In a recent appearance on the “Wrestling With Rip Rogers” podcast, former AEW producer Ace Steel discussed CM Punk’s return to WWE, his favorite moments while working for AEW and ROH, the infamous backstage altercation at All Out 2022, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On producing CM Punk vs. MJF’s Dog Collar Match: “I was Punker’s producer, so I produced some good stuff, produced his dog collar match [against MJF]… I did have fun, I had a lot of fun. I got to expand my skills as far as that went for producing.”
On working with Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb: “When Mercedes had the ROH Women’s Title, there wasn’t a lot going on with it. She’s like, ‘I really wanna do something with this, Ace.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, well, let’s put our heads together.’ And I turned around one day and saw Serena walking out, and I go, ‘Why don’t we do something with Serena?’… So I had a lot of input with them that we would put in the mix to get their feud going last year.”
On his experience in AEW: “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 [of All Out] since she was there. Maybe someday.”
On CM Punk’s return to WWE: “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**k he is… The reason people hate him or whatever is he’s not about the bulls**t, and the guy doesn’t take s**t, and he doesn’t take it lightly. And when you’ve had enough s**t, you either explode, or you take care of business yourself, and you defend yourself.”
On the All Out altercation: “You might hear something; I’m sure it’s gonna be on f**king Dark Side of the Ring someday; I laughed at the time, going, ‘All this s**t’s gonna be on Dark Side of the Ring someday,’ you know, someone’s going to want to know.”
On his exit in the aftermath of All Out: “No one gave a s**t about my mental health when that went on. I used to work for AT&T as a manager. For 10 years, I was a high-end manager of fiber splicers. No one knows why I left that position… That’s not reported out there; no one knows why you left this place to go work at this place. Why does that f**king matter?”
Steel had initially joined AEW in March 2022 following his WWE release in January of that year. He was fired following the backstage incident at AEW All Out 2022.
Steel was later brought back earlier this year following CM Punk’s return to AEW TV. He was released once again after AEW fired Punk this past September.
