A collection of tributes to Benjamin Satterley, known by the in-ring personas Neville and PAC, was uploaded by WWE on Wednesday.
A series of WWE talents offered up their thoughts about the Newcastle-born wrestler, who tragically passed away last month at the age of 40.
The 39-minute video includes comments from Kevin Owens, Becky Lynch, Cody Rhodes, Bayley, Sami Zayn, Big Cass, Penta, Rey Fenix, Tyson Kidd, William Regal, Finn Balor, and Corey Graves.
Here are a few quotes from the video, which you can watch in full below:
Kevin Owens:
“He was pretty much my favorite wrestler. I told everybody about him. But beyond that, he became such a great friend. As a performer, there’s nothing at all 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 one second that he was the best wrestler in the world because that just is not who he was … He was a fantastic person. When I first got on the main roster, he and I would get to travel together four or five days a week, he made me laugh so much. You know, 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 going to cherish those memories so much.”
Cody Rhodes
“The biggest thing about Ben that I think everyone will probably echo, the same sentiment, was how incredibly humble and kind- and those just sound like words, but when you’re in an ego-filled and selfish and all about ‘me, me, me’ [industry], and then you find someone who’s more talented then 99 percent of people, and it’s not about him. He was incredibly humble about his talent and his talent was beyond immense.”
Becky Lynch
“His love for Natalie, his wife, was like the stuff of fairy tales. Like this man was so dedicated, so loyal. Just you could see when you saw them together, it was a little piece of magic. And like I remember at that time having gone through disaster after disaster, I was like ‘Oh, wow, that is amazing. That is what I want one day. I want something like that,’ Because they were just so amazing together … You won’t hear a bad word said about him because there’s no bad words to say about him. He was amazing, and funny as well. Funny and smart. The kind of person you want to be like.”
Sami Zayn:
“I feel, because our bond was so close, that I feel this pressure that I know you would’ve felt to like, I don’t know, cry harder and tell better stories than anybody else, you know? Because you meant so much more to me than everybody else. And I don’t have it in me now, man. Not right now. Not right this minute. I don’t have the words. And trust me, man, I tried. I tried all week. I saw all these posts coming in and all these tribute videos and tributes. And then here I am feeling ashamed and feeling guilty like, god, I gotta say something, I got to do something. I just got to find the perfect words, the perfect pictures that show how close we really were, you know? And it doesn’t exist, man. It doesn’t exist. I have hundreds of pictures of us. I’m supposed to, what, choose a few to show the world, like, ‘Hey, look at us. You knew, we grew up together, hey.’ I’m supposed to find these perfect words to articulate this grief. And they don’t exist, man … We were so lucky. We had the best life, man, and we got to share it together. We got to share so much incredible things that people wouldn’t dream of, man. And I’m not going to go down the list of them. You knew and I know. And I’ll take it with me ’til I’m out of here, ’til it’s my turn. And I hope that day’s not a long, long way from now, so people don’t have to feel the pain over me that we’re all feeling over you right now, man … I am so blessed to have known you, and I am so lucky. I’m so lucky that I got to live the life I have, and I’m so lucky that you were such a big part of it for so long.”
Penta:
“The only thing I can say right now is that I thank god and life for having met you, and for having had a friend like you, for having been able to share the ring with you and alongside my brother, and for everything we achieved. And I only have words of gratitude for a great person, a great friend, and a great wrestler. PAC, we love you.”
Tyson Kidd:
“What people saw in the ring was only a fraction of who he really was, and he was the best of us in the ring, too. Backstage, he was one of the best guys, he’s just so fun to be around … I believe the Takeover I had with Ben, and of course the four-way following, but that singles match at that first Takeover, I believe that match really saved my job at the time … KO sent me a really nice message this morning, oddly enough, and what he said was very true. The reason why everybody had such great matches with Ben was because Ben was in them. And you didn’t have to worry about your own stuff because you knew he was gonna make all your stuff look awesome. He’s gonna make all his stuff look awesome and he’s gonna make all your stuff look awesome. So, you could be having a terrible day, where you’re completely off your game, and Ben will fix all that for you.”
William Regal:
“With the exception of my family, there’s maybe less than a handful of people in the world I thought more of than Ben … A lot of people try to do what he does, but none of them can do what he did because everything he did, he did with violent intent. And when people try to do what he did, or the style that he sort of was at the forefront of, I don’t want to offend anybody, but that is the thing that is lacking. It’s just the sheer menace of the man. And for anybody that knows anything about him, that wasn’t the man at all, far from it. Just a lovely, ska-loving, reggae-loving lad from Newcastle.”
Finn Balor:
“I just want to say thanks for being a friend. I’ll never forget meeting you for the first time on some wrestling mats in the basement of a church in Newcastle when we were just kids. And from there, we went on to be such great friends. From our nights out in Japan to our time together in NXT, traveling the world together with WWE to visiting my parents in Ireland, to visiting your wife and your mom in Newcastle, and having cups of tea together. I think our bond was so strong because we had such similar upbringings, such similar values … You’ll be with me everywhere I go. And like we would always say, ‘What a laugh, mate.’ What a laugh I had with you. I can’t thank you enough. I love, you Ben.”
