by Daniel Johnson
Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Tommaso Ciampa is accompanied by The Embassy for this match from ROH Defy or Deny. The Embassy at the time consisted of Ciampa, Prince Nana (of course), Mia Yim, Ernesto Osiris and R.D. Evans. Nana and Evans take turns belittling the crowd before Adam Cole comes out. This was a little before the hot streak Cole went on and is still riding today, but the commentators play up the fact that he just returned from a trip to Europe where he got the chance to hone his skills. As a white meat babyface Cole is helpless against the attacks of The Embassy. Yim even assaults him with a spin kick at one point. However, Cole manages a little offense against this heel stable when he hits a plancha on Osiris.
The match only really lights up at the end after Ciampa gets Cole up for a Lex Luger inspired torture rack. Rather than just shaking the crap out of him like Lex would, Ciampa instead turns the rack into a piledriver variation. Ciampa and Cole exchange a series of two counts and then start slugging it out. Ciampa then hits a release German suplex, but Cole fights back with two super kicks and a German suplex with a bridge. After a wheelbarrow suplex into a backbreaker Cole should have gotten the win, but Nana distracts the referee. This leads to Ciampa nailing a low blow and hitting Cole with a powebomb across Ciampa’s knees.
This was a nice and tight little bout that foreshadowed great things to come from Cole.
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