PAC RIP

[Jazzy G]

I just saw a headline about a tribute when I opened Chrome. Absolutely shocking. He was fantastic in AEW. Heck he was good when they were trying to make him do all that Mighty Mouse nonsense in WWE. As echoed here 40 is no age. What a terrible, senseless loss. Thoughts go out to his family and friends. 

[WyattSheepMask]

This is absolutely devastating news.
My friend Shaun has a video tucked away somewhere of me and PAC working a match when we used to do Backyard Wrestling. He can’t have been any older than 15 at the time, 16 at the absolute most, but even then you knew he had the potential to be a big star.

A couple of years later we’re at 1PW and the opener of Know Your Enemy is a Triple Threat between Stevie Lynn, Dragon Aisu and PAC. We’d seen Stevie and Dragon on a few shows but this was the first time seeing PAC, or as one of our group pointed out during his entrance “holy fuck that’s Ben!” since our Backyarding days. Got over incredibly quickly and was off to the U.S. within a couple of years.

Its the suddenness of it all that’s so devastating.

Edited 3 minutes ago by WyattSheepMask

[westlondonmist]

What the fuck man. I did not expect this. Guy was younger than me, that's scary. 

[Supremo]

Horrendous news.

I too was going to post that Orange Cassidy match. It’s still one of my favourite matches ever. Like a Proof of Concept of not only how the Orange Cassidy character could work in a mainstream promotion, but also how perfect AEW could be if you mixed the PWG/NJPW-style work with WWE-style comedy and characters. It’s the quintessential AEW match. There’s no greater joy to be had than watching Pac chase Orange rolling around the ring as they both struggle not to laugh. Six years on, I’m still not sure there’s a better combination of characters than Pac and Orange.

It goes without saying that he leaves behind one of the greatest match catalogs imaginable, but his character work also needs to be highlighted. Who else in a post-kayfabe world was so dedicated to the act that not only did you never see or hear him out of character, but the very idea of him wearing normal clothes seemed alien?! Wild that in 2026 he managed to develop a character similar to something you’d see in the 1980s, where you can’t imagine him living in the real world, doing normal things like shopping for food, and even if you try to imagine it he’s always wearing his wrestling gear.

The Full Gear pay per view was named after his dedication to only ever wear his trunks, wasn’t it? I hope they turn that into some sort of tribute.

Big shout for him seemingly knowing his worth, too. Isn’t he one of those wrestlers who simply decided to fuck WWE off, and just went home until they eventually agreed to release him? Hell yeah.

Might as well post this. Easily TV match of the year. So much fun. Sunset Flip into the bunker! Incredible.

A huge loss. I can’t imagine what people in that company must be going through. What an unbelievably shit couple of weeks.

Edited 54 minutes ago by Supremo

[Surf Digby]

At this point in my life, I really shouldn't be surprised at reading about another wrestler dying young, but this one really caught me.

Maybe it's because he was home grown, or because he was someone I'd seen around, not just on screen, or from sitting 40 feet away in the audience. There's a sense that he was "one of us". The only comfort I can think of is that he was able to make such a significant impact outside of the UK, that he'll be rightfully remembered as the extraordinary talent that he was.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

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.

Incredible post. Thank you, Harmy. I love this.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Shocking and very sad.

I first saw PAC on the undercard of a 1PW show in 2006. I dont think I had ever heard of him at the time. A few minutes into the match, my brother and I discussed that he was really reminding us of the Dynamite Kid. Obviously thats a huge shout for any British Wrestler. But with his compact / very muscular build, his intensity etc. it felt like an obvious comparison.

I remember he really broke out not long after that and there was a particular match vs El Generico that had people going absolutely crazy over his potential. 

Dragon Gate was a great move for him at the time. He was working a heavier schedule with an insanely talented roster. Easy to mention names like Shingo, Cima, Tozawa etc. but even the guys who didn't become bigger names elsewhere such as Yamato, BxB Hulk, Susumo Yokosuka etc. were incredible workers. He developed so much during this time.

I saw PAC (Neville at the time) v Generico (Sami Zayn by then) wrestle on a WWE house show many years after all of the above. I wasn't really following at the time but got a freebie for the show. One of those nice moments where you are glad certain guys have made it. 

