AEW's Tony Schiavone Pays Tribute To The Late Pac, Says Black Arrow Should Be Retired

When Tony Schiavone was on commentary for Pac's AEW National Championship match against Andrade El Idolo at AEW All Out 2026, little did he or anyone else know that it would be the final time Pac would ever step into a wrestling ring.

Pac, real name Benjamin Satterley, passed away less than 24 hours after All Out at just 40 years of age, and tributes have been pouring in from all over the world since his passing. Schiavone paid tribute to Pac on the most recent episode of "What Happened When?" and admitted he was the polar opposite of his television persona backstage.

"Ben was without a doubt the most genuine, nicest guy backstage," Schiavone said. "He was the complete opposite of what you saw on TV, he was a wonderful human being. He talked about his mom a lot and Lois [Schiavone's wife] had a replacement knee and his mom had a replacement knee and he would always ask me 'How's Lois doing? Is she okay. My mom's doing okay.' We would talk and we would also talk about ... just about life, and he was a wonderful guy. It's funny, it was kind of like we all would kind of laugh because his nickname was 'The B******' but he was anything but."

Schiavone revealed that he was on a Zoom call with some neighborhood friends when one of AEW's attorneys asked him to call since it was urgent. He was given the news and would spend the rest of Sunday and all of Monday talking about Pac with friends, family, and colleagues from AEW. Schiavone went on to talk about Pac's finishing move, the Black Arrow, which he believes should be retired not just out of respect, but because it's hard to imagine anyone actually being able to do it.

"It's probably time to retire the Black Arrow, that move he had. But to be honest with you, I don't think anybody else could ever do something like that because to me, it was the maybe the greatest finishing move we had."

It's cliché sometimes for people to describe someone who has just passed away as someone who never had a bad word said about them, but according to Schiavone, Pac was genuinely one of those people. He explained that while didn't always agree with certain booking decisions and angles, he never did anything to warrant anything bad being said about him, and that he never made a fuss and wasn't difficult with anyone.

The September 30 episode of "AEW Dynamite" will be a full tribute show dedicated to Pac, something that Schiavone doesn't know how anyone is going to get through in one piece. However, because of how close everyone is in AEW, he knows that they will all put on a fantastic show.

"We're all this family, and in a family you have disagreements. You fight, you don't always get along, but when the 8:00 hits on a Wednesday or on a Saturday, or there's a pay-per-view telecast, when we take the air, you put all that behind you and you put out a great telecast and that's what we have done [previously]. So when a very important family member of our family goes, leaves us in a tragic way or any way at all, it rips us and tears out a void in us."

Schiavone believes that "Dynamite" should open up with everyone in the ring to honor his memory with a ten-bell salute, but understands that AEW President Tony Khan will have his own ideas. With that said, he has full faith in everyone involved to put on the best show possible. Khan noted at a recent ROH taping that everyone involved in the upcoming show will be there voluntarily and that if people find it too hard to attend, they don't have to be there.

Please credit "What Happened When?" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.