WWE NXT Madness: And Your Winner Is...

So here we are, folks. I began this tournament for fun to choose the best NXT rookie in the show's history. I wasn't sure how popular this tournament was going to be, but I was very happy to see the great response by the Bleacher Report community.

There were over 1,000 votes cast all in all for this tournament and I would like to thank each and every one of you who voted.

This was your tournament to decide and without your votes, none of this would have been possible.

Without further ado, it is time to announce the winner of the NXT Madness tournament, as well as awards that I have decided, the only thing decided by me besides the initial seeding of the rookies.

Final Round: Wade Barrett Defeats Skip Sheffield

(1) Wade Barrett: 67.8%

(15) Skip Sheffield: 32.2%

Wade Barrett, the top overall seed and the original NXT winner, is the winner of the NXT Madness tournament.

It was Barrett's tournament to lose to be perfectly honest, and he did not disappoint. A valiant effort was put forth by Skip Sheffield, who was not even close to being predicted in this final.

Complete Bracket

Here is a look at the entire bracket for those who were interested. Of the 21 matchups in the tournament, the lower seed won just seven times, but it led to two double-digit seeds in the semifinals of the tournament.

NXT Madness Awards: Biggest Upset

Now it is time for the awards portion of this slideshow, where I name the winners of the most memorable moments of the tournament.

The biggest upset of the tournament occurred in the second round, when Byron Saxton took down the third-overall seed in Johnny Curtis.

The reason that I selected this upset was due to the fact that Saxton was a NXT Redemption rookie.

Saxton was paired with Eli Cottonwood in the Redemption Round. While he was expected to be the winner, he received the lowest percentage of all winners in that round with the exception of Darren Young.

Saxton's victory over Curtis was one of the two upsets over a top-four seed, but Saxton's stuck out more in my mind because he defeated Johnny Curtis, the winner of his original season.

It was every indication of redemption for Saxton and cemented his place in this tournament.

NXT Madness Awards: Match of the Tournament

Even though Saxton's victory over Curtis was the closest match of the entire tournament (Saxton won with 53.85% of the vote), Daniel Bryan vs Wade Barrett was the match that everyone, including myself, was waiting for.

While it was in the semifinals, many believed that it would be the true championship match. Bryan barely lost the match to Barrett.

In fact, Bryan had just four votes fewer than Wade Barrett did in the matchup, which all but cemented Barrett as winning the tournament.

NXT Madness Awards: Worst Match of the Tournament

This is nothing against Husky Harris, but his opening match against Jacob Novak, the lowest ranked rookie in the tournament, was just awful.

It was an absolute rout at Harris rolled over Novak to move onto round two.

Literally speaking, only two people voted for Jacob Novak. I would love to know who they are and why they decided to do that.

NXT Madness Awards: Most Overrated Rookie

David Otunga was the runner-up in season one of NXT. He is also a former tag team champion. His seeding of 10 was more than fair for him to make a run and shock some people in the tournament.

It even gave him a bye to round two. What it also gave him for round two, however, was a match against Brodus Clay.

David could not overcome Goliath this time around and it wasn't even close. Clay defeated Otunga with over 94% of the vote.

It wasn't close for even a minute, as Otunga fell out of the tournament very quickly.

NXT Madness Awards: Most Underrated Rookie

We have already been over this with Byron Saxton. I don't think anyone foresaw him being this popular with fans, but it is things like this that WWE should take notice of.

Saxton isn't anything special right this moment, but we can all see something special in him and there is a good potential for a solid superstar in the future.