Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville made a surprise appearance at Tuesday’s Dragon Gate live event from Japan. He previously worked for the company between 2007-2012 under the name PAC.
PAC’s appearance in-ring at Dragon Gate’s to join heel group RED was his first since Sept. 26, 2017 on 205 Live, he defeated Ariya Daivari on that occasion.
Reaction from 205 Live Star
The return of PAC did not go unnoticed by at least one member of the WWE locker room. 205 Live competitor Akira Tozawa took to Twitter and simply wrote “PAC.” Tozawa himself had an impressive 12 year run in Dragon Gate where he held the Open the Brave Gate, Open the Twin Gate, Open the Triangle Gate and Open the Owarai Gate Championships.
In the past WWE stars have made cryptic comments on Twitter that possibly referred to events outside the company. There’s no two ways about this message though, Tozawa is clearly referring to his former colleague from both WWE and Dragon Gate.
We reported earlier this year that WWE and Pro Wrestling NOAH had a short term working relationship with Hideo Itami returning to the Japanese company to face Naomichi Marufuji.
More Working Relationships?
There are currently no announced plans for any further ‘outside’ relationships in Japan beyond the one off Marufuji/Itami match. What if…and this is a big what if, WWE and Dragon Gate had an understanding when it came to Neville appearing? It is clear that WWE are looking to expand globally, their work on the United Kingdom series and the confirmed relationship with Germany’s wXw promotion are just the start. Dragon Gate are currently one of the smaller, albeit it well respected, companies in Japan. New Japan Pro Wrestling is still the biggest player and NOAH/Dragon Gate will still be playing second fiddle for the time being.
Neville/PAC reportedly stopped responding to independent promoter’s messages just last week. There is a very good chance that this was just a rouse to give extra impact to his Dragon Gate return, but could this be linked to WWE? This might all sound a bit far fetched but with fans being more difficult to ‘work’ in 2018 what better way than to send one of your stars out to a different promotion? You can build anticipation for a return to the ‘big time’ later down the line.
The fact that Neville/PAC appeared for Dragon Gate and not New Japan speaks a lot of the performer. The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion returned to the place that helped build his career to the point of joining WWE, whilst many may have opted to make a huge return at the likes of ROH, Impact or New Japan.
Could his Dragon Gate return be linked to WWE? There’s a very good chance that is isn’t…but what if this was part of a bigger tactic to help push development for WWE into the Japanese market? We’ll have to wait and see.
PAC
— Akira Tozawa (@TozawaAkira) October 2, 2018
