Jungle Pac.
The man gravity forgot.
Neville.
The Bastard.
PAC.
These were all just monikers we knew Benjamin Satterley by as he travelled the globe and wrestled around the world. Although those snapshots of his career sum up how we know him, they don’t even begin to describe the impact that he had on the wrestling business. More importantly they don’t even come close to describing who he was away from the spotlight, behind the scenes or at home with his family.
The cliche is that you know how beloved someone is by the testimonies of character people who knew them best share after they’ve passed on. Since Monday morning tributes to Satterley have flowed in unendingly from everyone from seemingly every company he ever worked for, from wrestlers he matched up with dozens of times, to people like Andrade he only wrestled a few times including this past Saturday, to his closest friends from his travels from one corner of the Earth to the next.
What has always stuck out to me about his work is how precise and sure of himself he was when he wrestled. Scarcely did he ever waste any movements. Like most I’ve been watching some of his old matches this week and once you begin to watch so many matches in succession you can’t help but be left in awe of his body of work and the absolutely insane physical gifts he put on display each and every time he got in the ring. What’s even more remarkable is the subtle range he had as a performer. For example, for as mind blowing as his matches with Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are, his matches with Orange Cassidy are special if only because he was part of Cassidy’s coming out party at Revolution 2020.
That Cassidy match is special not because of the ring work, but rather it’s a rare moment where for all the physicality and athletic feats, it was then you understood how giving he was as a person and co-worker. PAC was notoriously serious about everything he did in the ring, almost paying a Randy Savage level of detail to everything he did. He cared that much about how he was perceived and how credible his persona was. In this case with OC, who to this point hadn’t really had too many matches in AEW, he leaned into the comedy of Cassidy’s character by embracing its absurdity and hilarity and contrasting it with his own seriousness. He simply got the joke and leaned into it.
His match with Cassidy is just one example of his skill and desire to make everyone around him better. That match helped make Cassidy in the mainstream sense and he’s gone on to win multiple singles and multi-person championships since then. I think that’s why people still remember that match and go back to it. PAC vs. Orange Cassidy at Revolution was a match that featured both at their best, with Cassidy at a point where his talents hadn’t been fully exposed yet and he was allowed to do his best to its fullest against someone who understood what he was doing, got the joke and was willing to be goofed on in the match.
PAC might have won that night, but the lasting effects have been Cassidy becoming a beloved mainstay in the company and has evolved beyond his lazy, relaxed, sheepish persona to someone who is a consistent fixture and former multi-time champion in AEW. That all came to a head in late 2022. PAC had become the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic (now International) Champion at Forbidden Door that year. He went on to defend the championship six times in the back half of the year, and on his seventh defence he and Cassidy renewed pleasantries in Toronto, Canada. That night PAC put over Cassidy and kickstarted OC’s 326-day reign as All-Atlantic/International Champion, bringing everything full circle from their 2020 encounter at Revolution.
Does he have better matches from a technical standpoint? Definitely. His work with Cassidy though is what you would perceive to be outside his comfort zone. You presume all he ever did were these insane physical matches punctuated by his athletic gifts, beautiful Black Arrow finisher, or his sheer intensity as he maniacally locked in the Brutalizer and yelled at his opponents to tap out. However, then you watch his matches with Cassidy and you begin to see the full picture of who he was. You see the gifted athlete, yes, but then you also see the storyteller and how giving he was to make those stories both a reality and memorable.
Benjamin Satterley was only 40 years old, but the impact he had on wrestling was far-reaching. In the last few days it’s become clear how much he has inspired not just a globe’s worth of professional wrestlers and fans alike, but more importantly, those who he inspired from his home country and the British wrestling scene. He demonstrated what was possible, that success was attainable no matter where you come from, and that you could do it at a high level that few if any could jump high enough to grasp.
PAC’s legacy as the man gravity forgot accounts for so much more than wrestling itself. In some ways it’s a credo for how to carry yourself, how he acted and helped the people he worked with. How readily he’d “jump” to offer advice even when it wasn’t needed, or be a lent ear when it mattered. That much has become clear since Monday morning once others started sharing their memories of him. There’s no shortage of memories from the people who loved him, ranging from his friends, his boss, and even TKO board member Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. All echo the same thing about him.
One that I saw that summed him up though came from Giancarlo Dittamo (@yeahgiancarlo on Twitter/X) who is a digital content producer for AEW. He’s worked with PAC for years on many of those amazing, intense promos he’s done. Most recently though Giancarlo filmed the memorial tributes for Andy “The Butcher” Williams after his passing, and when it came for PAC to do his, the two of them broke down as PAC was talking about Andy. In spite of that, all PAC cared about was getting it right for his friend. So in spite of the sadness and tears, he did a second take because he cared that much.
Years go by and times like this happen. The knee-jerk is to wonder why, or exclaim we only just saw him Saturday wrestling a fantastic match with Andrade. But what we have to hold on to are the memories he gave us from each time he wrestled a match and defied physics like he was putting on socks. We remember his ability, but also the intensity he delivered to make what he envisioned a reality. He will be front and centre in the hearts and minds of AEW during their Dynamite tribute to him, and especially so when Will Ospreay and Ricochet have their tribute match to him. PAC’s legacy is enshrined in those people, and for as long as digital media exists, fans will always have a way to remember the work of the man that gravity forgot and had been chasing ever since.
