Through the tragedy of the death of Pac, AEW honored his life in the most perfect way.
PITTSBURGH — Emotion. That’s a word you’ll read a lot in this piece because there was an immeasurable amount of it inside the Petersen Events Center for a very somber episode of AEW Dynamite.
What was expected to be AEW’s first show following an incredible All Out Pay-Per-View ended up being an event of mourning, grief, and celebrating the life of Benjamin Satterly, aka “The Bastard” Pac.
Satterly passed away Sunday at age 40, less than 24 hours after performing at All Out in Chicago in a tremendous one-on-one contest with Andrade el Idolo for the National Championship. So in Pittsburgh, where he wrestled his first Dynamite main event, the promotion honored their fallen friend — something they’ve had to do far too often.
Since its inception in 2019, AEW has seen four of its wrestlers lose their lives. In December 2020, Jon Huber, known to AEW fans as Mr. Brodie Lee, passed away after a battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The Brodie Lee Celebration of Life episode of Dynamite is still one of the best shows AEW has ever done, as it featured Huber’s son, Brodie, getting involved in a six-man tag-team match to help John Silver, Hangman Page, and Alex Reynolds defeat MJF and The Inner Circle. The end of the show featured AEW chairman Tony Khan officially retiring the red strap design of the TNT Championship, the design of the title Huber made famous in the company. Huber’s widow, Amanda, and Brodie then placed his boots in the center of the ring as Cody Rhodes, Preston Vance, and Khan consoled them.
In January 2023, Jay Briscoe (real name Jamin Pugh) lost his life in a car accident. The January 25, 2023 episode of Dynamite featured Jay’s brother, Mark, in the main event against their longtime friend and rival, Jay Lethal. Mark Briscoe won the match with the Jay Driller as the locker room poured out to meet Mark on the entrance ramp and celebrate the win, as well as the life of his brother.
And just two weeks ago, Andy Williams, aka The Butcher, passed away following an independent show. Williams had been a fixture of AEW’s tag team division as one half of The Butcher and the Blade. His death occurred in the same week in which AEW was set to have a special episode of Dynamite to honor Rebel, an AEW star who is battling ALS. That Saturday on Collision, AEW paid tribute to Williams.
And then came Wednesday. The entire locker room, once again, poured onto the entrance stage, bowed their heads, and paid respects to Satterly with a 10-bell salute. And as they raised their heads, one thing was heartbreakingly clear: This locker room isn’t just sad; it’s tired. Tired of mourning. Tired of 10-bell salutes. Tired of the sobs you only cry from losing someone close to you. Tired of making tribute posts on social media talking about how much they’ll miss their now-deceased friends.
Through all the grief, though, came (and this is absolutely not hyperbole) the greatest episode of wrestling television that any company has ever produced. While the wrestling was obviously secondary to the weight the performers carried, the brilliance in the ring was the most poetic way to honor Pac.
The show kicked off with a visibly and audibly shaken Excalibur introducing the show, and also introducing us to, not Pac, but Ben. The man who, once he walked behind the curtain, went from being a self-titled “Bastard” to a loving, charming, and endearing friend who loved his job, his family, his “sausage dogs,” and the hedgehogs that would visit his garden.
We were then thrown to Tony Schiavone, who was standing in the ring with a framed photo of Satterly, along with a wreath of flowers. Schiavone continued to rave about the man behind the character, and how everyone should live the way Ben lived: With kindness, and as a wonderful human being.
Next, a promo from Jon Moxley, Pac’s Death Rider stablemate. Following his loss to Will Ospreay at All Out, Moxley spoke about treasuring every day of life, and that when we are gone, we will be given one of two eulogies: One of what we did, and one of who we were — then, in the most eerie, haunting, yet beautiful and perfect way, the final person to leave the frame after these words was Pac, in what would be his final on-screen appearance.
The AEW locker room came to the stage, led by AEW chairman Tony Khan, to honor Pac with a 10-bell salute. We won’t go move-by-move in every match, but there were several spots on the card that paid tribute to some of the best moments of Pac’s career.
The opening contest featured Moxley against one of Pac’s all-time greatest rivals, Orange Cassidy. Both were visibly emotional, with Cassidy needing a moment after the bell rang to compose himself. They did a beautiful callback to the comedy spot of Cassidy rolling away from Pac multiple times — a spot that defined their rivalry. Pac’s intensity going up against Cassidy’s indifference made for great humor, but also great matches. Moxley won the match, but that wasn’t the end. Bryan Danielson stunned the crowd as his music hit, and he made his way to the ring. In storyline, Moxley and the Death Riders ended the career of Danielson, who has been retired in real life since the Death Riders beat him down almost two years ago. The two men stared at each other, and then embraced in a hug as Danielson began to sob.
