Original Airdate: Wednesday, December 25th, 2013
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Renee Young is here in an empty Full Sail University for the NXT Rewind. She first introduces the opening of the WWE Performance Center. We then get a recap of all of the stars that appeared on the main roster. Big E cuts a promo holding his Intercontinental Championship and thanks the NXT fans.
Cesaro talks about William Regal being an influence and now he is the better man, so it's time for Regal to go.
We now get highlights from the finals of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament. Remember Oliver Grey?
Now it's time for highlights of Emma vs. Paige in the finals of the NXT Women's Championship tournament. These are all very brief recaps. Paige then joins us for a backstage interview. She says that Emma has her respect now. As soon as she is done, Bo Dallas scoots in and says Bo-lieve a bunch of times. He then rolls the footage of him beating Big E Langston for the NXT Championship.
We get a Wyatt Family studio interview. As usual, he says nothing.
Now it's time for future stars. First up, it's Aiden English, who has really been a bright spot at the end of 2013. Mojo Rawley, not so much. Bayley is finding her groove and Tyler Breeze has become a fan favorite despite being a heel. Rusev is more than ready for the main roster at this point and Sasha has been developing the Boss gimmick that would end up getting her over. Corey Graves doesn't have much time left on the active roster and Sami Zayn is the easy MVP of 2013 for the yellow brand.
They then highlight the main roster stars that have made appearances on NXT throughout the year.
William Regal reminds us that he's a vicious and sadistic wrestler and a unique performer. He never achieved his goal of becoming World Heavyweight Champion and he blames himself. He says it will take a miracle for him to win tonight, but if he does he knows he will have beaten one of the best competitors there is.
Renee Young is about to announce the best match of the year, but it's interrupted by a Shield promo. The match of the year is announced as Sami Zayn vs. Antonio Cesaro. I know I am very much in the minority, but I had Sami Zayn vs. Jack Swagger narrowly beating this one for my favorite NXT match of 2013. For what it's worth, I had them both at ***3/4. We then get a backstage interview with Zayn and he says that Cesaro is a beast. He wants Leo Kruger in a 2 out of 3 falls match next week.
Antonio Cesaro vs. William Regal
As you would expect, they start off with mat wrestling because they are two of the very best at it. Regal is 45 years old here. I'm not smart enough to know the names of all of the moves here, but Cesaro basically suplexed Regal from his knees and that was awesome. Regal gets in a few cheap shots while distracting the ref, but it backfires as Cesaro takes out his knee as he walks out of the corner. We get a second commercial break as Cesaro continues to work on the knee. Regal tries to fight back with some European uppercuts, but Cesaro delivers one that knocks him right back down. He hits the Cesaro Swing and he goes for the Neutralizer. Regal counters out and goes to work on the arms. Cesaro hits a double stomp to the head of Regal in a vicious looking move. Regal is limp as Cesaro tries to to give him the Neutralizer. Cesaro shows some compassion for a minute, but thinks the better of it and hits the Neutralizer for the victory. This was unlike any other match in NXT all year. It wasn't the classic I was hoping for, but it was definitely good. Regal made Cesaro look like a million bucks and it's too bad he wasn't being given that chance over on the main shows. After the match, Cesaro shakes Regals hand as he is being helped to the back.
Match Rating: ***1/4
This was mostly a lot of clips, but we did get one long wrestling match and it was a memorable one. It was nice to see Cesaro get a strong victory, as he has been one of the bright spots of NXT when he has been on the show. This was a good recap of a much improved 2013 NXT.
Overall Rating: 60%
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