More On Ace Steel’s AEW Firing, Backstage Reaction From Talent

Ace Steel is gone from All Elite Wrestling, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer.

Fightful has asked AEW in an official capacity, who don’t usually respond to inquiries regarding employment status of talent. However, the word emanating from the Cincinnati AEW tapings was that Ace Steel was gone.

Much of the roster has remained quiet since the Brawl Out situation, whether it be on the record, off the record or on background. This became even more of the case after the Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho led talent meeting that encouraged talent to keep their dirty laundry in house. After word emerged of Ace Steel finally being let go, more talent and staff were willing to talk.

The unanimous consensus that we’ve heard from was that the move was expected, and if there weren’t constantly pending legal ramifications, this would have been done the week of Brawl Out. By the time the following week’s tapings happened, most everyone thought that they were effectively done working with Ace Steel, who actually had to be fined for using coarse language on television just days before. Steel’s proximity to CM Punk throughout the situation complicated matters.

Another longtime talent that had been on good terms with Ace Steel said that the writing was on the wall immediately after that situation when the bite marks on Kenny Omega were still visible. Omega carried the bite marks with him the whole next week through a trip to Japan as well.

A veteran spoke with Fightful on background and said that releasing Ace Steel was a no brainer decision, and that bringing him back into the locker room with or without CM Punk would have caused a ton of frustration. Another talent said that the situation hadn’t been much of a talking point in recent weeks, and really wasn’t after the aforementioned talent meeting.

One talent said “Biting people bad” as the entirety of their background comment on the situation.

There were rumors in the days that followed that Steel was done with All Elite Wrestling, but obviously that couldn’t be as cut and dry due to the situation that surrounded it.

October 18 marked the most movement on the Brawl Out situation that. Ace Steel was officially released, The Elite was referenced on commentary for the first time since the incident, CM Punk was featured in an ROH Title montage, and the Young Bucks appeared in an AEW Rampage commercial. None of them were added back to the AEW Dynamite intro. However, Tuesday was also the first time we’ve heard movement or optimism on “potential returns,” though that was left vague. We were told that the parties involved are more in contact with All Elite Wrestling now than they’d been for a while before, but the context of that was absent.

We were told that some conversations were set to take place on October 22 about the direction of the suspended talent.

This article first appeared on our premium service, Fightful Select and was republished here on Fightful. If you complain about it being “old news,” you have to hack other websites and steal their scoops for SRS. Subscribe to get exclusive news every day, and a half-dozen weekly podcasts.

To directly support us and our continuing breaking news, interviews, and the like, subscribe to FightfulSelect.com. You’ll get exclusive news sent to you directly before anyone else, and dozens of podcasts monthly including Alex Pawlowski’s Sour Graps, Sean Ross Sapp’s Q&A, Retro Reviews and more