PAC Dead at 40: AEW Star Known as Neville in WWE, Cause of Death

• Benjamin Satterley, the wrestler known as PAC in AEW and Neville in WWE, has died. He was 40.
• AEW announced his death on the night of Sunday, Sept. 27, without a cause, a place or any other details.
• He had wrestled the night before, opening the All Out pay-per-view in a title match he lost to Andrade El Ídolo.

Benjamin Satterley, the Newcastle-born wrestler who was PAC in All Elite Wrestling and Neville in WWE, has died. He was 40.

AEW announced it in a statement posted at 9:06 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 27, a day after he wrestled on the company’s All Out pay-per-view outside Chicago. The statement said he “held multiple AEW Championships and competed in some of the most memorable matches in AEW history.”

What was PAC’s cause of death?

AEW’s statement does not say. It gives no cause, no place and no account of how he died, and closes with condolences to “Satterley’s family, friends and fans.”

No cause had been made public as of Monday, Sept. 28. AEW President Tony Khan posted his own tribute less than two hours after the announcement, and it did not address how he died either.

What is on the record is his final weekend. On Saturday, Sept. 26, he opened the All Out card at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, challenging Andrade El Ídolo for the AEW National Championship.

Andrade won and kept the title, his fifth successful defense. According to AEW’s official results, PAC went through his signature offense in the match, including a moonsault from the top rope to the floor, a 450 splash and his submission hold, the Brutalizer.

This is AEW’s own video of that match, the last of his career.

Why was PAC called Neville in WWE?

Because WWE renamed him. Satterley had wrestled as PAC since his debut in 2004, in the north of England, and made that name in Japan’s Dragon Gate promotion, where he held the Open the Brave Gate Championship.

WWE signed him in 2012 and put him in NXT, then its developmental brand, as Adrian Neville. The company generally creates and owns the ring names used on its shows, so a name like Neville stays behind when the wrestler leaves.

As Neville he won the NXT Championship in a ladder match against Bo Dallas at NXT ArRival in February 2014. He held it for 287 days, until he lost it to Sami Zayn that December.

WWE billed him as “The Man That Gravity Forgot” for his flying style. On the main roster he dropped the “Adrian,” and in 2017 he became a two-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion who called himself the King of the Cruiserweights.

He stopped appearing on WWE TV in October 2017, amid a reported contract dispute, and WWE released him in August 2018. When he signed with AEW in 2019, he went back to PAC, the name he had used before WWE.

What did PAC win in AEW?

AEW billed him as “The Bastard” PAC. He was the first AEW All-Atlantic Champion, crowned in 2022, a title the company has since renamed the International Championship.

He won the AEW World Trios Championship twice: first with Penta and Rey Fénix as Death Triangle, and later with Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta, his partners in Jon Moxley’s Death Riders faction, the group he was still part of at All Out.

How did wrestlers react to PAC’s death?

Tributes came from both companies he wrestled for and from promotions in Japan, Mexico and the U.K., including New Japan Pro-Wrestling, CMLL, Revolution Pro Wrestling and Dragon Gate. Khan wrote his on X.

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.

Tony Khan, AEW President, via X

Will Ospreay, the AEW World Champion and a fellow Englishman, called him “the greatest export from our country” and “also the greatest human being.” He signed off with PAC’s nickname: “Forever our BASTARD.”

Mustafa Ali, who worked alongside him in WWE’s cruiserweight division, wrote that “Ben protected and took care of the cruiserweight brothers every week.” He added: “I will never forget him standing up to the machine.”

From WWE, Kevin Owens wrote, “The best lad… We love you.” Paul Heyman called him “a tremendous talent and even finer human being,” and Rhea Ripley wrote that she was “speechless.”

More from Celebrities: what is known about Presley Gerber’s death at 27 and how New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert spent his last five years. Everything we’ve published on PAC is on his page.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: All Elite Wrestling, statement on X and allelitewrestling.com, Sept. 27, 2026; AEW, official All Out results, Sept. 26, 2026; Tony Khan, Will Ospreay, Mustafa Ali, Kevin Owens, Paul Heyman and Rhea Ripley on X, Sept. 27, 2026; NBC News (Rudy Chinchilla); CNN; POST Wrestling (Neal Flanagan); Wrestling Inc. (Sam Palmer); WWE (NXT and Cruiserweight Championship history). Photos: AEW roster portrait; frames from official videos by WWE, AEW, TBS and GAORA SPORTS (Dragon Gate).