AEW Dynamite 9/30/2026: 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite" — though this show was very different from most of the shows we cover here, and will thus be covered in a different way.

Wednesday night's "Dynamite" was a tribute show for fallen AEW star Benjamin Satterley, aka Pac, who tragically passed away over the weekend at the age of 40, shortly after his final AEW match at All Out 2026. The show featured several matches, in addition to emotional statements from Satterley's family and numerous members of the AEW roster. Pac's signature moves were hit by Will Ospreay, Marina Shafir, and others, while long-absent AEW stars Wardlow and Bryan Danielson returned to the ring during the main event.

If you missed the show, please feel free to catch up by going to our "AEW Dynamite" 9/30/26 results page, which contains all the objective facts you need to know about AEW's Pac tribute. You can also read about some of our favorite Pac matches, which we wrote about earlier today. Normally this is the part where we dive into three things we hated and three things we loved, but it was impossible to hate anything about this particular episode of wrestling television. Instead, quite simply, here are three things we loved about the 9/30/26 episode of "AEW Dynamite." RIP Pac.

This show was always going to be hard, all manners of sad and emotional. But everyone in the AEW family pulled together for Pac. Literally, everyone. 

As was always going to be the case it was the Death Riders who took center stage to honor their brother. Jon Moxley opened the show against Orange Cassidy for beautiful homage to Cassidy-Pac at Revolution six years ago. Bryan Danielson then returned for an emotional reunion with Moxley in the ring, embracing in tears and cheers. 

Marina Shafir teamed with Hyan and Thunder Rosa against Mercedes Mone, Britt Baker, and Persephone. Will Ospreay, though only a temporary Death Rider, turned back the clock with Ricochet for a Pac-coded tribute. But the others had yet to have their say. Enter the main event 10-man tag pitting the Death Riders against the Don Callis Family. It was conspicuous as the clock wound down to that match, however, that there was just the four Death Riders left in Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, and Gabe Kidd. 

So led to another moment on a night of moments: Bryan Danielson's return to the ring, complete with a Death Riders introduction. And Danielson in the ring was a moment that kept giving moments; tandem Busaiku knees with Wheeler Yuta, a Death Rider stampede with Marina getting in on the act, Jon Moxley on commentary saying he wanted to see Danielson breathing smoke as the sixth most tired man in the match. Garcia got the win when all was said and done, capping a somber month off with tribute wins to Pac and the Butcher. 

That was what it was all about. The wrestling was as good as it was always going to be. But this week it had a whole new meaning. It was an ode to one of the best to have ever done it, a loveletter to the man no one had a bad word to say about, in the only way that would feel right. 

Even in his absence, Pac was the glue that brought together not just the Death Riders and Danielson, but the entirety of the AEW roster. The largest presence in a venue of stars was an empty chair — the King of the Cruiserweights' throne. 

There's too many platitudes and anecdotes to claim anything but Pac was a beautiful soul. That can be expressed in a manner of ways. But the impact, the sheer influence he had on wrestling could only be communicated in one way. This was exactly that, done to absolute perfection. A night that canonized Pac for the man he was, not the B****** he was so good at portraying.

Written by Max Everett

Every match on tonight's emotional tribute show was fantastic and emotional, but I thought the reunion of the Elite in chaotic eight-man tag team action was the bit of brevity the show needed. I really liked how most of the matches tonight were surrounded by emotional tributes from someone involved in the bout that was either coming up, or had just happened, and "Hangman" Adam Page's ahead of this match was a hard watch. After seeing it, it was comforting to then see the Young Bucks support him as they reunited on stage before Kenny Omega's entrance.

I don't mean that this match was light-hearted in terms it made me forget it was being wrestled on an emotional tribute show, but the tornado aspect of the bout, which I don't believe was advertised — Aubrey Edwards just kind of let both teams do whatever — was really fun. It was also a big deal to see all of the Elite reunited. I don't even know when that last happened, and I only most recently remember Omega teaming with Matt and Nick Jackson to win the $1 million match back in December.

The reunion was also a quiet tribute, as all of these guys obviously wanted to wrestle in honor of Pac, but it wasn't heavily promoted all over social media as "AN ALL ELITE REUNION!" or "Omega's first match back since Wembley Stadium!" or anything. There's something about the quiet reunion of friends on a show like this that warmed my heart.

I thought the Don Callis Family, with Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero wrestling on behalf of the faction, were just heelish enough, without being over-the-top for a tribute show, and they also paid tribute to Pac during their entrances, and with their armbands, as well. Knight and Fletcher being in there, after they won at All Out due to medical stoppage, as the next challengers to the Young Bucks AEW World Tag Team Championships made sense, but that point also wasn't harped upon to further a story, which didn't need to happen tonight. That will be easy to set up in the two-week build to WrestleDream.

I loved seeing the Elite back together, and it was a nice feel-good moment on the show when they won with the sequence of the V-Trigger and Buckshot Lariat to Beretta at the same time, followed by the BTE Trigger, with Omega winning with the One-Winged Angel. If the Elite were going to reunite for one night only, this was a fantastic reason to do so.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this, but a wrestler's death hasn't hit me like this in quite some time.

Full transparency, I was away over the weekend and didn't get the chance to watch AEW All Out 2026. I was surrounded by friends and family as we celebrated my mum's birthday, and I got the chance to tell a lot of people who I don't usually get to see all at once how much they meant to me. I'm not usually like that to be perfectly honest, but after Andy Williams passed away earlier this month, it just felt right to let the people I care about know that I'm there for them no matter what because life is short, cruel, and unforgiving even at the best of times.

Thank God I did that because once I got home, the news broke that Pac had passed away and all of the emotions ran over me. I was sad I'd never get to see one of my favorite wrestlers perform ever again. I was angry that he was taken so suddenly. I was confused at the fact I felt so devastated about the death of someone who I not only never met but someone who didn't even know I existed. It's rare to have a connection to someone like that, but that's what Pac was capable of.

Speaking of things only Pac was capable of, there aren't two men walking the earth today that could have done a better physical tribute to "The Man That Gravity Forgot" than Will Ospreay and Ricochet. I'm not going to compare this to their previous bouts because this was a match all about things only Pac could do. A Shooting Star Pele Kick, a Backslide Driver, a Phoenix Splash from the middle rope — we saw it all in this one from two guys who have been the most influenced by Pac in their careers.

To top it all off, it's such a well structured match that builds to Ospreay hitting an actual Black Arrow that even Pac would be proud of. It was always a move fitting of ending a match, and I honestly didn't think anyone could pull it off considering how genuinely difficult it is to do, but if there was anyone who could hit it, it's Ospreay. 

The tears we all shed tonight were real despite the circumstances feeling surreal, and for all I've said about what Pac was capable of, crying over a show like this is what wrestling is capable of. I'm proud of Will Ospreay, Ricochet, and everyone in AEW for what they produced tonight.

We'll miss you forever, Pac.

Written by Sam Palmer