole did this week. Gargano losing the title so soon actually lends to the story as his character is strongest when he’s chasing a title.

What will happen next? Spoilers be damned, we’ll have to stay tuned to see!