Ace Steel: I Told CM Punk Before WWE Return That He And Triple H Were More Alike Than He’d Admit

CM Punk has been back with WWE for almost a year, returning at WWE Survivor Series in November 2023. 

Punk has often spoken about the culture change in WWE, and how it changed in the decade that he was gone. Triple H, who Punk famously clashed with during Punk’s initial WWE run, has also spoken about working with Punk, and how he helped create the current environment at WWE. 

Speaking on Huge Pop, Punk’s longtime friend and trainer Ace Steel commented on how happy Punk has been since returning to WWE.

“He’s in a great place. He’s in a great place and you can see it. He’s enjoying everything that he’s doing. He came to my school just because he wanted to. He came back to, virtually, where he started. It’s not the same location, but the same grassroots where he came from. When I asked him who he wanted to be in there with he said, ‘Bring your students. Bring me your people.’ I didn’t tell them he was coming. They were shocked as could be when they walked in. I just said, ‘Hey, we have extra practice this week. I think you guys should make it,’ so they came. Extra training day, they came in, and they were all stunned. Coming back to professional wrestling, this is exactly the ideal situation. He has people that want to learn, he wants to teach. He wants to give them what was given to him. What was given to him by Eddie Guerrero. He has a different relationship with Harley (Race). Harley showed him how to make a blade. I never bladed for Harley. I told him, ‘No.’ If there were 50 people, I wasn’t doing it. He was making a blade and Harley showed him. Eddie took him under his wing. There is Harley. There is Raven. He had the opportunity to work all of these people. Dusty (Rhodes),” he said.

Ace continued, “He’s in such a great place, and he wants to be the guy who gives back to basically all these kids who watched him growing up. He’s having the time of his life. This is what it should be. The company is what it should be. I told him this before he came back because I had a relationship with Hunter being at NXT because Hunter ran NXT. I said, ‘[Hunter] came in every day and would shake my hand.’ I was sitting at the table. ‘How are you?’ ‘Hey. How are you?’ It wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to call him Sir.’ You know how it is being around Vince (McMahon). You’re on pins and needles. Hunter is not that way. He doesn’t run his ship that way. Before he went back, I was like, ‘I think you guys are more alike than you probably would like to admit.’ He will now admit that because of the way they feel about this industry. Hunter said that, too. ‘We were exactly alike, just butting heads on a lot of different things.’ They are in tune and aligned to make this industry better. Punk is loving all of it. When he comes to visit me and says, ‘The kids ask me to come down to the Performance Center.’ I said, ‘I know what you’re doing. I see you all the time. You’re having fun.’ This is what his return to wrestling was supposed to be. It’s what it was supposed to be. He’s changing in the locker room. He doesn’t want an extra locker room or to sit apart from everybody. He wants to be in the mix and answering questions. It’s great for him. I said this before when he was out of wrestling, he loves wrestling. He loved wrestling more when we were traveling roads, maybe $40 or $50, and making long trips because that was it. Obviously, there is a lot more money on the line. The hardest part of this business is when it becomes a business for you. You have to watch it because you’ll lose all the love. You can end up hating things when it becomes a job. You have to tweak it so it’s not quite such a job.”

On-screen Punk is treating WWE like a business, man, as he’s there to make money, not make friends. 

Steel currently works as a producer for TNA Wrestling while running his school The Foundation of Pro Wrestling.