Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has answered the backstage reaction to his tribute to PAC.
Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that people in WWE were “very surprised” by the wording of Johnson’s video. Johnson sits on the TKO board of directors, which made the praise stand out.
In the video, Johnson described AEW as “growing into this phenomenal wrestling company” and called Tony Khan a friend. Meltzer said he was not sure whether WWE President Nick Khan was surprised. He suggested Johnson may have run it by him beforehand. SEScoops covered the initial backstage reaction earlier this week.
Johnson responded in a comment on a Clutch Wrestling Instagram post about Meltzer’s report.
You’re right brother, and humanity matters to me. I was born into this business and I’ve seen it all.
He said company lines do not matter to him when a wrestler dies.
When one of our own passes away, I don’t care nor do I see ‘our competition’, I care about the wrestlers and how it affects them. I’ve been there. To me, humanity matters most.
PAC, real name Benjamin Satterley, died on September 27 at age 40. He challenged Andrade El Idolo for the AEW National Championship at All Out one night earlier.
Satterley worked in both companies. He held the WWE Cruiserweight Championship as Neville and became the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Champion.
AEW dedicated the September 30 episode of Dynamite to him. The show drew 899,000 viewers on TBS, its largest audience since October 2023. That figure does not include viewers on HBO Max.
