Kevin Owens says the one thing that haunts him about PAC’s death is not knowing whether PAC knew how much he admired him. Owens was among the WWE wrestlers who recorded memories of Benjamin Satterley, known as Neville in WWE, for a nearly 40-minute tribute video the company released this week.
The video, posted on YouTube, also features Becky Lynch, Cody Rhodes, Bayley, Sami Zayn, Big Cass, Penta and Rey Fenix, TJ Wilson, William Regal, Finn Balor and Corey Graves. Satterley died on September 27 at 40, the day after he wrestled at AEW All Out in suburban Chicago.
Kevin Owens
Owens said he first met Satterley in 2006, when he was brought to England to wrestle him.
“I remember he was like really nervous before the match and pretty awkward. And then we went out and had that match. And when I came back, I told him, ‘Hey, you’re like the best wrestler I’ve ever seen, and ever worked with.’ And from that moment on, he was pretty much my favorite wrestler,” Owens said. “As a performer, there’s nothing at all that he couldn’t do better than anyone else. He could fly, he could brawl, he could do technical wrestling. Just better than anyone, truly. He could move better than anybody, and you would have never heard him ever imply for even one second that he was the best wrestler in the world, because that just is not who he was.”
He said the two traveled together four or five days a week when he first reached the main roster. “It’s difficult being away from the people you love for that long every week, but the silver lining was I’d get to spend time with Ben, and I am gonna cherish those memories so much,” he said.
“The one thing that I’m haunted by, selfishly, is that I don’t know if he knew how much I admired him and loved him,” Owens said. “So if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s to make sure that you tell the people you love how important they are to you when you can.”
Owens also mentioned “The Butcher” Andy Williams, who died weeks before Satterley. Owens never met Williams but said he knew the two were good friends. “When somebody leaves us, we always say they’re going to a better place, they’re in a better place. But from everything I’ve heard about Andy, and from everything I know about Ben, I’d say they’re the ones making it a better place now,” he said. “I loved you. I love you. I looked up to you, and I still do. And thank you for having been a part of my life.”
Rhodes said in a separate interview that the tribute camera at SmackDown was Owens’ idea and that at the time he did not know whether the video would be made public or kept for Satterley’s family.
Cody Rhodes
Rhodes said the two were not especially close, but that Satterley kept turning up at the milestones of his career, including their program that built to SummerSlam 2015 at Barclays Center, when Rhodes was Stardust. “That actually being able to culminate in this really, really exciting Barclays Center SummerSlam moment that did change my career and gave me an incredibly bright moment,” he said.
“The biggest thing about Ben that I think everyone will probably echo the same sentiment was how incredibly humble and kind,” Rhodes said. “If you’re in an industry that’s ego-filled and selfish and all about me, me, me, and then you find someone who’s more talented than 99% of the people, and it’s not about him.”
“As someone who has a wrestling school, I can tell you firsthand your style and your way about the industry will be mimicked and copied, and people will try to discover the magic of what you could do in the ring,” he said. “And I hope they can discover the magic of what you did outside the ring, which was just maintain your identity and be a good man.”
Bayley
Bayley said Satterley intimidated her when they were in NXT, until she and Carmella decided to win him over.
“Myself and Carmella are so annoying together that we were so determined to break this guy down,” she said. “He always played it cool and didn’t really pay much attention to us until there was one night we went out in Orlando and he brought his wife Natalie with him, and she liked us poking fun at him. And I felt like after that, that’s when he let us in, because his wife liked us, and he loved his wife so much.”
“He was a professional. He was very mature and he was very confident, but deep down he was just such a goofball,” she said. “Very sad for his family, his friends, and Natalie. We love you, and we love you, Ben.”
AEW held a tribute edition of Dynamite for Satterley in Pittsburgh on September 30, which drew 899,000 viewers on TBS, the show’s biggest cable audience since October 2023.
 in a nearly 40-minute WWE tribute video, from their first matches to life on the road.){kind=link}