Benjaman Satterley, better known as Pac, passed away on Sunday at the age of 40. The news comes as a shock to fans of All Elite Wrestling, where he spent years as a recognisable heel.
AEW announced the death on Sunday evening. The announcement confirmed Satterley’s passing, noting that he was a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and that he began his wrestling career in 2004.
The Career That Spanned the World
Satterley performed for wrestling organisations all over the world throughout his career. His work drew fans with his innovative style, and he became a fixture in AEW’s roster for several years.
His most notable run came as part of Death Triangle, a tag team with Penta and Rey Fenix. The trio won the AEW Trios Championship for 126 days, defeating the Best Friends and later losing it to The Elite.
A New Fan’s First Encounter With Pac
The writer behind the tribute admits they came to wrestling late, starting in 2020 and only watching AEW. They had no concept of wrestling history or the legends of the sport. Their heroes were the current roster, not the stars of the ’80s and ’90s.
Their first real encounter with Pac came through Death Triangle. The team’s name, they noted, seemed like a terrible joke to a newcomer. The pairing of two high-flying luchadors with a muscle-bound wrestler with a scraggly beard initially struck them as a strange fit.
But the second they saw Pac and his partners in action, they were hooked. The trio did fantastic work together, even though injuries and the departure of the Lucha Brothers meant they could not stick together longer.
Feuding With the Sport’s Rising Stars
Pac was never the writer’s personal favourite wrestler, but he became a cornerstone of what they loved about the sport. He challenged and foiled so many of their favourites, making them look good and cool while he himself looked good and cool too.
The best example was his ongoing feud with Orange Cassidy, the writer’s absolute favourite wrestler. Orange is a goofy sort of wrestler whose whole deal is being chill and unbothered until it really counts. Pac was always mega-serious and super pissed-off all the time, something the writer normally bristles against but grew to love in his case.
Pac’s hair looked perpetually wet. He let out horrid angry howls of fury every so often. When he got on mic, he rips into whoever he is talking shit on. The two made great rivals, with Orange’s seeming indifference toward matches deeply infuriating Pac.
The matches between the two were incredible. The writer was never cheering for Pac, favouring the goofy heroes over the angsty bad guys. Pac was a heel most of the time, and they booed him. But they were thrilled whenever Pac was fighting Orange, Darby Allin, or Eddie Kingston, knowing it was going to be a hell of a match.
Everything was better if Pac was fighting.
The Final Match Nobody Watched Closely Enough
Pac’s final match was just this past Saturday, against Andrade El Idolo. The writer was in the kitchen making snacks and not paying much attention, because they did not think there was a chance in hell they would never see Pac wrestle live again after that day.
They wish they had been watching. They would have liked to see Pac flipping Andrade into the barricade, or doing his signature twisty flippy-doo off the turnstyle — okay, fine, it’s called Black Arrow — live.
A Legacy Beyond the Ring
The tributes posted by Pac’s peers have been uniformly loving. Many seem to have loved working with him, and the writer believes he was a pretty solid dude outside the ring as well.
Reading through them, it is clear Pac was more than just a wrestler. He was someone people enjoyed being around, and that warmth carried over into how others spoke of him after his death.
The Loss That Refuses to Land
The writer is still processing the news. It is hard to understand, they admit. They are still quite new to the sport, and their heroes are still too young for such things. Those guys have years ahead of them. They aren’t going anywhere.
But Pac was 40, five years older than the writer. He was a peer, essentially. He still had feuds ahead of him. Belt wins and losses. The writer wanted to see him go for the World Championship one day.
What happened? How? Such things should not be possible.
A Timeline of Pac’s Run
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Satterley begins wrestling career |
| 126 days | Death Triangle holds AEW Trios Championship |
| Saturday | Pac’s final match against Andrade El Idolo |
| Sunday | Announcement of Satterley’s passing |
What This Means for Wrestling Fans
The loss of Pac is a reminder that the sport’s icons are not immortal. The generation of wrestlers that came up in the early 2000s is now reaching the back half of their careers, and the toll is starting to show.
Andy Williams, known as The Butcher, died at age 48 just recently. Now Pac is gone at 40. These are not old men by any measure, and yet the deaths keep coming.
The writer’s reaction is grief, plain and simple. They did not know wrestling history, and yet they found themselves mourning Pac, whose work made them care about the sport despite their own newness to it.
The writer’s closing line captures the feeling: “I am not ready to start losing my generation of pro wrestling icons.”
That is the honest reaction to this news. Pac was a great worker, a great villain, and a great presence in the ring. He deserved better than to be remembered only for his final match, which the writer barely watched.
The matches between Pac and Orange Cassidy remain the standard. The feuds with Darby Allin and Eddie Kingston remain the stuff of legend. The runs with Death Triangle remain a favourite among fans.
But the man himself is gone, and that is the hardest part to accept. He was a peer, a colleague, a competitor, and now he is gone.
The writer wishes they had paid closer attention to that final match. They wish they had watched Pac flip Andrade into the barricade. They wish they had seen Pac rip off his blindfold after Malakai Black’s poison mist.
They wish they had appreciated Pac more while he was still around.
The tribute is a reminder that we should all appreciate the people we work with, the people we compete against, the people we watch perform. Because none of us knows when our own final match will come.
Pac was a great wrestler. He was a great villain. He was a great friend to many.
He was a great man, and he is gone too soon.
Rest in peace, Pac.
See the video the story is built around at Kotaku.
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