WWE NXT Madness: Semifinal Results, Finalists Announced

We have now come to the end of voting in the semifinals of the NXT Madness tournament. Before we release the results, I want to thank all of you for voting once again.

This is your tournament, and only you decide the results. We are guaranteed to have a double-digit seed in the final, as well as one of the top four seeds.

Believe me when I tell you that the Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett was close until the very end.

Here are the results:

Wade Barrett Defeats Daniel Bryan

(1) Wade Barrett: 54.54 percent

(4) Daniel Bryan: 45.46 percent

The top-seeded Wade Barrett has his toughest test yet by far, narrowly getting past Daniel Bryan. These two literally exchanged the lead back and forth for most of the voting. Barrett then held a comfortable lead before Daniel Bryan received most of the remaining votes. In the end, Bryan ends up just a few votes short of the finals.

Skip Sheffield Defeats Byron Saxton

(15) Skip Sheffield: 72.72 percent

(19) Byron Saxton: 27.28 percent

Skip Sheffield muscles into the clash with Barrett over Cinderella story Byron Saxton. The glass slipper finally came off of the Redemption rookie, but not before one of the more remarkable runs that we could have ever imagined.

The simple appearance this far was enough to put many around Bleacher Report on notice of the Byron Saxton following. Meanwhile, Sheffield becomes the only man in the bracket to this point to win four rounds in a row. With a fifth win, Sheffield would win the entire bracket.

Now that those results have been given, it is time to preview the championship bout between the Cornfed Meathead and the Bare-Knuckled Fighter to determine the greatest NXT rookie in the present day. Here are the roads to this point for both men.

Wade Barrett's Road to Finals

Defeated (17) Darren Young in Second Round (96.07 percent of vote)

Defeated (8) Alex Riley Quarterfinals (86.54 percent of vote)

Defeated (4) Daniel Bryan Semifinals (54.54 percent of vote)

Skip Sheffield's Road to Finals

Defeated (18) Conor O'Brian in Redemption Round (97.05 percent of vote)

Defeated (2) Kaval in Second Round (61.54 percent of vote)

Defeated (7) Brodus Clay in Quarterfinals (57.69 percent of vote)

Defeated (19) Byron Saxton in Semifinals (72.72 percent of vote)

Sheffield has had the tougher journey here by far, having to defeat Season 2 winner Kaval, a man impressing on the main roster right now in Brodus Clay, and a man in Byron Saxton who seemed to have enough support to beat anyone in this tournament.

As for Barrett, he drew the top seed, so his road was expected to be easier. However, Barrett did not coast through to the finals on inferior talent. Darren Young is favored to win NXT Redemption and has had many matches on Superstars since leaving Nexus.

Barrett also faced Alex Riley, who was considered by many to have made the greatest impact of the season two rookies. Barrett also had what would likely be considered the match of the tournament with Daniel Bryan to reach this finale.

This is an interesting bout due to Barrett's hovering over the main event and the lack of seeing Skip Sheffield due to injury. Many believe that Sheffield would have been given a push, similar to the position that Ezekiel Jackson is in with The Corre.

It will be interesting to see where Sheffield is when he returns from injury. Some believe that Sheffield would get his own slice of redemption on NXT Season 6, but with rumors of a father-son season, I'm not sure which rumor will be spoiled in favor of the other.

Voting will last from now until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The voting for this will be a little different than previous rounds. Previously, comments on the article would count as a vote.

Also, I accepted Twitter votes as well, but not this round. This round will circulate squarely on the poll on this article. You check one of the men and hit accept. Once the deadline hits, the one with the most votes will be the NXT Madness winner.

The next article in this series will be the final one. On that one, we will announce the winner, as well as give out awards for the best that the tournament has offered us.

In the end, I will make the final call on these, but feel free to give suggestions on winners, as well as possible additional categories, in the comments below or tweet me @ShakesWithAitks on Twitter.

Here are the categories so far:

Biggest Upset

Match of the Tournament

Worst Match of the Tournament

Most Overrated (Based on Seed)

Most Underrated (Based on Seed)