JBL has shared fond memories of the late PAC, revealing that the wrestler’s arrival in WWE as Neville generated social media figures that stood well above his fellow stars.

Speaking on the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL recalled hearing about Neville’s popularity during WWE meetings. According to the Hall of Famer, Neville was regularly attracting twice as many impressions as everyone else.

“I was sitting there one day, and they talked about how many impressions he was getting. He was getting double the impressions of everybody else when he came in, because when social media first came in, we started getting the social media reports and the impression reports about who was getting what.”

“Vince says, ‘We’ve got our test audience out there, right out there.’ And that was the audience. But Neville always got twice as much as everybody else, which was impressive.”

JBL also offered a glimpse into the discussions surrounding Neville’s character. He recalled Vince McMahon seeing the high-flying star as a potential superhero figure, inspired by his fondness for Mighty Mouse.

“But when Neville came in, man, he was unbelievable. I mean, just unreal. You know, Vince loved Mighty Mouse, and he wanted Neville to be Mighty Mouse, but he already had one in Rey Mysterio.”

“You know, one thing with the themes for Rey was that it was based upon what Vince thought Mighty Mouse would have. You know, that’s how much Vince loved that character.”

“And I remember several times in the meetings, wanting to position Neville more as Mighty Mouse, which obviously he’s perfect for. You know, it was something that he could have done. That superhero, the superhero that could do things. And he was that. He was perfect for that.”

As part of WWE’s commentary team, JBL had been present for the meetings where those ideas were discussed.

“Neville, I was there when he came into WWE. I was in all the creative meetings. We’d have the creative meetings before the shows, with the production meetings, so you’d hear the creative plans and everybody would be on the same page, with the announcers being in there.”

He also recalled how he and Michael Cole previously received their notes directly from McMahon.

“Before that, Michael Cole and I got notes directly from Vince McMahon, which was pretty cool, because we’d go in there, just the two of us, and Vince would tell us things that he wouldn’t tell the production meeting because he knew we weren’t stooges. There’s always some stooge in the production meeting that was reporting things online. We always tried to find them, and I don’t think we ever found one.”

Beyond Neville’s athletic ability and popularity, JBL remembered the man himself with warmth.

“Neville was a world-class talent and a good guy. Neville was always so pleasant to talk to.”