D-Von Dudley says his final WWE match turned out to be against PAC, then known as Neville, on the 2016 SummerSlam Kickoff show. Remembering PAC, whose real name was Benjamin Satterley, Dudley said he didn’t know at the time that the tag match would close his in-ring WWE run.
Dudley spoke on his YouTube channel about teaming with Bubba Ray Dudley against Neville and Sami Zayn. WWE’s match record confirms the teams and Neville and Zayn’s win. Dudley recalled being glad to work with them, even as the pre-show placement disappointed him. WrestlingHeadlines recently covered AEW’s PAC memorial merchandise benefiting his family.
“We talked about him tagging up with Sami Zayn to wrestle the Dudley Boys in 2016 pre-show for SummerSlam. And what I didn’t know was that was going to be my last match officially in the WWE in the ring. And it happened to be with Benjamin. And happened to be with Neville and I remember being very excited but disappointed at the same time because it was on the pre-show. A lot of people, believe it or not, like to work the pre-show because it gives you more time in the ring. Your time is not rushed. You can actually take your time and just be able to do what you love to do, and that’s wrestle and put on a show. You’re not being pushed to hurry up and let’s go, go home, go home.”
It was a meeting of different styles, and Dudley said he and Bubba had learned to adjust to faster opponents over the years. Neville’s control in the air stood out to him during that match and in the rest of his career.
“So, I remember being in that match and just loving the fact that, like I said in the other video, that Bubba and myself were able to hang with the younger generation. You know, with all the flipping and the flying that they do nowadays, me and Bubba were never those type of guys. We were grounded in your face, punch you, hit you, do whatever we had to do to get you down. That was us. So, the high-flying really wasn’t our forte, so to speak, when it came to wanting to do a match with people, but we learned how to do work with high-flying guys like because of the Hardies.”
“So, knowing how Neville wrestled and how he took it to another level, he defied gravity. You didn’t know what he was capable of doing, but when he did it, it was phenomenal to watch. The way he would just glide in the air. It was almost like he was able to control his body as he would do the amazing things that we saw. It was truly an honor and a pleasure to be able to have my last match with him.”
Source: D-Von Dudley’s YouTube remembrance of PAC.