The Elite of The Young Bucks, “Hangman” Adam Page, and Kenny Omega reunited, with Omega wrestling in his first match since losing his world championship to Will Ospreay at All In in late August. They faced The Don Callis Family of Kyle Fletcher, Kevin Knight, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta. This match wasn’t necessarily a tribute match in terms of callbacks to spots, but it was a match featuring the company’s signature group. It’s called All ELITE Wrestling, after all. They put on a show that honored their friend with their particular style of wrestling. Page provided a sit-down tribute to Pac ahead of the match, reminiscing on their program that took place on the company’s inaugural day when Pac showed up at the opening press conference in his full gear — hence why AEW named one of their big four pay-per-views Full Gear. The two would then go on to face one another in the unofficial first match in the company’s history at an independent show in Nottingham, England. The Elite would win the match following a combination V-Trigger and Buckshot, as well as a BTE trigger from the Bucks to get the pin.
Will Ospreay and Ricochet practically wrote a love letter to Pac in their match that featured several callbacks ranging from their own matches with him, to spots and offensive maneuvers he made famous from Dragongate, to Ring of Honor, to NXT, to WWE, to AEW. The match was won by Ospreay, who hit Pac’s patented Black Arrow, a corkscrew shooting star press that maybe a handful of wrestlers could pull off. — and in a beautiful piece of cinematography, the image of Pac on the jumbo tron appeared over Ospreay’s shoulder, almost as if Pac himself was with Ospreay as he stood atop the turnbuckle getting set to hit the move. It was like something out of a movie, as Ospreay hit a picture-perfect Black Arrow to get the pin, before he, Ricochet, and their respective factions embraced. Ospreay took to X and said he had practiced the move all day.
“Got to the arena at 2PM and was in the ring til doors opened practicing,” Ospreay wrote. “I haven’t performed the Black Arrow in 8 years. Something told me on this night I could make the jump. I threw my heart out in front of me and Ben caught it. Thank you Pac.”
The women’s trios tag match that featured the team of Persephone, Dr. Britt Baker, and Mercedes Mone facing Thunder Rosa, Hyan, and Marina Shafir, Pac’s fellow Death Rider. Shafir got the win by putting Baker in the brutalizer, Pac’s signature submission, and forcing her to tap out. Shafir wrestled on an independent show the day Pac died, and spoke to the crowd at that show saying how thankful she was that she got to tell Pac that she loved him.
Then came the main event, as other members of The Don Callis Family: Mark Davis, Lance Archer, Jake Doyle, Josh Alexander, and Wardlow, faced off against the Death Riders: Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, and Gabe Kidd. While Moxley came out with the group, he had already wrestled his match, and joined the commentary desk to help call the main event. As the two groups stood across from one another, there was confusion in the air. Would it be a handicap match with the Death Riders fighting with Pac in spirit as their fifth man? Or would a mystery member make his way down to the ring? It ended up being the latter.
In a rare piece of wrestling perfection on a night that was full of many such cases, Bryan Danielson’s music hit, only this time he came to the ring in gear, coming out of retirement to aid the Death Riders. There were so many things going on throughout the match, as there usually is when 10 people are involved, but Danielson looked like The American Dragon we all remember. And he wasn’t just playing the hits, he was taking bumps on his surgically repaired neck — the reason why he stepped away from the ring. The Death Riders won, then they stood in the ring, arms wrapped around one another as a tribute to the life of Ben played on the jumbotron. The closing shot of Dynamite was Pac’s empty chair that he would sit in to begin the Death Riders’ entrance, as chants of “He’s our Bastard” rang out through the crowd.
There aren’t enough words in the English language to praise everyone involved in making this show possible, but especially Jon Moxley. Despite losing his close friend, he not only participated in a match, he was a through-line throughout the show. While AEW has a plethora of all-time greats on their roster, whether it be their EVPs The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and Kenny Omega, or Ospreay, who is their world champion, Moxley is the unquestioned Ace of the promotion that they call on whenever tides become difficult to navigate. To paraphrase Adam Blampied, if you were to send a representative of AEW to a foreign land, it would be Mox.
The video tributes from Cash Wheeler, Jay White, Page, Darby Allin, Swerve Strickland, Bryce Remsburg, and the many others who just wanted everyone to know how lovely their friend was were all as beautiful as they were tragic. AEW has proven to be on a level of their own when it comes to tribute shows. And while these shows are always done with grace, love, and seem to always hit all the right notes, here’s to hoping they never have to do one again.
To those of us who only knew him as Pac and not Ben Satterly, those in AEW made it very evident with every tear they cried and every word they said that he was far more than just a damn near perfect professional wrestler. By all accounts, he may have been a damn near perfect human being, as well. So in the words of the man himself, “Don’t you dare forget about The Bastard.”