AEW to Honor PAC With Special Tribute Episode of Dynamite
Some wrestling shows are about championships. Some are about rivalries. Some are about ratings, momentum and whatever comes next. Wednesday night isn't really about any of those things.
AEW Dynamite will emanate from the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 30, but this week's show will carry considerably more weight than another stop on the company's calendar. AEW will honor the life, career and legacy of Benjamin Satterley — PAC — following his sudden passing at just 40 years old.
Tony Khan announced the tribute during Monday's Ring of Honor television tapings in Jacksonville, where an emotional Khan addressed the crowd before a ten-bell salute and moment of silence. Khan also revealed something that deserves to be mentioned.
Every wrestler who competed at those ROH tapings, as well as those choosing to compete on Wednesday's Dynamite, was given the option not to wrestle.
Those who step through the curtain Wednesday are doing so voluntarily.
They're doing it for Ben.
Sometimes Wrestling Is How Wrestlers Grieve: That's something I think fans watching at home should understand. Wrestlers have a strange relationship with grief. The show continuing doesn't necessarily mean the people involved aren't hurting.
Sometimes it's exactly the opposite.
Wrestling becomes the place you put that hurt.
You lace your boots. You walk through the curtain. You hear the crowd. For however long you're between those ropes, you get to communicate something without necessarily having to find the words for it. I've always believed professional wrestling is a language of its own.
Wednesday may be one of those nights.
Because PAC wasn't simply another name on AEW's roster. He was one of the wrestlers there near the beginning. He wrestled on AEW's first pay-per-view, Double or Nothing 2019, and became an integral part of the company's identity over the years that followed.
Death Triangle.
The Black Arrow.
The Brutalizer.
Championships.
Matches that made you wonder whether gravity had personally offended him. And an intensity that never required him to become the biggest man in the room to somehow feel like one of the most dangerous.
Pittsburgh Carries Its Own Piece of PAC History: There is also something fitting about where Wednesday's tribute will happen. When AEW first brought Dynamite to Pittsburgh in October 2019, PAC competed against Jon Moxley in the main event. Seven years later, AEW returns to Pittsburgh under circumstances nobody could have imagined.
The building will be different.
The company is different.
Professional wrestling is different.
But PAC's fingerprints are everywhere.
You can see them in the wrestlers who followed him. You can see them in the evolution of heavyweight wrestling, where being smaller stopped automatically meaning wrestling small. You can see them every time somebody combines frightening athleticism with the kind of physical intensity that makes every movement look like it actually matters. PAC didn't wrestle like he was trying to prove high-flying wrestling belonged in the main event. He wrestled like the argument had already been settled.
The Wrestling World Has Been Saying Goodbye: The response to Satterley's passing has stretched far beyond AEW. WWE opened Monday Night Raw with a memorial graphic honoring the man its audience knew as Neville. Bayley wore an armband bearing “BEN.” Penta honored PAC during his match. Across promotions, countries and generations, wrestlers have shared stories about the performer they respected and the man they loved. Monday's ROH tapings began with a ten-bell salute...
Wednesday belongs to AEW.
And perhaps that is one of the few beautiful things that can emerge from an otherwise awful moment. Professional wrestling spends an enormous amount of time dividing itself. Promotions compete. Fans argue. Tribalism turns wrestling companies into sports teams. Then something happens that reminds everyone that underneath the logos, television deals and championship belts exists a remarkably small community of people who understand exactly what it takes to do this. Suddenly none of those imaginary borders matter very much.
For Ben
There will still be wrestling Wednesday.
There should be.
PAC devoted more than two decades of his life to this strange, beautiful business.
The bell will ring.
People will wrestle.
A crowd will cheer.
There will undoubtedly be tears.
And somewhere between all of it, thousands of people in Pittsburgh — and considerably more watching around the world — will get the opportunity to say goodbye. There are wrestlers whose championships become their legacy. There are wrestlers whose matches become their legacy. And then there are wrestlers whose influence becomes so embedded in the generation that follows them that eventually you stop noticing where it came from.
PAC may very well belong in that last category.
Wednesday night isn't simply another episode of Dynamite.
It's for Ben.