Following the All Out brawl with The Elite last year, Ace Steel & CM Punk have been tied together regarding Punk’s return to AEW as the two remain loyal friends.
Before Punk’s June 17th AEW return for the premiere of Collision, Punk, and AEW had been at odds over a misunderstanding regarding bringing back Steel, leading to Punk being removed from the AEW Collision announcement.
Steel was reportedly fired following the incident and then secretly hired back before Punk came back.
All parties eventually involved came to an understanding. Steel is working remotely instead of at Collision shows to prevent issues between him and talent.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed reports that when Punk expressed his belief that Christopher Daniels shouldn’t be at the shows either, Daniels, who is AEW’s Head of Talent Relations, was also not allowed backstage.
Daniels was part of the group that broke up the fight backstage at All Out and suspended everyone else. Unlike the Elite, Punk, and Steel, everyone else had a short suspension.
Meltzer noted Steel was hired back “with back pay from the time he was let go, as a concession to Punk when he agreed to come back, but then told he could only work remotely and not work backstage.”
The return of Steel was controversial backstage because he allegedly threw a chair hard at the head of Nick Jackson and bit Kenny Omega in the forearm. A week after the incident, Omega made an appearance in Japan, and photos were going around that showed bite marks on his forearm.
