Update on AEW’s Re-Hiring of Ace Steel & CM Punk’s Removal from Collision Press Release

As noted before, AEW re-hired Ace Steel to the company several months ago following his initial release over his involvement in the All Out 2022 backstage brawl incident this past September. As part of the terms of his rehiring, Steel returned to his role as a producer for the company but was required to work from a remote location and not allowed to be physically present backstage at AEW shows.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Steel’s rehiring was something very few within AEW had prior knowledge until around a few weeks ago. Meltzer reported that the only people who would have had prior knowledge beforehand would have been AEW CEO Tony Khan, CM Punk, and anyone else Punk had told. Meltzer reported that the reaction from key top talent when they found out about Steel’s rehiring around two weeks ago was stated to have been one of shock over the news.

Meltzer also reported that high level AEW sources had told him that the rumors and reports of Steel being brought back as a producer for their upcoming new AEW Collision series was something that was not true.

Meltzer also reported that Punk’s issues with Khan not allowing Steel to be present backstage at AEW shows and as a producer for Collision is where everything fell apart in regards to AEW and Warner Bros Discovery’s original plans for the debut announcement of Collision at WBD’s Upfronts.

In regards to CM Punk’s removal from the final version of Collision’s press release, Meltzer reported that those spoken to within WBD stated that WBD officials were quickly told by AEW officials to scrub Punk out of all of their AEW material for their Upfronts. WBD officials reportedly did not realize that Punk’s name was still left in the original press release when they sent it to the television media ahead of their presentation. Those same sources reportedly also stated that WBD officials felt they made a mistake when they issued a public statement about Punk’s removal and should have left it alone and let the story play itself out.

WBD officials reportedly also are currently hopeful that this latest issue involving Punk will resolve itself within a week like with previous Punk blow-ups they are aware of.