100 Greatest WWE Matches Of All Time (Ranked)
96. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro (NXT, 21 August 2013)
There was a magic to these old TakeOver events that made them unique. That was true of the wider NXT brand as a whole, but it's easy to forget just how special the show's formative years were after breaking free from the original faux reality show vision Vince McMahon had. By 2013, NXT had snagged a spot as WWE's very own ROH-meets-New Japan playground.
Great matches were commonplace.
Come August that year, Triple H put main roster star Antonio Cesaro in the ring with ex-El Generico hopeful Sami Zayn. Sparks started flying straight away during the pair's '2 Out Of 3 Falls' wonder. A quick fall gave Sami the surprise initiative, and that only made it sweeter when Cesaro began showcasing why he was someone so many fans felt he was dreadfully overlooked on WWE's main roster.
Technically, few could come close to touching what Antonio (today's Claudio Castagnoli over in AEW) could do bell to bell. He must've been a dream for someone like Zayn to work with back then, especially when Sami was doing everything in his power to impress upper management and find his way to Raw or SmackDown full-time.
One can glean a lot of happiness from watching the earliest knockings of Zayn in WWE's system. He was arguably never supposed to become the big success he did a decade or so later. Matches like this epic vs. Cesaro show that he had the tools all along though. Go watch this one again if you haven't since it happened.
You're in for a treat.