Thank you PAC! Rest in Peace

I'm pretty shocked by the news of his passing. Thank you for being an awesome pro wrestler PAC. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of his matches. If you're interested, below are many of my favorite matches of The Man Gravity Forgot.

PAC vs. Claudio Castagnoli (PWG BOLA '07 - Block B Quarterfinal): Spectacular at times, Claudio was a fantastic base for PAC's moves. Likewise, PAC moved and bumped brilliantly for Double C. Very good match!

El Generico vs. PAC (PWG ASW V Nt. 1 2007): Classic PWG title match. Heck I don't need to qualify it with "PWG title match." It's a straight up classic match. It is very much a go for broke, empty the gas tank with the pedal to the metal match. PAC is excellent as always and he hits everything perfectly despite doing some of the most insane stuff. No knock on Jack Evans but he's been replaced with a better model. Honestly I think Ricochet is/was redundant if on the same show as PAC. Anyhow, PAC is one step ahead of Generico. He's pulling counters and reversals out of thin air... which is usually something that the Generic One does. He's got to stop the Brit with brute force.

Kaz Hayashi vs PAC (PWG ASW V Nt. 2 2007):  This was a great junior fireworks match from what I saw. PAC really is one of the standout wrestlers of 2024 for me. Lotsa big moves, cool counters and just about everything I wanted...except the first half of the match :) Hayashi had a great weekend in SoCal as did PAC.

Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs Naruki Doi/Pac (DGUSA Uprising 2010): The Pac vs Quack opening is a thing of beauty. Things never really let up and while not as poetic as the first few minutes, this was awesome go-go bananas shit. Doi seemed to be the most tame of the bunch but he kicked things up and all four dudes were on fire by the end. I should note no one sold a thing beyond getting knocked down for a pin or rolling out of the ring for safety. That goes without saying for many of these tag matches. It's just the style so I can't use it as a criticism. I bring it up because that's really the only "flaw"... this was as bat shit of a Dragon Gate style tag as you can get...even more notably with one native Dragon Gate wrestler! At 15 minutes it ended on a perfect note. This was a classic in my book.

Masato Yoshino/Pac vs CIMA/Dragon Kid (DGUSA - United NYC 2011): Yeah that was a sick finish! And this was a great match overall. It wasn't trying to be a barn burner from start to finish and I can appreciate that as this was a 20 minute match. Eventually they kicked it into high gear and it was flawless. The PAC/Yoshino team is insane. And while I have seen a good bit of the Kid/CIMA team they are kinda the gold standard for teams in DGUSA. They have the moves, the character, the history etc. 

Masato Yoshino/Pac vs YAMATO/Akira Tozawa (DGUSA Fearless 2011): Holy crap! This was sweet! One of those matches where it builds from pretty good -> great -> classic match by the time the bell is rung. I thought Yoshino was taking the night off but, I guess he was just conserving energy. Pac did a phenomenal job here as he really did the lion's share of the work during the early & middle portions of the match. I would say Yamato & Tozawa shared their duties pretty equally. Things picked up in the final portion and it really elevated this to a classic. Glad I got to see another Pac/Yoshino match as well as more Yamato & Tozawa.

Neville vs Cesaro (NXT 03/05/15): Not gonna lie, I threw the horns a few times during this one 🤘 It was awesome. Cesaro was like Steven Regal in his precise brutality yet he did his own thing. He used his freakish strength in ways Regal could only dream of. He showed a mean streak that I really don't remember seeing as Claudio. Cesaro is a meaner, more aggressive, more calculated version of Castagnoli. Then, Neville, is a more grounded and focused version of PAC. When he tried his flying moves, they were done out of desperation rather than exhibition. It's wonderfully surprising when Cesaro stops those "hail mary" moves dead in their tracks. This is a wicked twist as Neville has been the man in my NXT viewing. Cesaro seems like the end to all of that. I LOVED THIS ONE. What's crazy is that this was a Dark Match and it only seems to be officially available on the first NXT DVD set (which I have). Find this anyway you can because I think it's an All Time Classic. Highest Recommendation.