Antonio Cesaro vs. William Regal - NXT, 12/25/2013

(Hey gang. Back in 2020, in the months before COVID, I started a site similar to this and reviewed some stuff. I recently remembered it and decided to move those reviews over here. Hopefully you'll enjoy and they can reach a larger audience. Or not. Whatever. But this was my brain before the pandemic broke it. Or fixed it? I dunno.) 

This is the Year in Review episode NXT has pretty much always done but it has a featured match along with it. 

Let’s start earlier in the episode. This has been a long brewing feud apparently with Cesaro attacking Regal a few times.

Early on in this year end episode, Cesaro cuts a fantastic pretape about loving Regal and his style, and Regal helping him get into WWE. Cesaro said because of all Regal knows about him, all he’s taught him, he had to of known this day would come...where there’s only room for one of them.

Later in the show, Regal gets his time for a pretape. I gotta transcribe this:

“I’m in the late Autumn of my 30 year career. And recently I’ve been pondering over the legacy of William Regal. What’s it all been about? I’m a vicious and sadistic and spiteful fighter. I’ve been a unique entertainer! (Long pause)...I never achieved the one thing that I coveted the most. And that was to become the World Heavyweight Champion. But that’s...my fault, because I have a wonderful knack of getting myself into a lot of trouble. But to the people who really know...I’ve always been a second-to-none, world class technical wrestler. That...was until Antonio Cesaro came along. Because I know, even on my BEST DAY, he’s ten times the man and ten times the wrestler that I’ve ever been. And he knows that, and that’s what this is really all about. He has an intense desire to prove it. And I truly commend him for it. I’m going into this match knowing that the only chance I’ve got of surviving let alone winning is a miracle. And that’s not coming to a faithless old villain like myself. I’m not worried, or scared, of my plight. In fact, I’m relishing the thought that I am going to compete with every drop of violent venom I’ve got left. And if this is the end? Well I honestly can’t think of a more noble way to go than being being beaten by the ultimate competitor.”

William Regal is top ten, all around, in every category and I won’t hear any different. Before I was “smart” to anything, I still loved Regal dating back to his WCW days. More than any of the Radicalz/ECW cast off bunch, Regal opened up my mind to real technical wrestling. Not five moves of doom, not charisma with a few flips and a super kick. But actual fucking storytelling with the use of every body part imaginable. And to cap all of that off with a top tier promo ability, it’s a travesty this man never won the Big Gold Belt or the WWE Title. 

And I get it. He says it best himself, he fucked up a lot. He got in his own way all the time. And yeah because of where he fit on the card (not a slight to him or booking, really) it wouldn’t have made sense to randomly make him World Champ in 1998 WCW or 2001 WWF. BUT, that never will make me rest easy on 2008. I get that ended in a wellness violation, but William Regal from night after Mania 24 thru Summer of 2008 was incredible. I had friends who were lapsed fans that wanted to just catch up on it and watch it with me, and they were CAPTIVATED by Regal. It’s a travesty and a damn shame. There’s no one to blame, but that doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. 

On to the match...

Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and Tensai are on the call. (Oh my god they were still calling him Tensai when he was just announcer/not head trainer?! Incredible!!!)

Man they even got Fink doing the intros!

Crazy that this was all going on during the criminally underrated Real Americans run. 

Heat for Cesaro other than the WE THE PEOPLE chant. HUGE pop for Regal. I guess this all started with Cesaro attacking Saxton because he’s got a clear bias, which is fine. 

They’re working back and fourth between a wrist lock and chin lock, Cesaro has majority advantage, but we are 45 seconds in and Regals done at least two kip ups and looks nimble as fuck. They continue to work this as we go to break. 

Back from break, they’re STILL working it and Cesaro leaps on to Regal’s shoulders seemingly like it’s a head scissors attempt but he uses his agility and leverage on Regal to just choke him with his fucking legs at an elevated stance. 

Incredible. 

They continue to work around essentially the same spot. It morphs into a pseudo test of strength where Regal gets Cesaro’s back to the mat and you can see him struggling to keep trying to force Cesaro’s arms down so he can sneak in pin attempts. Cesaro just uses raw fucking strength to force his way to his feet, reverse the pressure onto Regal, but Regal won’t let his back go to the mat, AND 2013 WILLIAM REGAL IS OUT HERE WITH A FUCKING BRIDGE BETTER THAN ANY AMERICAN WRESTLER IN 2020. 

Cesaro literally is able to force Regal to the mat, bending his body in a way it shouldn’t, and he gets a pin attempt out of it. But Regal does the great SHAKING STRENGTH~ spot and overpowers Cesaro, reversing positions in the process with a go behind after a kip up, and falls back to the mat with this modified double chicken wing surf board that sounds more realistic in a god damn e-fed than it does in a WWE ring ever, and here we fucking are. 

Cesaro uses his strength to get Regal to his feet with the hood and then FORWARD FLIP HIM out of it. AND AFTER LIKE SIX TELEVISED MINUTES THEYVE BROKEN THE INITIAL HOLD. 

They just went into a test of strength again and Full Sail started a “this is wrestling” chant. Which...fine. Whatever. But when that died down, and Regal and Cesaro connected their second hands, some random douche yelled out “FRIENDSHIP!”  

Fucking Orlando, man. 

