(bell rings)
- [Narrator] Neville is arguably
one of the best high flyers
in WWE's recent history,
yet it never seemed like his
full potential was realized.
You guys have been
requesting this for a while,
so let's look at the
first and last matches
of The Man Gravity Forgot
and see how his career began and ended.
In some ways,
it's kind of amazing that
Neville became a pro wrestler.
The reason being that, as a child,
the Newcastle native was
banned from watching wrestling
by his parents.
This didn't deter Neville though
as he would instead go to his aunt's home
to get his wrestling fix.
Seeing the likes of the
Undertaker and Hacksaw Jim Duggan
sparked the young Cruserweight's interest
and would lead him to
get in the ring himself.
Neville would begin
training at the age of 18
and it wasn't long before
he started having matches.
Neville or PAC as he was originally known,
would spend the next 8 years
wrestling on the independent scene
and began making a name for himself.
He eventually gained so much
attention that WWE took notice
and signed him to a
contract in July of 2012.
Neville would spend the next six months
training at the performance center
and would kick off his WWE career
at the start of the new year.
On the January 9th, 2013 episode of NXT,
Adrian Neville made his first appearance
to announce that next week
would be his debut match.
So let's head to it!
Neville kicked off the show
with his first WWE opponent Sakamoto.
The match started with two competitors
trying to out grapple the other.
Neville used his speed
to gain the advantage
which Sakamoto countered
with a punch to the jaw.
The Man that Gravity
Forgot bounced right back
and used the ropes to build up speed
and take down the Japanese wrestler.
Sakamoto fought back
by only striking when the
man in yellow boots was close
and it worked.
Once Neville was down,
Sakamoto began applying submission holds
to help keep the high flyer grounded.
Knowing he had to get
out of the hold quickly,
Neville got to his feet and
wrestled out of Sakamoto's grip.
The English wrestler
then started connecting
with move after move
and despite his opponent's best efforts,
Neville was unstoppable.
To end the fight, Neville
knocked Sakamoto out with a kick
and then climbed to the top rope
and hit the first-ever Red
Arrow to win the match.
This was a fine enough debut.
I licked that the match
was fairly competitive
but it never felt like
Neville really got going.
Perhaps that was intended
since you don't wanna give
everything you got in your debut
because then you have nothing
else to show later on.
Maybe it's because I know
what Neville would do
later in his career but
after watching his debut
I felt kinda underwhelmed.
Like I said it was a fine enough match
and as we'll see Neville
had plenty more to showcase.
After his debut, it didn't take long
for Neville's career to
take off, no pun intended.
The Man That Gravity Forgot
formed a tag team with
fellow Englishmen Oliver Gray
and together the two men won a tournament
to become the inaugural
NXT tag team champions.
Grey would be taken out with an ACL injury
during their championship reign
so Neville chose Bo
Dallas as his new partner.
The team unfortunately didn't work out
as in their first title defense,
Neville and Dallas would be
defeated by the Wyatt Family.
Shortly after losing the belts,
Neville would split from Bo
and continued to feud with the Wyatts.
Corey Graves would then
become Neville's new partner
and the two were able to
regain the tag team titles.
Neville and Graves'
championship run lasted
a modest two and a half months
before losing the gold to the Ascension.
While he would never hold
a tag team title again,
bigger things were just around the corner
for The Man That Gravity Forgot.
November of 2013 would
kick off a lengthy feud
with Neville's former partner
and now the NXT champion, Bo Dallas.
The two wrestlers would
face off multiple times
for the championship
but due to things like
countout and interface,
Neville was denied the gold.
Finally at NXT Arrival
in February of 2014,
Neville computed and defeated Bo
in a ladder match to win
the NXT championship.
This kicked off a title reign
that last for most of 2013,
until Neville was
defeated at NXT Takeover:
R Evolution by Sami Zayn.
Like before, bigger things
were just around the corner
and on March 30th, 2015,
the night after WrestleMania 31,
Neville officially made
his main roster debut.
During his first few months there,
Neville feuded with the likes
of Wade Barrett and Bo Dallas.
He would also build up
a rivalry with Stardust
which led to a match at SummerSlam
where Neville teamed up
with actor Stephen Amell.
Sorry I can't help not mentioning that.
Anyways, while the higher
flyer would compete
with main event level stars,
Neville began to fall into midcard status.
He did end 2015 with a Slammy Award
for Breakout Star of the Year
but unfortunately, 2016 wouldn't
start off on a good note.
In March, Neville was wrestling a match
against Chris Jericho
when he accidentally injured his ankle.
The injury put him out for several months,
causing him to miss WrestleMania 32.
Neville would make his
return in July of 2016
but he would, unfortunately,
find himself in the same
position that he was at before.
