When describing the mood of the wrestling world yesterday (Sept. 27) after learning of Benjamin “PAC” Satterley’s death, it’s tempting to say something flowery like, “it was a day unlike any other”.
Unfortunately, it was a day that pro wrestling is pretty familiar with. The circumstances are never exactly the same, of course. But the feelings are similar — and in just the past few years we’ve been through similar days and emotions following the too-soon deaths of Jon “Brodie Lee” Huber and Windham
“Bray Wyatt” Rotunda.
A good wrestling show is a welcome distraction, and in large part last night’s episode of WWE Raw did the trick. But even as we’re enjoying the latest twists in the brand’s big faction warfare angle, and some literal car crash television — PAC, fka Neville, is still on our minds.
WWE made sure of it with their memorial graphic at the start of the show…
And while some took issue with the choice of the kayfabe name WWE included, was in line with how the promotion honored Huber immediately after we learned of his death six years ago.
It also wasn’t the only way Satterley was honored on the show. As British wrestling journalist Alex McCarthy helpfully collected for us, at least three members of the Raw roster wore their late friend’s name on their person during last night’s broadcast. Becky Lynch and PAC/Neville both came from the wrestling fellowship across the pond, and came up in WWE through NXT together with Bayley. Penta and his brother Rey Fenix teamed with PAC as the Death Triangle in AEW.
WWE has two more shows this week. One is NXT, where Satterley was the brand’s champion a decade or so ago, and the other is SmackDown, which has a roster featuring several of his indie and NXT “brothers” like Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens. We’ll see what the company does on either of those shows, and brace ourselves for an emotional Wednesday night.
