WWE NXT TakeOver: Portland results - Johnny Gargano ensures Adam Cole beats Tommaso Ciampa

As he entered Moda Center for the main event of TakeOver: Portland on Feb. 16, Adam Cole was the last member of Undisputed ERA holding gold. To keep, he’d have to beat a man who never lost the NXT title, Tommaso Ciampa.

The brand’s 2018 was known for epic matches between Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. 2019 featured a trilogy of epic matches between Gargano and Cole. They looked to start 2020 with an epic match between Ciampa and Cole.

To achieve that goal, they went with spots like this...

And others which weren’t quite as scary to watch a man with a fused neck take, but still pretty scary.

Ciampa fired back with an Air Raid Crash from the top turnbuckle (not quite as big a drop as the one he hit Cole with at WarGames), multiple powerbombs onto the Spanish announce deak, and Project Ciampa. But it wasn’t enough to put the champ away.

And that was only about half of the way through the match.

Ciampa would survive a Panama Sunrise on the floor to hit Willow’s Bell AND Fairy Tale Ending, but Cole kicked out! They traded crossfaces. Roderick Strong ran in to distract the referee, and allow Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly to hit Chasing The Dragon on the floor, but Ciampa kicked out.

That lead to a melee that took out the ref. A Fairy Tale Ending put the champ down for at least ten, but without an official there was no one to count. Despite that setback, things looked to be going Ciampa’s way when his #DIY partner showed up. Unfortunately, that was bad news, as the man who came up short against Finn Balor earlier in the night clocked his frenemy with the title, allowing Cole to get the pin and keep some gold with TUE.

Epic? You tell us. And while you’re at it, tell us if you’re on board with more Ciampa/Gargano epics in 2020.

For a complete rundown of everything that happened in Portland tonight, head to our live blog here.