AEW Star Pac Dies at 40, a Day After All Out Match

All Elite Wrestling announced that Benjamin Satterley, known as Pac and formerly WWE's Neville, died at 40 one day after wrestling at All Out.

Benjamin Satterley, the English wrestler known to AEW fans as Pac, died at age 40, All Elite Wrestling announced on Sunday night, September 27. The news landed just one day after Satterley competed at AEW's "All Out" pay-per-view at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, outside Chicago, where he challenged Andrade El Ídolo for the AEW National Championship and lost a closely contested match. AEW's statement remembered a native of Newcastle upon Tyne who began his career in 2004 and "went on to perform for wrestling organizations all over the world." No cause of death was provided.

The timing is what makes the news so hard to process: Satterley wrestled a full pay-per-view championship match on Saturday night and was dead by Sunday evening. NBC News notes that only days earlier, on the Wednesday, September 23 episode of "Collision," he had defeated Ace Austin, who responded to the news simply: "I don't understand man." The death also comes just weeks after another AEW wrestler, Andy Williams, known as The Butcher, died at 48 after collapsing at an independent match in Pennsylvania, per CNN — a brutal stretch for the company.

In WWE from 2012 to 2018, as Adrian Neville, he won the NXT Championship, the NXT Tag Team Championship and became a two-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion, per Fox News. His physique even gave him his name: he told Chris Jericho his childhood "six-pack" abs earned him a nickname that stuck, NBC News reports.

The core facts are corroborated across multiple outlets: AEW's own Sunday-night announcement, carried by CNN, Deadline, Fox News and NBC News, confirmed the death, the age, the Newcastle origin and the 2004 career start. ABC7, citing the Associated Press, reported the Saturday loss to Andrade El Ídolo in the AEW National Championship match in Chicago. CNN adds that since joining AEW in 2019, Satterley wrestled 147 matches with 94 wins, 47 losses and four draws, per the AEW website. OutKick, published by Fox News, reported that it contacted Chicago police, Hoffman Estates police and Cook County authorities, who had not commented.

Tributes poured in across the wrestling world. Fellow Englishman and AEW World Champion Will Ospreay wrote on X that Satterley was "the greatest export from our country. Also the greatest human being." AEW owner Tony Khan said Satterley "defined excellence" in his knowledge, athleticism, professionalism and dedication, per Yahoo Sports. NBC News painted the fuller portrait: the man billed as "The Bastard" was shy outside the ring, once telling Colt Cabana's podcast about a "rejection complex" and fear of failure. Referee Bryce Remsburg remembered 20 years of friendship: "To my kids, he was Ben — who brought them Kinder Eggs from the UK."

Many open questions remain. No cause of death has been disclosed by AEW or any authority, and Fox News reported that Cook County officials had not yet responded to inquiries, so the circumstances may only become clear if a medical examiner's finding is released. Satterley is survived by his wife, Natalie Satterley, according to Yahoo Sports.