A Newcastle United shirt appeared at the ring on AEW Dynamite this week, and it was about far more than football. Former WWE wrestler Marina Shafir wore it to honour her friend PAC, the Newcastle-born wrestler who died on 27 September. The 30 September episode was a tribute show for him, and the shirt was one of its most emotional moments. It also showed a wrestling world still coming to terms with his loss. This article explains why she wore it, who PAC was and how fans have responded.
Marina Shafir wore the shirt because it was a gift from her friend, PAC. It carries her son’s name on the back. It appears to be the club’s 2026-27 home shirt, which has a disrupted stripe pattern with blue detail. She paired it with a navy blue sports top, matching the navy gear PAC wore in his final match. She wore it on the 30 September episode of AEW Dynamite, a tribute show for him.
PAC, real name Benjamin Satterley, was a native of Newcastle upon Tyne and one of wrestling’s best-known high-flyers. He began wrestling in 2004 and worked for promotions around the world before joining WWE in 2012, where he wrestled as Neville. In roughly six years there he won the NXT Championship, NXT Tag Team Championship and WWE Cruiserweight Championship. He joined AEW in 2019 as PAC, won the All-Atlantic Championship in 2022 and later became a member of the Death Riders. He was one of the company’s original breakout talents.
PAC was a lifelong Newcastle United fan. In a 2014 interview with the club’s official site, he said that growing up near St James’ Park means you get “bitten by the bug”. He added that moving abroad made his love for the club grow, calling it his link with home. Newcastle United paid tribute after his death, recalling that he and his family had been welcomed as guests at the club in 2014. AEW referee Bryce Remsburg said PAC had converted his children to Newcastle fans, and called him an incredible friend for 20 years.
PAC’s final match was at All Out in Chicago on 26 September, where he challenged Andrade El Idolo for the AEW National Championship. Shafir accompanied him to ringside and got involved, but Andrade retained the title. AEW announced on Sunday 27 September that he had died, aged 40, less than 24 hours after the match. No cause of death has been confirmed in the reports reviewed for this article. Tributes poured in from across wrestling, including from Newcastle United itself.
AEW devoted its 30 September Dynamite in Pittsburgh to PAC. The show opened with a ten-bell salute, with the roster on the stage in PAC shirts and the Death Riders’ chair left empty. His family’s statement was read at ringside by Renee Paquette. Bryan Danielson returned from retirement and embraced Jon Moxley, and Will Ospreay won his match with PAC’s Black Arrow finisher. Members of the Death Riders wore navy blue gear in honour of what PAC wore at All Out.
Shafir’s moment came in a six-woman tag match, where she teamed with Hyan and Thunder Rosa against Mercedes Moné, Britt Baker and Persephone. She came to the ring in the Newcastle shirt with Moxley beside her, visibly emotional. During the match, she used PAC’s Bypass German Suplex on Moné, and she finished with his Brutalizer submission to win. Though normally a villain, she had the crowd on her side throughout. After the win she was comforted by her teammates, and Moxley hugged her in the ring.
Marina Shafir, 38, was born in Moldova and moved to the United States aged five, growing up in Latham, New York. She began her mixed martial arts career at amateur level in 2012 and won her first professional fight by first-round submission in April 2014. WWE announced her signing in May 2018, and she was released from her contract in June 2021. She later joined AEW, where she once challenged Thunder Rosa, now her trios partner, for the AEW Women’s World Championship. In AEW, she is a member of the Death Riders, the group that formed around Jon Moxley after All Out in September 2024.
Shafir and PAC became allies in the group that developed into the Death Riders, and at All Out in 2024 he restrained Wheeler Yuta while she kept the referee from intervening so Moxley could turn on his teammate. Outlets describe their bond as extending beyond the storyline, and she called him her “bastard brother” after his death. At an independent show the night he died, she told the crowd “I was just holding this man yesterday”. She said she was glad she had told him she loved him the day before, and that she wouldn’t be where she is without sharing time and space with him. The Newcastle shirt he gave her, with her son’s name on the back, is the one she wore to the ring on the tribute show.
Shafir was not the only wrestler to bring Newcastle into the tributes. Photos from an EVE show in the UK showed a black Newcastle scarf hung on a ring post, which wrestling accounts credited to Will Ospreay. Ospreay has credited PAC as a mentor, as has Ricochet. His Black Arrow in the Dynamite tribute match was the finishing move PAC was known for. For Newcastle fans, the scarf and the shirt added a local touch to a wrestling tribute.
Reaction to the shirt was warm, especially from Newcastle fans. One fan wrote “Once a Geordie always a Geordie”, using the nickname for people from Newcastle. Another said she looked great in it and added that they all loved Ben. Others simply said they loved her, or tagged Newcastle United in their replies. A wrestling fan said her performance, while emotional and sad, showed she is ready for the top.
Not all of the reaction was sombre, as rivalry crept in. One fan joked that a “Mackem boycott” was incoming, a reference to Sunderland fans, who are known as Mackems and are Newcastle’s fierce Tyne-Wear rivals. Another, who appeared to support a different club, said she looked better in the shirt than their whole squad and added that she was clearly emotional. Some fans outside wrestling were confused and asked who did what, where and because of whom, while a few replies were unkind about her appearance and are not repeated here.
Shafir’s shirt was a small gesture with a lot behind it. It linked a Newcastle-born wrestler’s love for his hometown club with the friend he left behind in AEW. The tribute show gave the wrestling world a way to say goodbye, and Newcastle United’s own tribute did the same for fans. Whatever the shirt’s season or design, its meaning was clear to anyone who saw it. Messages of support for PAC’s family and friends remain the most important part of the story.
