Controversial AEW Name Not Backstage At Collision

A new report has revealed that a controversial AEW employee wasn’t backstage at Collision even though he’s a close friend of CM Punk.

The debut episode of AEW Collision at the United Center in Chicago was built around the return of two-time World Champion CM Punk. After missing over nine months with a torn triceps that required surgery, Punk was cleared to return to the ring for the show.

In the main event, CM Punk and FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) defeated Samoa Joe, Jay White & Juice Robinson with Punk hitting the GTS on Juice for the pinfall win.

This was also Punk’s first match since All Out in September 2022 when he won the AEW World Title for the second time. After the match, Punk went on a press conference rant against several people in AEW that he didn’t like and after that rant, he was confronted in his locker room.

Punk got into a locker room fight with The Elite’s Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson). Punk was joined in the locker room fight by his close friend and AEW Producer Ace Steel. As the story goes, Steel threw a chair that gave Nick a black eye and Steel also bit Omega’s arm. About a month later, Ace Steel was fired by the company.

Over the last couple of months, as CM Punk’s return was being discussed, AEW quietly re-hired Ace Steel perhaps at Punk’s request. Steel was one of Punk’s wrestling trainers, so their friendship goes back over 20 years.

It was reported by Fightful Select that even though Steel lives in Chicago (like Punk) and Collision was in Chicago, he wasn’t going to be at Collision.

In an update, PWInsider reports that Ace Steel was watching the show from the Chicago Blackhawks family box and was not backstage during the show. It was noted that Steel is “remotely producing and assisting on the creative side but still traveled to the show this week on his own accord.” What that means for future shows is unknown.

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