All Elite Wrestling opened Wednesday’s “Dynamite” broadcast by honoring Pac, the wrestler born Benjamin Satterley, who died Sunday at age 40, just hours after the company’s All Out pay-per-view.
Wrestlers on the roster gathered on stage as broadcaster Tony Schiavone addressed the loss directly. Schiavone then played a promo Jon Moxley had cut after losing the AEW World Championship to Will Ospreay in the pay-per-view’s main event. Pac stood among the Death Riders stable at the time, alongside Marina Shafir, Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta. Schiavone noted it was the last time Pac appeared on AEW cameras.
Moxley’s words, delivered after the loss, took on new weight in replay.
“I gave everything I had. I took every shot I had to the best of my ability. I have no regrets. Will Ospreay is indomitable. It’s just part of the game, though, man. You’re gonna lose. I don’t care who you are, you’re gonna lose. You gotta know how to lose. You’re gonna lose in wrestling. You’re gonna lose in life. You’re gonna lose people. You’re gonna lose opportunities. You’re not going to get what you deserve. You’re not always going to get what you earned. Things aren’t always going to go your way. But what are you gonna do?”
“You gotta smile, get up tomorrow and do it again and just give it your best every single day because every single day is a gift. Do you know what it’s like to walk out in front of a sold out crowd? Chicago? New York? Tokyo? Sold-out crowd like tonight? Surrounded by your friends, teammates, these great people that pay that money they work hard all week for to see you do? The opportunity to be out there in the ring? Out there in the ring, doing this job, the best job in the world? There is nothing better than that.”
“Every day is a gift. Look, I’m serious, Will. You won tonight. You were the better man tonight. You are the best in the ring. Congratulations. All you have earned is more hard work. There’s two kinds of eulogies at funerals. One of them is, ‘This is what this guy did.’ The other one is, ‘This is who this guy was.’ When I’m dead, burned up and I’m ashes and I’m in the wind, I know which eulogy I want to have. I know what I want people to say about me at my funeral. I know what I expect from you, Will. After a couple years, I still don’t think anybody sees it, man.”
“They don’t see what we have. What this place can be. What we’ve been gifted. What’s at stake. The future of professional wrestling, our craft, what we grew up dreaming of doing, what kids around the world – just like us, nobodies from nowhere – what they’re growing up dreaming of doing right now. We have the future in pro wrestling in the palm of our hands. Whatever pro wrestling is gonna be, it’s going to be what we make it, Will Ospreay, anybody else, who has the guts to do what it takes to be great, to really be great, to really grab life by the ba—s, to take this opportunity, to take this gift and do something with it. Do something with it.”
In the footage, after Moxley finished speaking and walked off with Shafir, Yuta and Garcia, Pac stood apart in the corner, hair hanging over his face, arms crossed, before turning to follow the group off camera for the final time.
Wednesday’s show carried that moment into the present. Moxley opened the night defending the AEW Continental Championship against Orange Cassidy. As he walked out, a chair sat empty at the side of the arena in Pac’s honor. Moxley beat Cassidy to retain the title.
As Moxley stood in the ring afterward, AEW veteran Bryan Danielson’s music played. Danielson, visibly emotional, walked to the ring and embraced Moxley, setting aside their long rivalry for one moment to honor their fallen colleague.
