The wrestling world is still mourning the death of Benjamin Satterley, who was most commonly known as PAC and Adrian Neville in AEW and WWE respectively. Since his passing, PAC’s career has had the spotlight shone on it as people highlight some of his most important matches and moments, but one moment that has flown under the radar was discussed by Dave Meltzer on a recent edition of “Wrestling Observer Radio.”
One week before the inaugural AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view in 2019, PAC faced Hangman Page at an independent event in Nottingham, England in what is seen by many as the first unofficial match in AEW history. The match between PAC and Page was set to take place at Double or Nothing, but PAC wasn’t in Las Vegas for that show for two reasons that Meltzer went into detail about.
“There was a VISA issue, and also he wouldn’t do a job essentially, and it was a match where I think Tony [Khan] didn’t want to open…I think it was a number one contenders match with Adam Page and PAC that was supposed to be on the pay-per-view to set up [Chris] Jericho and Adam Page at the [next] pay-per-view. They did it at a house show in the UK, they flew Page out there secretly and did the match which Page won by DQ. Again, he wouldn’t do the job because he was Dragon Gate Champion.”
Meltzer explained that one of the reasons PAC never did many interviews after he left WWE was because he wanted to keep kayfabe alive for himself and the companies he worked for. He didn’t want to lose while representing Dragon Gate as their champion, so he refused to job to anyone until he finished his obligations with Dragon Gate in late 2019. “He never had a problem putting anyone over after, he just respected that championship and people really didn’t understand that at the time.” Page would eventually get his win over PAC at AEW Full Gear 2019, an event that took place after PAC had dropped the title back in Japan.
Please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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