Newcastle-born wrestler Benjamin Satterley dies aged 40

Newcastle-born wrestler Benjamin Satterley, better known to fans as PAC or Neville, has died aged 40.

“2015-03-30_18-36-57_ILCE-6000_DSC01982” by Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma, CC BY-SA 2.0

This comes the day after Satterley performed at AEW’s pay-per-view event, All Out. He was found unresponsive in his car in Des Plaines, Illinois, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Satterley grew up in Newcastle and became a wrestling fan after being banned from watching it at home. He would go to his aunt’s house to watch, and that was where he fell in love with the business. He worked his way through local backyard wrestling promotions before earning his big break in 2012, when he joined WWE’s Performance Center in Florida. He went on to become an NXT champion. Satterley established himself in WWE and AEW, facing major stars such as John Cena, Seth Rollins and Kenny Omega at events including WrestleMania.

Satterley was always proud to be a Geordie representing on the global level referencing his upbringing in a “small mining town” in multiple interviews across his career after winning titles and held the city close to his hear revisiting frequently and even bringing fellow WWE Superstar current WWE World Champion Sami Zayn to a Newcastle United game.

Local Wrestling journalist Jack ‘The Jobber’ King said: “In a notoriously subjective and hypercritical industry, everybody respected PAC’s talent. He was so gifted a wrestler, but so selfless in terms of elevating his peers that it often became easy to take his ability for granted. He was a true athletic marvel and a model of consistency, globally respected among his fellow stars as the breadth of tributes has shown. PAC deserves to be remembered in the same light as a very select elite, and will be.”

Fans shared a similar mindset with local Fan Josh Golphin describing PAC as “someone us locals could view with pride as he represented us on a global scale” this mindset from Geordies is shown through the memorial for PAC which was placed on monument in Newcastle to pay tribute to his life.

He was known as the man that gravity forgot in WWE but the wrestling community will never forget the legacy Benjamin Satterley left behind as one of the greatest British wrestlers of all time.