Edited 43 minutes ago by Ironic Indie Lad

[JLM]

Yeah it’s been nice to see the Dragon Gate roster sharing their memories as well. Obviously incredibly well respected as a performer but the posts highlighting what a top man he was have been really touching. Masaaki Mochizuki said he was the only foreign wrestler to ever be invited to stay at his mum’s house. 

This one from Bryce Remsburg about PAC bringing Kinder eggs and Newcastle shirts over for his kids: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd0cmPXERBb/?stkn=MTRscnRlZDUwb2U1Zg==

Poor Marina Shafir got the news minutes before going out for a match and then spoke to the crowd afterwards as she was processing the news, that was heartbreaking. 

A huge loss to us as fans but obviously feel so sorry for the people who knew him. Just awful.

[Chili]

Sister sent the memorial photo to me so that's what I woke up to.

Absolutely mad news, honestly no idea how to process it yet. What a massive tragedy, always a tremendously intense performance whether it was having those mad trios matches with the Elite or having a proper fun piss about with Orange Cassidy. Always an incredibly believable act.

[Chris B]

The way he was able to reinvent what people thought of him so many times was amazing. His style wasn't really the kind of thing WWE went for for a long time, and by the time he got there, he was quickly stuck in the cruiserweight box. When he realised they weren't going to take it seriously, he not only left WWE behind, but he became a credible guy to slot into the main event at any time. And now, I think he'll be near the top of the list of 'should have held a world championship'.

He was a convincing, terrifying bastard who made you grin while watching him. That he was able to be that character so consistently, while never losing sight of what a deeply silly thing pro-wrestling is, meant that he could do funny and silly stuff while never looking like a joke. He came across like he could beat the shit out of anyone, while giving them one of their best matches.

And it feels like 'oh, he was really good at pro-wrestling' is short-changing him. Considering some of the places he worked and people he was around, he seems to have kept grounded and just been a tremendous guy. It seems like he was as lovely to know as he was fun to watch.

[RedTwoster]

24 minutes ago, Surf Digby said:

At this point in my life, I really shouldn't be surprised at reading about another wrestler dying young, but this one really caught me.

Although there have been some high-profile wrestler deaths in recent years, it's happened significantly less with this generation of wrestlers, I think. It's become surprising again, but this one has absolutely shocked me. PAC had achieved so much and influenced so many, yet it still feels like there is a whole brilliant chapter of his story that will go unwritten. @Supremo sharing his incredible match with Darby kind of shows why. A character like that probably shouldn't have worked as well as he did in quirky or even comedic circumstances. It could have taken away his menacing aura but it never did, he still felt like he had it in him to absolutely destroy you without warning. He was one of the most terrifying heels in wrestling because he played the character so well. 

7 minutes ago, Chili said:

Absolutely mad news, honestly no idea how to process it yet. What a massive tragedy, always a tremendously intense performance whether it was having those mad trios matches with the Elite or having a proper fun piss about with Orange Cassidy. Always an incredibly believable act.

I'm finding myself wanting to talk lots about him this morning. It's probably in part because I don't want to think about the finality of this, but as devastating as this is, I feel like it's so important to celebrate him. He's been part of some of the most memorable and creative matches that have ever taken place in wrestling, but because his body of work is so strong, it's so easy to forget about any one great match when it's so swiftly followed by another. 

[DavidB6937]

I know it's been mentioned a few times but the fact he was able to wrestle his style as a heel is something so rare. I can't think of many guys that have been able to convincingly pull off a heel persona while doing moves like PAC did. Obviously he mixed them in with more grounded stuff and brought the intensity which helped, as well as a willingness to commit to the character as well. He just had a real understanding of what he was looking to do that so many could only dream of.

[herbie747]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

 

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.

I was filming this show and was blown away by his talent. And a lovely guy too.

IWW brought him in the following year and he worked a bunch of TV tapings. What a talent and such a tragic loss. 

[FLips]

It sounds like daft praise to give, but the first ever live wrestling show me and my mates ever went to was one of the 3CW ones he was on, and knowing nothing about British Wrestling assumed the lad called Pac was just going to be an X Pac tribute. Obviously you only had to see him once to know how far from true that was.