This match was such a letdown. You got the longest reigning NXT Champ vs a force of nature in Keith Lee, who's also a champion, in a "winner takes all" deal. Should've been something special, but alas.

Adam Cole, when he appeared in the 2018 Royal Rumble, looked just slightly bigger than Rey Mysterio. He's facing up against a dude who's almost as large as Lesnar. One of the first moments of the match sees Cole control Lee with a terrible headlock for quite a while.

NXT is dead set on having their main events follow EPIC STRUCTURES AND DRAMATIC MOMENTS, but it fails to see the most glaringly obvious of stories. Dickhead smaller heel vs huge face isn't a hard story to tell. They have done that before. Lesnar was out there selling to Daniel Bryan and it didn't look like shit because DB kicked him in the balls. Balor used the edge of a table to target Lesnar's weak point.

Size difference matters. When Cole dodged a charging Lee, making him clash against the plexiglass, I thought the match was going that direction, but instead they just opted for having a straight wrestling match where the smaller opponent kicks out of a flurry of offense.

At least the right man won. Happy for Lee!

Interestingly enough, I thought that Adam Cole was easily the more compelling performer of the two here. He didn't overdo his cute indy shit, and his work actually seemed pretty focused through the entire match + he had some real good facial expressions & he also sure bumped his ass off for Keith's big moves. It still wasn't a good match though. I thought that Keith Lee's whole jokey nature didn't fit into the atmosphere of the match at all, and it especially stood out with Cole being way less goofy & annoying than usual. I largely didn't care for any of his comeback runs or work on offense in general after Cole's periods on control, and it's what certainly hurt the match the most for me. **1/2