In an interview with WWE’s official YouTube channel, WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco discussed his friendship with the late Pat Patterson, who passed away at the age of 79.

“You work in this business, you travel the roads, you go up and down them, you meet people, you become acquainted with people, a lot of people, a lot of fans, a lot of talent, a lot of crew, you become acquainted with. There’s very few people that you can say that after a few years, that they’re family to you, Pat was family. Heaven is a beautiful place, Pat’s there, laughing and telling his corny jokes.

Pat Patterson was just a colossal character of a human being in our profession, he had so much knowledge. Working with Pat was like working with an encyclopedia, you could ask him a question about any time, any era, in any town and he had a story, he saw the history of our business, the impact that he’s had on World Wrestling Entertainment throughout its inception is so valuable. To me, he was the most wonderful person and the most giving person, Pat was one of those guys that just gave you everything that you ever asked for and more. This business was Pat Patterson, Pat was a businessman 24/7, but Pat loved to have his good times.

You make friendships and when you make a friendship, you know it’s true, a true friendship, true bond, because we go through so many rough times on the road and away from your family and your friends, but Pat was always there and if you were down, Pat could read you, Pat had a special special trait about him where he knew that something was wrong with you and he would get out and pull that out of you, he was magic like that. You weren’t a friend of Pat Patterson’s, you were a brother to Pat, whether you’re a sound technician, a cameraman, our producer, director, it didn’t matter, Pat Patterson was your friend for life and he would stick up for you.

There’s so many of them at NXT that have never had the pleasure of meeting Pat and I really feel for those people, because now all they have is people like my word and other people’s word. His value will never diminish in this company, because there’s guys like Shawn Michaels, there’s guys like Triple H, those caliber guys that Pat passed that knowledge along to. Shawn is here teaching and as long as Shawn is here teaching, he’s passing Pat Patterson’s knowledge on these young people, that’s actually the biggest compliment you can pay to somebody when it’s a generation to generation. Pat will always have that, Pat’s impact in this company will never ever be forgotten.”