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At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV, Ricochet defeated Adam Cole to capture the NXT North American Championship. Although their feud appears to be coming to a conclusion, their TakeOver battle was only a sign of things to come for WWE.
Adam Cole and Ricochet are unquestionably among the brightest names in professional wrestling currently. Despite both only having made their
debuts in 2017 and 2018 respectively, they are well accomplished performers with years of experience.
pretty early as they were both involved in the acclaimed six-man ladder match at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans — which was also Ricochet’s debut — to determine the first NXT North American Champion. Four months later,
to become the second. With both men around, not only is NXT in safe hands, but so is WWE’s future.
Adam Cole’s cocky playboy persona has drawn comparisons to former multi-time World Champion and WWE Hall of Famer, Shawn Michaels. Anyone who remembers his Nxt New Orleans
days as Kyle O’Reilly’s tag team partner in Future Shock also recalls that Kyle O’Reilly was the team’s original standout.
Despite being the babyface of Future Shock’s arguably premature split, Adam Cole’s transition into a villain after winning the ROH World Championship is where he truly started to shine. On the back of his entertainingly scathing promos and his top-notch in-ring ability, he finished his independent career as the only three-time ROH World Champion in history and the longest reigning Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion in history.
Ricochet has long been a standout on the independent scene. His quickness is almost unmatched and his “One and Only” nicknamed is well-earned. Ricochet — as Prince Puma — became the first Lucha Underground Champion and was the “hometown” heart and soul of the show. He also had success internationally in New Japan Pro Wrestling as a former Best of the Super Juniors winner Nxt New Orleans , NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion and Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.
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The impact that both men have made in NXT is a testament to their talent. Cole made his NXT debut at last year’s TakeOver: Brooklyn attacking then-NXT Champion Drew McIntyre and forming The Undisputed Era with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly.
Cole went on to lead The Undisputed Era to victory in the first WarGames match in WWE history and was debatably on his way to a future TakeOver match with McIntyre before the latter was forced out of action with an injury. Cole instead won the aforementioned six-man ladder match to become the inaugural North American Championship and cemented his position as WWE’s next big thing.
Nxt New Orleans , of course captured the North American Championship from Cole and is not far removed from his enthralling feud with the Velveteen Dream. His tension with Cole was centered around the idea that Ricochet isn’t special. Although Ricochet has only been in NXT for four months, he has more than proven to be a standout on a tremendously talented roster.
Ricochet’s size comes with a risk of being typecast as someone destined for 205 Live. While he would no doubt be a solid addition to the most underrated product in wrestling, it places a ceiling on what Ricochet can accomplish in WWE. Given his in-ring prowess, there’s no reason why Ricochet can’t be a main event-level performer on the main roster.
The same can be said for Adam Cole whose unparalleled charisma almost guarantees him to be a breakout star on the main roster. Whether he makes his main roster debut with or without The Undisputed Era is still in the air.
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WWE has Adam Cole and Ricochet — two once-in-a-lifetime talents — in the same company. With the right utilization, they can easily exist as top names on a WWE roster that is more talented now than it has ever been.
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