HarmonicGenerator

I’m devastated. Truly. I didn’t think I’d get upset like this about a wrestler death again. But then, I never, ever, expected to wake up to this news. Didn’t expect to cry three times already; didn’t expect to be walking to the train station in a daze. PAC is my favourite wrestler. And I’m not just saying that. He’s a guy I’ve followed for almost his entire career, he’s the wrestler I’ve seen live more than any other, and I should not have to be saying this knowing I’ll never see him wrestle again. October 2nd, 2005. I’m at Eldon Leisure Centre in central Newcastle for MEW. The opening match was a six way cruiserweight thing, the draw of which was Spud from FWA. But then out comes this guy PAC, who nobody in the audience has heard of, and who blows everybody away. His athleticism, his speed, his ability to fly. This show had former WWE guys, former ECW guys, ROH stars, big BritWres names, but it was PAC people were leaving talking about. 2006, 2007. I get to see him wrestle for MEW two more times, against Jody Fleisch and again Spud. The second of these shows has Christian Cage on it but I’m more excited when I see PAC at the bar of the Tyne Theatre and say hello. ‘Hello, I’m Ben’ he says, in a very quiet voice. I have friends now, in 2026, who knew him as Ben not PAC, and I hope they are doing okay, they’ll be so much more upset than I am right now. At one of these shows, PAC hits the most beautiful Shooting Star Press I’ve ever seen in my life. At the other, he debuts this new move, which we know now as the Black Arrow and my mind is blown again. I could not figure out how he did that. He jumps, he shooting stars, but he twists, in the flip? It’s been nearly twenty years - for fuck’s sake, he hit on on Ace Austin last week - and I’ve still never understood how he can fly like that. ‘The Man that Gravity Forgot’ was the truest nickname. I’ve got some terrible digital camera photos of those shows, I’ll see if I can dig them out because I bet I got the Arrow on camera. From there, it was clear PAC was set for big things, and I was thrilled to see him get booked for FWA, then IPW:UK, then America! It was in PWG he had matches with El Generico that really got him noticed, who was this British guy who could flip and fly and wrestle like nothing anyone had seen before? From there it was on to Dragon Gate and I felt really proud for some bizarre parasocial reason. Here’s this lad from Gateshead, from tiny North East Indies to making it in Japan! Then he got signed to WWE. It’s 2015, and I’ve gone to the NXT tour at the Newcastle Arena. It’s not full, but there’s a couple of thousand people in, and PAC comes out to wrestle Baron Corbin. At the Arena! He gets a great reception even though he’s got a stupid name, and happily he wins. That’s the peak, right? Eldon Leisure to the Arena? On TV, they never quite know where to put him, until he becomes the focal point of 205 Live and turns it into my favourite WWE show. The show revolves around him and he grows his character to match. This incredible athlete, this gymnast, should be a natural babyface, but 205 Live is where The Bastard starts. He adds the Brutaliser as a finisher, and uses ground moves and submissions much more often. He can fucking do it all. It’s 2019. Along comes AEW. This new super Indy with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes, okay fine. It’s when they announce PAC has signed that I start to take proper notice and plan to watch their TV show. On ITV! I’m watching PAC on ITV! And he knocks it out of the park in the ring against the likes of Omega and Orange Cassidy. The commentators constantly acknowledge him as one of the best all-round wrestlers in the world. They did that this weekend, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How could this happen. It’s Covid, and PAC can’t get across to America. So instead he starts filming promos and it’s this insane thrill seeing him strolling like a mardy bastard past the Monument and across Sycamore Gap, on American wrestling TV, doing proper, full promos in his proper accent, and it’s brilliant. There’s certain promo words that just sounded better coming from PAC - ‘Bastard’ being one of them - and then he’d throw in a ‘Bonny lad’ or a ‘Billy big bollocks’ and how could you not love him. It’s 2024, and I’m at Wembley Stadium for the second All In. Yes, Bryan Danielson winning the title was an all-time great moment. Yes, the surprises in the Casino Gauntlet were an absolute thrill. But one of my favourite moments of that night was seeing PAC in the Trios Ladder Match. This guy who I’d seen blow them all away in a Newcastle leisure centre twenty years earlier is wrestling at Wembley Stadium. And he won! He fucking won at Wembley! It’s 2025, and I’m at the Manchester Co-Op for Dynamite and Collision. It’s Continental Classic season and we’re expecting good matches. The best one by some distance is PAC against Kyle Fletcher. I’ve got photos and videos of some of the stuff they do in that match, which was an absolute thriller. I still can’t figure out how he does the Black Arrow. It’s 2026, and I’m in bed on Sunday morning watching PAC against Andrade and it’s 24 hours later and I can’t believe that is the last time he’s ever going to wrestle and I can’t believe it was his last full day on Earth. This one has hit me hard and I am only some geeky fan on the internet. I can’t imagine how much harder it must be for his friends, his colleagues, his family. It’s awful. It’s awful. It’s awful and I hate it and I hope they’re all okay and I wish, I wish this hadn’t happened. Rest in peace, you Bastard. My favourite wrestler.

