The final episode of NXT of 2019 opened with a huge match up seeing Finn Balor challenge Adam Cole for the NXT Championship. Balor had promised to make ‘his future his past’ and aimed to become the third two time NXT Champion. Whereas Adam Cole did not want to be the first member of Undisputed Era to no longer be draped in gold.

Finn Balor vs Adam Cole: The Match

The opening bout of NXT went just over 15 minutes, clocking in at 15:16. These 15+ minutes saw fast paced action amounting to 105 offensive manoeuvres being executed by the two competitors. This balances out at an average of 6.9 manoeuvres per minute.

- Advertisement -

The competitors often exchanged reversals or strikes jostling to get the better of each other. This meant that the match saw a total of 47 tide changes, a swift 3.1 per minute average.

Balor vs Cole: The Competitors

This was a highly contested match. The competitors were only separated by 6% in terms of total offence with Cole utilising more offence than Balor. This was mainly down to his submission time as Balor led in terms of strikes, grapples and dives.

Balor also has a superior strikedown rate emphasising the impact of his strikes and a better reversal rate proving he had done his homework.

Despite the stature of his opponent Cole still appeared the more confident of the two and showed a willingness to taunt his adversary. Additionally he wasn’t scared to bend the rules and this would prove decisive.

Interestingly, Balor was able to kick out of Cole’s Last Shot even as the match neared it’s end. Perhaps this is what prompted Balor to go for the 1916 after the Coupe De Grace. This may have been costly…

Balor vs Cole: The Margins of Victory

When we examine the flow of the offence that was dished out in this match we can see the extent to which Adam Cole’s grinding submission slowed down Finn Balor early on and gave Cole a way into the match.

We can also see how closely matched the two men were. If was rare that an offensive flurry from one man wasn’t immediately followed up by a matching offensive flurry from his opponent.

When we break the match into five minute chunks we see the full extent of the onslaught Adam Cole had to withstand to be in a position to hit that second Last Shot.

in the last third of the match Balor took control with his striking ability, achieving a series of Strikedowns and looked on course to pick up the with. However Adam Cole’s resilience kept him in the match long enough that he was able to pick up an under-handed victory when the opportunity arose.