WWE: Road Dogg basically admits Adam Cole should be Universal Champion

Adam Cole is WWE’s NXT champion, but he should really be the Universal Champion.

On Sunday at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, The Velveteen Dream has a chance to finally defeat Adam Cole and end the man’s legendary reign as WWE NXT Champion. Dream has already come close before, and this could be his last chance to knock the Undisputed Era’s leader off the throne.

Cole has been as good as advertised since joining WWE in 2017 when he attacked then-NXT Champion (and now-WWE Champion!) Drew McIntyre at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III. A new era began for the Black and Gold brand, and Cole’s faction would later fulfill the prophecy. And they still hold the tag titles and NXT Title, even if Keith Lee won the gold from Roderick Strong.

There’s no doubt that Cole has been exemplary as the Wednesday night show’s champion, and he’s the only wrestler in history to have held the title for more than a year. He’s almost 100 days above Finn Balor’s legendary 2015-2016 reign.

Former WWE superstar and current creative team member Road Dogg heaped lavish praise onto Cole, all of which was more than deserved. Road Dogg spoke highly of Cole’s professionalism in backstage promos and his in-ring psychology, and the latter can be seen throughout his time in NXT, especially his acclaimed matches with Johnny Gargano.

But he also made an interesting remark about what’s the only thing holding Cole back from being, say, Universal Champion.

Here’s exactly what he told Corey Graves on the entertaining After The Bell podcast, via Cageside Seats’ Cain A. Knight:

"“Adam Cole is the most professional, most talented, he just gets every aspect of it. He can cut a promo. He’s one of the guys where you go, ‘I need you to do a minute,’ and that’s all you say to him. And he gives you a minute of hiccupless verbiage that just makes you go, ‘Okay, that was perfect. Thank you.’ Every single time. That’s Adam Cole in a nutshell. He’s also a great worker, he has a great psychology. Man, if he was Karrion Kross’ size, he would be the Universal champion right now. And if he wasn’t, I’d be wondering why…he’s a dream superstar.”"

Again, the praise is high and well-said from Road Dogg, but it strikes me that he admits Cole would be Universal Champion right now if he were as big as Karrion Kross – NXT’s latest impressive signing and (most likely) future champion.

Cole has all the tools, as the former DX member says. He’s charismatic, he knows the business well, he doesn’t make many mistakes, he’s well-liked, he’s a great talker, he’s a solid athlete, and his matches are highly effective.

So what’s missing? Size. It’s ridiculous that his size should be a factor in professional wrestling if he meets everything else.

And yes, the Universal Title is more prestigious than the NXT Title. Wrestlers on SmackDown get paid more than wrestlers in NXT, and they don’t put guys like John Cena and Brock Lesnar on the show with fewer ratings on Wednesday night. NXT is awesome, but, look, if Cole has the tools to be Universal Champion, let’s make it happen. I thought we moved past size.