AEW star PAC, wrestling's 'Man That Gravity Forgot,' dies at 40 after final match

Benjamin Satterley, the British professional wrestler known to fans around the world as PAC and, during a six-year run in WWE, as Neville, died on Sunday at the age of 40, less than 48 hours after wrestling in the opening match of All Elite Wrestling's All Out pay-per-view. His death was confirmed in a statement posted by All Elite Wrestling, which offered no cause of death and asked for privacy for his family.

Satterley wrestled his final match on Saturday night at AEW's All Out pay-per-view at NOW Arena in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, losing an AEW National Championship match to Andrade El Idolo in the show's opener. He also appeared later in the night during the main event, interjecting himself into the AEW World Championship match between Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley as part of the villainous Death Riders faction. AEW has not disclosed how or when he died, and no medical examiner's findings had been made public as of Monday.

The numbers

Satterley was born on August 22, 1986, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and began training as a wrestler in 2004, at 18. Over a two-decade career he worked for promotions spanning several continents before signing with WWE in 2012, where he wrestled as Adrian Neville and, later, simply Neville. His résumé, drawn from ESPN's and NBC News' reporting, includes:

• A 287-day reign as NXT Champion and two runs as NXT Tag Team Champion
• Two reigns as WWE Cruiserweight Champion, the first lasting 197 days
• Seven years with All Elite Wrestling after signing in 2019
• A reign as the promotion's inaugural All-Atlantic (later International) Champion in 2022
• Two runs as AEW World Trios Champion, in 2022 and again in 2025

He was 40 years, one month and five days old at the time of his death, and had wrestled competitively for 22 years.

How he got here

Satterley built his reputation on the independent circuit and in Japan and Mexico, working for promotions including Dragon Gate, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre before WWE signed him in 2012. As Adrian Neville, he became one of the first champions of the developmental brand NXT, and later helped headline WWE's short-lived Cruiserweight Classic era, a stretch he discussed at length in a 2016 interview posted on WWE's own site about carrying the company's cruiserweight division. He left WWE in 2017, and resurfaced two years later in All Elite Wrestling, the upstart promotion founded that year, rebranding as PAC and, in storyline, "the Bastard." He spent his AEW tenure aligned first with the Death Triangle faction alongside Rey Fenix and Penta, and more recently with the villainous Death Riders stable led by Jon Moxley, becoming one of the promotion's most consistent in-ring performers and a fixture of its biggest cards, including the record crowd at Wembley Stadium in 2024.

Who is affected

The immediate toll falls on Satterley's family and on the AEW locker room, where he was a founding-era signee and multiple-time champion, as well as on WWE's roster, many of whom crossed paths with him as Neville. Reaction also stretched into the broader British wrestling scene that produced him: Satterley trained and debuted on the UK independent circuit in Newcastle before ever reaching a national stage, and tributes framed him as one of the country's most influential wrestling exports of the past two decades. Longtime AEW referee Bryce Remsburg, quoted by NBC News, described him in personal terms, recalling that "to many, he was a bastard," using his AEW nickname, but "to my kids, he was Ben — who brought them Kinder Eggs from the UK, who converted them to Newcastle fans."

Reaction

AEW president Tony Khan, in a tribute shared shortly after the announcement, praised both the athlete and the man.

"Benjamin Satterley defined excellence, as a beloved husband & friend to his many loved ones, + in his wrestling knowledge, skill, unprecedented athleticism, professionalism, consistency + dedication to the sport that he loved & traveled the world to pursue. May Ben rest in peace."

Current AEW World Champion Will Ospreay, a fellow British wrestler who had wrestled Satterley on some of the promotion's largest shows, called him "the greatest export from our country" and "also the greatest human being." AEW commentator and wrestler Evil Uno said the company had "lost another great person, a great soul, a true professional." Tributes also came from across the industry divide: WWE performers including Rhea Ripley, who said she was "speechless," posted messages online, reflecting the degree to which Satterley's run as Neville had left a mark on wrestlers who came up during or after his time there.

What happens next

AEW has not announced funeral arrangements or said whether it will alter its television schedule to address Satterley's death; the promotion's next studio show, Dynamite, is expected to serve as a platform for an on-air tribute, following a pattern the company and its rivals have used after previous deaths in the wrestling industry. No cause of death has been released, and it remains unclear whether one will be made public by the family or by local authorities in Illinois, where he wrestled his final match. For now, the wrestling world's response has centered on tributes rather than explanation, with current and former colleagues describing a performer whose in-ring style — built around aerial risk-taking that earned him the nickname "The Man That Gravity Forgot" — helped shape two different promotions' identities over parallel eras of the business.