GRAVITY REMEMBERED: A Tribute To PAC

When I heard the news about PAC, I honestly just sat there for a minute.

It’s one of those wrestling deaths that doesn’t feel real.

When I was getting back into wrestling in 2014, Adrian Neville was one of the guys who really grabbed my attention. I had been away from wrestling for a while, and I was trying to catch up on everything I had missed. There were all these new wrestlers I didn’t know, new characters, new promotions, and a whole new generation coming up.

And then there was this guy from Newcastle, England who seemed to defy gravity every time he stepped into the ring.

I knew him as Adrian Neville.

Before that, he had already spent years wrestling around the world as PAC, including in Japan with Dragon Gate. But I didn’t discover him that way. I discovered him during that NXT era, when he was becoming one of the most exciting wrestlers in WWE.

And I remember thinking, this guy is different.

He wasn’t the biggest guy. He wasn’t built like the stereotypical WWE superstar. But none of that mattered once the bell rang.

He was ridiculously athletic, but it wasn’t just the athleticism. It was the way he wrestled. The way he sold things. The way he could make a match feel like a struggle. The way he could go from being this incredibly smooth high-flyer to looking like an absolute monster when he needed to.

I watched him become NXT Champion, and I watched him have some of those matches that made me fall in love with wrestling all over again.

Then came the end of his WWE run.

And when Adrian Neville disappeared and PAC eventually emerged in AEW, it felt like we were getting a completely different version of the same wrestler.

The goofy superhero image was gone.

PAC was angry.

PAC was intense.

PAC looked like he wanted to hurt people.

And somehow, that character fit him perfectly.

I really enjoyed watching him in AEW. Whether it was with Death Triangle, the Black Arrow, his battles with Kenny Omega, Orange Cassidy, Hangman Page, or the countless other wrestlers he shared a ring with, PAC always felt like someone who belonged.

He was never just “the high-flyer.”

He was a wrestler’s wrestler.

And I think that’s why this one hits me personally.

I’ve never met Adrian Neville. I don’t have some backstage story about him. I can’t tell you what he was like as a friend or a person because I didn’t know him that way.

But I did know his wrestling.

I knew what it felt like to discover him when I was finding my way back into wrestling.

I knew the excitement of watching him in NXT.

I knew the feeling of seeing him reinvent himself as PAC.

And I knew that whenever his name showed up on a card, there was a pretty damn good chance I was going to watch the match.

That’s one of the strange things about being a wrestling fan.

We don’t actually know most of the people we become attached to.

We know them through moments.

Through matches.

Through entrances.

Through championships.

Through the nights we sat on the couch watching them while life was happening around us.

And somehow, those people become part of our own stories.

PAC became part of mine when I was getting back into wrestling in 2014.

That’s how I’ll remember him.

Not just as Adrian Neville.

Not just as the man who “forgot gravity.”

Not just as an NXT Champion or an AEW star.

But as one of the wrestlers who reminded me why I loved wrestling in the first place.

I’m stunned that he’s gone.

And I’m grateful I got to watch him.

Rest easy, PAC.

Thank you for the matches.

Thank you for the memories.

And thank you for being a small part of my journey as a wrestling fan.