Last night, AEW announced that PAC had tragically passed away at the age of 40.
Prior to joining AEW, PAC competed in WWE as Adrian Neville, and later simply as Neville, where he was a key figure on the NXT brand and later the King of the Cruiserweights on 205 Live.
With fans reflecting on the legacy of Benjamin Setterley, here is how Neville helped spearhead NXT’s Black & Gold era.
Headlining the first WWE Network special
WWE launched the WWE Network in February 2014, with the NXT Arrival event being the very first event streamed live on the Network.
As such, the show, and it’s Ladder match main event between Neville and Bo Dallas, helped get plenty of new eyes on what exactly was happening on WWE’s developmental brand.
Neville picked up the win to capture the NXT Championship in the match, with him in many ways being the first ‘true’ NXT Champion of the Black & Gold era.
Triple H himself commented on the importance of Neville and the match in speaking about his passing, saying:
“This moment, from NXT Arrival, marked the beginning of a new era for that brand and the men and women on it … and Ben was a major force behind that.”
The ‘NXT Five’
Kevin Owens, Finn Balor and Hideo Itami all signed with WWE in 2014 and joined Sami Zayn and Neville in NXT
Following the match, NXT Black & Gold took off, taking on more of the independent approach that fans would know and love later in the year.
Neville and Sami Zayn remained the headline acts of the brand, with major international signings of Kevin Steen (Kevin Owens), Fergal Devitt (Finn Balor) and KENTA (Hideo Itami) only strengthening the style of wrestling that fans had come to love.
The group would almost become grouped together in a similar manner to the likes of the Four Horsewomen, with them being seen as the faces of NXT Black & Gold.
While all the members would go on to have varying degrees of success in the company, with three of them still currently in the WWE Championship picture on SmackDown, they are seen as the key figures in the rise of Black & Gold.
Without Neville’s incredible athleticism being showcased on the first WWE Network special, who knows if we ever go on to get the Black & Gold we all know and love later that year.
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