If I told you that Benjamin Slattery passed away yesterday, you might feel some sadness, but then you would question who Benjamin Slattery was.
He was better known among All Elite Wrestling fans as the highly intense and gymnastically gifted wrestler from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England – the Bastard PAC.
Prior to his time in AEW, PAC wrestled in the WWE under the name of Adrian Neville, advertising himself as “The Man who Gravity Forgot.” And he had a ton of fantastic matches in WWE’s cruiserweight division, with some matches being card show-stealers.
By the time he moved from WWE’s developmental NXT brand to the main roster, Pac dropped the “Adrian” surname and had some banger matches in front of major crowds.
Here he is in a match from ten years ago, taking Seth Rollins to the limit.
After his WWE contract ran out, Neville moved to All Elite Wrestling, where he competed under the name of “The Bastard PAC.” And his intensity ramped up. And one of the early AEW banger matches – one that convinced everybody that All Elite Wrestling was here to stay – was PAC’s battle against independent wrestler Orange Cassidy. A match so powerful that even the commentators – who previously passed off Orange Cassidy’s schtick as a joke – came around as the match progressed.
PAC would later win AEW gold as part of the trios team Death Triangle, where he, Rey Fenix and Penta El 0 Miedo defended the AEW Trios titles in several incredible matches. He would also claim the AEW All-Atlantic Title, eventually losing it to Orange Cassidy.
Just last year, in a battle at one of AEW’s premier live events, AEW All Out, PAC battled fellow Brit and wrestling sensation Will Ospreay in arguably the five-star match of the night.
Unfortunately, this morning I woke up and read the morning news – and discovered that PAC had passed away. Cause of death – unknown. The man was only 40. Ugh.
Thank you, PAC, for a life well spent in the entertainment of professional wrestling. Your British strong style and intensity will not be missed.
Ugh. Being a pro wrestling fan is tough these days – in the past couple of weeks, we lost Andy Williams (a/k/a The Butcher), and wrestler Rebel recently announced a diagnosis of end-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
And if there is an afterworld, a destination in that etherial void of life …
Beware. A bastard is coming.
