Benjamin Satterley, globetrotting wrestler known as Pac, dies at 40

Benjamin Satterley, the hard-hitting and high-flying professional wrestler known to fans worldwide simply as Pac, has died, All Elite Wrestling announced Sunday night. He was 40. News of his death came the day after he’d wrestled during AEW’s “All Out” pay-per-view Saturday night at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, outside Chicago. A cause of death was not immediately provided. “A native of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Satterley began his wrestling career in 2004 and went on to perform for wrestling organizations all over the world, captivating fans with innovative high-flying moves and incredible in-ring ability,” AEW said. Satterley first began training at 18 and made a name for himself on the British independent scene before embarking on a globetrotting career in which he performed in some of the biggest promotions on the planet, including AEW, World Wrestling Entertainment (where he went by Adrian Neville), New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. But it wan’t until seeing the crowd reaction to one of his matches at a much smaller venue — Southern California indie promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla — that he finally thought he could make a career of professional wrestling. At the time, he was still working night shifts at a courier factory, he told Colt Cabana in the “Art of Wrestling” podcast. “I look back on it very fondly, but it was a tough time in my life,” he said. Satterley arrived to WWE in 2012 to much fanfare. During his roughly six-year run with the company, he became the NXT Champion, NXT Tag Team Champion and WWE Cruiserweight Champion. His high-flying offense, made all the more impressive by the brawny physique on his stocky frame, earned him the nickname “The Man That Gravity Forgot.” That physique played a direct role in choosing Pac as his ring name. In an interview with Chris Jericho on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, he recalled having six-pack abs even as a kid. He would play fight with his dad, Satterley said, and his father would tell him to show him his abs, which eventually translated into a “silly nickname.” When he started training and had to choose a name, Satterley couldn’t think of anything else. “It was only meant to be kind of a temporary thing, but then it kind of — it’s one of those names that kind of, it just stuck,” he said. Satterley debuted on All Elite Wrestling in 2019, where he’d eventually earn the moniker “The Bastard.” In AEW, he won the All-Atlantic Championship in 2022 and became one of the company’s more prominent wrestlers as part of the Death Riders faction, with whom he’d earn the AEW World Trios Championship alongside fellow members Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta in 2025. It followed another Trios title in 2022 alongside Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix as part of the “Death Triangle.” Between the ropes, few wrestlers could combine speed, agility, technique and raw power quite like Satterley. He could twist and wind his body off the top turnbuckle with his signature “Black Arrow,” or he could use his “Brutalizer” to tie up an opponent’s arms and neck on the canvas. On the microphone, his promos conveyed no-nonsense intensity that relayed an ultimately simple message to opponents: I’m here to hurt you. “My name is ‘The Bastard,’” Satterley said in one AEW promo. “The people named me that because I am a bastard. But on top of that — in addition to — I just so happen to be an excellent, exceptional, world-class professional wrestler.” But that bravado belied a much shier quality outside the ring. “I’ve got this kind of rejection complex, you know,” he told Cabana. “I fear failure, that’s kind of my thing. That’s kind of what holds me back in a lot of aspects of my life, especially professionally.” Satterley grappled with his insecurities on the podcast but concluded that insecurities are part of human nature and that sharing them with the world could ultimately be a force for good. “Maybe people can relate to the human side of me, rather than just whatever I do in the ring,” he said. Tributes to Satterley quickly followed news of his death. “The greatest export from our country,” fellow Englishman and AEW World Champion Will Ospreay said on X. “Also the greatest human being.” “I am in shock. This is heartbreaking,” AEW wrestler Evil Uno said. “We have lost another great person, a great soul, a true professional.” Ace Austin, whom Satterley defeated on a special episode of AEW’s “Collision” program Wednesday, summed up what many were feeling Sunday: “I don’t understand man.” AEW referee Bryce Remsburg remarked on a decadeslong friendship with Satterley. “To many, he was a bastard,” Remsburg said on X. “To my kids, he was Ben — who brought them Kinder Eggs from the UK, who converted them to Newcastle fans. To me, he was an incredible friend for 20 years.” Speaking to fans during an indie show Sunday night, fellow Death Riders stablemate Marina Shafir said Satterley “was our bastard.” “I was just holding this man yesterday,” she said, her voice breaking. She recalled talking with Satterley about “wiener dogs” and basketball courts. “He was just so modest about how fascinating he was. .... I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t share time and space with this man,” Shafir said.