Suggestion in the All Out thread is that the show’s been hidden way down the page due to an injury suffered in one of the matches. They haven’t removed that match from the show but it was a very scary situation and they may not feel it’s appropriate to put it front and centre on MyAEW right now. That’s the theory anyway.

Obviously the first thought is that I hope Steven Borden will be okay. That was so frightening to watch. I just hope he’s okay. Not much else to say about the first half of the show other than Okada is the most magnificent dickhead. My heel of the year for sure. Things stepped up several levels from the Trios Match onwards, so you’re in for a treat when you get to the rest of the show @Supremo. Trios Match was ace, everybody on top form. Brodido great, New Level great, and every single second Hangman and Swerve interacted was electric. It’s true magic when you put those two against each other. It’s good enough to make you feel like you can be a Hangman fan again. Willow vs Thekla was very good, the targeting of the hand was the logical move and they used it well. Thekla and Mercedes will be a cracker. Ladder Match was as well put together as you could hope for, it never felt like a “do a spot, lie around and watch and wait for your next spot” match like every WWE ladder match I’ve seen for the past 15 years. Well done to them. I love Ospreay’s special Assassin’s Creed entrances. They’re corny as hell but I love them. Match was very entertaining, I enjoyed the big schmozzy run-in section because it gave it something different to the rest of the show. Excellent show overall, with the very big caveat of Borden’s injury and the worry for him. They handled it as well as they could, but I hope we’ll hear some additional positive news about it soon.

Those of us in the Paid section know the hard work and effort that went into this post by Thunderplex. It deserves recognition

The thing that was confused me was Ciampa (and maybe the commentators) repeatedly mentioning that in 2018, him vs Okada was the dream match everyone was talking about. Was it? That was when we were all neck deep in Ciampa vs Gargano matches. I guess someone might have said “if this was Okada instead of Johnny it would probably be much less melodramatic” but were we all begging for Ciampa-Okada and I just missed it?

The feud is carrying on at least until Blood & Guts (that’s surely the point of AEW setting up its own United Empire). I can’t see them ever turning on him, they’re such a grey area that the idea of a ‘turn’ barely makes sense. They try and kill top babyfaces, but the same top babyfaces are either fine to carry on as normal afterwards, or in Ospreay’s case, thank them for it. It’s so weird.

I hadn’t seen any Mysterio in WCW, so the first I’d heard of him were the mask-themed vignettes hyping him turning up in WWE in 2002. “Think you’ve seen high flying? You ain’t seen nothing yet” had me immediately buying into this guy. His debut match against Chavo was good, but it was his run-in during the Cage Match main event (Edge vs Jericho?) that was the real grabber. Rey climbed up that cage with such speed and then just leapt off the top of it with a beautiful cross body onto everyone. Straight away, night 1, you knew this was someone special. They very quickly moved him away from the cruisers and into a feud with Angle after that. I’m not a huge fan anymore, I think it was that stupid ridiculous pathetic Eye For An Eye match during Covid that made me lose all my interest in Rey.

I've been there as a tourist for exhibitions and for Star Wars Celebration, they do have cafes in the Excel. Or rather, there's definitely a Costa. Nothing world-shattering but you'd be able to pass the time.

Bron Breakker and… Brok Breakker? The Breakker Bros? I’m never going to see them unless it’s the Royal Rumble or maybe WrestleMania, but I want this.

Springsteen at the top, you love to see it.

2007 over here, having migrated from The Wrestling Channel forum. I think the UKFF 50 was the first thing that caught my interest, and I remember it was already such a strong community (although scarier then than it is now). Since then, through twatlists and battle raps, Shitarse 50s and organising the rounds for the paper boys, which involved organising the rounds for the paper boys, kwesh and cheese on, prune juice and chippy teas, awards and secret Santas and all the rest, this place has kept me sane and kept me interested in wrestling (not sure if the two are connected) for nearly 20 years now. I’ve only met @Kaz Hayashi in real life, but have had great chats with @Frankie Crisp and @Onyx2 as well. Let’s get it to 50 for some actual UKFF Gold! (Also, bring back UKFF Gold)

Tony, I know you’ll be too busy getting the show ready to pop on UKFF beforehand, but just in case you do, please just tell these two to CALM DOWN. Save their bodies.

Both Rose and Paul are in a new show called New Zealand Spy which has just been added to Now TV and which you might enjoy. Also has Bret from Flight of the Conchords.

This has reminded me that Hocus Pocus got its own legacy sequel a couple of years ago - which I think was largely forgotten the day after it came out. Edit: Although maybe not, because they're doing a third one?

I hope they make the Butcher Battle Royal an annual thing. Would be a nice lasting tribute to him.