Ace Steel has broken his silence on the events that took place backstage with himself and CM Punk in AEW.
The widely reported “Brawl Out” incident in September 2022 saw Punk, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks all suspended and stripped of their respective AEW Championships, with Punk being World Champion and The Elite being Trios Champions at that time. Steel was terminated as a backstage producer for his role in the events that took place.
More than a year later the events that took place have barely been discussed, with Punk and The Elite only making slight references to the incident and Tony Khan repeatedly issuing a no comment on the matter. While not going into details, Steel has arguably given the most detailed response of everyone involved.
Speaking with Rip Rogers, Steel commented on what took place that day and how multiple people were unable to speak about it except for his wife. Steel also joked that the story will be retold in documentary form in the future:
“Well, I worked with a lot of great people, some great, some not so much. Family still exists in this business, there are things none of us can say, and none of us will, you know, I think my wife’s the only one who could probably tell the story since she was there. Maybe someday. You don’t f*ck with family. We came out just fine. You might hear something; I’m sure it’s gonna be on f*cking Dark Side of the Ring someday; I laughed at the time, going, ‘All this sh*t’s gonna be on Dark Side of the Ring someday,’ you know, someone’s going to want to know.”
Ace Steel Comments On CM Punk’s WWE Return
Steel would briefly rejoin AEW shortly after Punk was brought back from suspension in June. First working remotely and then in person, Ace Steel was fired from AEW a second time shortly after Punk was released from the company for the events that took place at All In.
Fast forward to December 2023 and Ace Steel is currently working as a producer in Impact Wrestling and Punk is now back in WWE following a return in November at Survivor Series.
When asked about Punk being a part of the company he left in 2014, Steel stated how proud he was of his top student:
“I’m very proud of my number one student that I’ve ever coached in the world for heading back to show the world who the f*ck he is… The reason people hate him or whatever is he’s not about the bullsh*t, and the guy doesn’t take sh*t, and he doesn’t take it lightly. And when you’ve had enough sh*t, you either explode, or you take care of business yourself, and you defend yourself.”
H/t to Fightful.