They’re again working around a hold but you can tell Cesaro is trying to find ways out of it early. Regal tries trapping him in a dragon sleeper, AND WHILE ON HIS FUCKING KNEES CESARO LIFTS REGAL UP INTO A REVERSE SUPLEX. GOD DAMN THIS FUCKING MATCH. 

Fucking favorite spot of the match so far. They get back to their feet, Regal attacks quick and gets Cesaro in the corner. An array of forearms sends Cesaro to the seated position. Regal turns to the ref yelling at him to play innocent, all the while ramming Cesaro in the chest with horse kicks. Regal comes out and almost cockily doesn’t have a look out, AND CESARO TARGETS THE LEG REGAL USED TO KICK HIM WITH AN OLD SCHOOL KNEE CLIP. 

Cesaro starts the knee work, keeps it up through a break. Regal gets some kicks in but Cesaro weathers them. Cesaro starts trying to undo Regals knee brace so Regal starts pulling at Cesaro’s face. He wards Cesaro off long enough from the brace but Cesaro slams him down and as I paused it to get more booze, Cesaro mightily stood over Regal. 

Cesaro goes right back at the knee, and Regal swats repeatedly to get him away but it’s no use. Cesaro drops an elbow to the knee and then wraps Regals knee around the back of his head, AND RAISES HIS BODY ALL THE WAY UP AND REGAL IS JUST DANGLING. I AUDIBLY SAID “OHHH” TO A WWE MATCH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AT LEAST 5 YEARS. 

Regal works his way back up and fends Cesaro off. Sends him to the ropes and Cesaro comes back with a European uppercut that has Regal fold up like an accordion to the ground. 

Byrons bias in this, by the way, is legitimately adding to the match. Byron Saxton is the second best color commentator on the WWE payroll. And third place is extremely distant. 

Cesaro lifts Regal up and hits NINE hybrid forearms/uppercuts to a bent over Regal before flooring him with a delayed tenth shot. 

Cesaro goes after the knee again, literally just lifting him up by his brace strap. Regal tries to kick him off and Cesaro uses that as a chance to do the Big Swing for 8 revolutions. 

Cesaro cockily sets up for the Neutralizer, but Regal back drops him, immediately turns, and viciously knee drops Cesaro’s dominant arm. 

Regal gets up to rest in the corner and Cesaro desperately goes for his running corner uppercut BUT REGAL KNEES THE OTHER ARM. CESARO SELLS BOTH ARMS AS DEAD, WOBBLES AROUND AND REGAL HITS A RUNNING KNEE LIFT TO FLOOR HIM. WHAT A HOPE SPOT. KEEP IT GOING. 

Regal does step over scissor stomps to both arms, but keeps hurting his bad knee in the process. Cesaro starts a comeback, BUT WE GET A T-BONE SUPLEX. BUT ENERGY FROM THE CROWD. LETS GO. LETS FUCKING GO. 

KNEE TREMBLER—NO. HIS LEG CRAMPS. CESARO WITH A HEADBUTT SO REGAL KICKS HIM SQUARE IN THE DICK. Which...okay. 

REGALPLEX COMING ANNNND—NO! CESARO BACK DROPS OUT OF IT...AND REGAL KEEPS THE ARMS BUTTERFLIED. HE STANDS BACK UP AND TRIES IT AGAIN, BUT THEY COLLAPSE. 

But it’s GREAT position for Regal, and he starts working on getting in the REGAL STRETCH! GET HIM DAMNIT. 

BUT DAMNIT CESAROS ABLE TO USE WHATEVER STRENGTH HE HAS LEFT IN HIS ARMS TO JUST BARELY LIFT UP AND GRAB THE ROPES!

Both back to their feet, Regal tries to charge Cesaro, BUT CESARO WITH A DESPERATION DROPKICK AND REGAL IS WIPED. Cesaro gets to his feet and snaps his fingers in one arm to get some feeling back, and then Mel Gibson’s his shoulder in the arm to get more feeling back, and he gives Regal that “it’s over” look. Regal is laid out. SO REGAL DOES A RUNNING DOUBLE STOMP TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD. 

REGAL IS OUT. BYRON IS SCREAMING TO MOVE SOMETHING, MOVE ANYTHING. AND WE GET THIS GREAT SHOT:

Cesaro suddenly has this face like he’s realized all that he’s done. He tries to fight through the emotion and Byron keeps encouraging Regal to “come to” and take advantage of the time Cesaro is wasting. Cesaro seems to regretfully set Regal up for the Neutralizer. But he continues to hesitate before...just letting Regal crumble to the mat. And Cesaro is beside himself!

Regal SLOOOOWLY starts to get to his knees, pulling himself up by Cesaro’s thigh straps and tights. Cesaro grows that resentful anger as Regal gets fully up to his knees and almost looks like he’s daring Cesaro to finish him. No other choice. Cesaro lets out a primal yell, lifts him, Neutralizer, 1-2-3.

Post match, it’s like Cesaro is immediately regretful. Saxton is in disbelief and still tries armchair QBing this. Such a great aspect to this incredible match. 

Regal has to get helped out of the ring by 2 officials and Cesaro is close behind. Cesaro turns him around for the dramatic effect...and a hand shake ends it. 

This was so great. I think the only thing that took me out of it was the fake production commercials (nothing remotely changed, you can tell it was just tape off then tape on) and the random low blow in front of the ref. 

MATCH RATING: ****