The Man That Gravity Forgot
needed something to jump-start his career
and thankfully that would
happen before the year was over.
In December 2016, at the
Roadblock: End of the Line event,
Neville came out and
congratulated Rich Swann
on retaining the
Cruiserweight Championship.
To everyone's surprise,
Neville began attacking Swann
as well as TJ Perkins
thus turning Neville heel
for the first time in WWE.
The next night, Neville
explained his actions
and accused the fans of only cheering him
because they pitied him.
He also announced he was joining 205 Live
and warned the cruiserweight
division of his arrival
and Neville make good on those threats.
At the 2017 Royal Rumble,
Neville challenged and defeated Rich Swann
to become the new Cruiserweight champion.
Now with a purple strap by his side,
Neville would face an
onslaught of challenges
but continue to retain his championship.
A slight bump in the road came
when Akira Tozawa defeated
Neville in August for the title.
However, Neville regained
his title in less than a week
when he won his rematch at SummerSlam
and became the first two-time
Cruiserweight champion
under the new title.
More trouble would follow for Neville
when Enzo Amore joined 205 Live
and became the number one contender
for the cruiserweight championship.
The two cruiserweights
faced off at No Mercy
where Amore hit Neville with a low bow
to beat him and become the new champion.
The next night on Raw,
Neville would confront Enzo
and even threatened to get physical.
Amore revealed that he
had a no-contact clause
that disqualify any cruiserweight
from receiving a title shot
should they attack him.
Even with that deterrent,
Neville decided to attack the
cruiserweight champion anyway.
This would lead into
205 Live the next night
and little did anyone know that
this would be the last time
we saw Neville in a WWE ring.
Fitting for a king,
Neville competed in the
main event of the show.
Before his opponent came out,
the former Cruiserweight Champion
decided to say a few words.
Neville acknowledged
that his actions on Raw
forfeited his chances
at ever competing for the
Cruiserweight championship again
but that he didn't care.
He also added that he
would take any opportunity
to attack Enzo Amore again
which we'll see play into this match.
Speaking of which, the champion
himself would then enter
and accompany Neville's opponent,
Ariya Daivari to the ring.
When the match started, Neville
quickly got out of the ring
to confront Enzo.
Granted this kind of a dumb move
since Daivari was able to jump Neville.
Ariya then threw Neville's body
all around the ringside area
before tossing him back inside the ropes.
With the fight in the ring
again, Neville's opponent hit him
with three consecutive backbreakers
and followed up with 2
throws into the turnbuckles.
With so much abuse absorbed,
Daivari was able to easily
set Neville on the top rope
and hit him with a hanging inverted DDT.
He wasn't called the King
of the Cruiserweights
for nothing though,
and Neville did his best to fight back
but Ariya managed to quickly
shut the Englishman down.
However, Neville would use
Daivari's leisurely attitude
to his advantage by rolling out
of the way of a frog splash.
Now that he had a chance to recover,
Neville got back up and began
unloading on Ariya Daivari
with a fury of kicks.
Even though he had the advantage,
Neville could not take his eyes off Enzo.
Just like before, Neville
went to confront the Champion
which once again led to
him getting knocked down.
Both men were soon back in the ring
but before Aryia Daivari
could hit a hammerlock lariat,
Neville countered and locked
in the rings of Saturn
to force Daivari to tap out.
After the bell rang,
Neville was immediately
attacked by Enzo Amore.
The Realist Guy in the Room
kept whaling on the winner
until referees broke up the attack,
leaving Neville motionless in the ring.
While nothing special,
this match was pretty fun.
I liked the story it had of Neville
being more focused on Enzo
than his actual opponent.
I was impressed too at how much offense
Aryia Davari got in the match as well.
Unfortunately, I don't
really have a lot to say
but as mentioned earlier,
nobody knew this was gonna be
Neville's last match in WWE
so let's find out what happened afterward.
On the October 9th, 2017 episode of Raw,
about 2 weeks after his match on 205 Live,
it was reported that Neville walked out
before the show had started.
The reason cited is that he
was gonna lose to Enzo Amore
however, reports also say
that Neville had been unhappy for a while.
For about a year,
nobody knew if Neville
would be back in WWE or not.
It wasn't till late August of 2018
that it was announced that Neville
was no longer with the company,
about 11 months since
he was last seen on TV.
Once he was officially done with WWE,
Neville began wrestling as PAC again
and started competing on
the independent circuit.
Then in January of 2019,
he was one of the first wrestlers
to be signed by of All Elite Wrestling
where he still is today.
With that said,
let me know in the comments
if you prefer Neville in WWE
or PAC in AEW.
Also, check out the video in the center
to see Enzo Amore's first
and last matches in WWE.
Thank you guys so much for your support
and with that, I'm Zach
from Tap Out Corner
and that was Bell to Bell!
