Before Neville, there was Pac, but both personas of Adrian Neville had the same aspirations: become the King of the Cruiserweights.
During his reign as the WWE Cruiserweight champion, Neville kept referring to himself as the "King of the Cruiserweights," but that label wasn't something he thought of on the spot. A video of him cutting a promo on Italy-based Nu-Wrestling Evolution before a cruiserweight title match shows a Neville from 2008 saying that he will be the King of the Cruiserweights.
"You're in the jungle baby! I'm going to be king of the cruiserweights. I'm going to summon all the creatures of every jungle worldwide, squeeze my competition and win that cruiserweight title," the former Pac said.
While he didn't win the title during his time with Nu-Wrestling Evolution, he did get to compete against cruiserweight stars such as Juventud Guerrera and Matt Cross, better known as Lucha Underground star Son of Havoc. Perhaps channeling the energy of all the jungle creatures really did help out in the long run, especially when he signed with WWE.
While the regal-acting Neville of the past year is far more composed, and less feral, than the Neville in that promo, it's hard to say that his run hasn't been a good one. In NXT, Neville won the NXT Tag Team and NXT Championships, the only person to win both of those titles, and won the WWE Cruiserweight title twice during his time on the main roster. Neville's second reign began at SummerSlam but has since lost the title to Enzo Amore at the No Mercy pay-per-view.
Neville's prophetic promo can be seen in the video above.
