Many people within AEW have been quiet in regards to the All Out backstage fight from early September, but Fightful Select now reports that more people are talking now that former producer Ace Steel was released on Tuesday of this week, as reported earlier today.
There’s a unanimous consensus that Steel’s departure was expected, and if there weren’t constantly pending legal ramifications, this would have been done the week of the All Out incident. By the time the following week’s TV tapings happened, most everyone thought that they were effectively done working with Steel. It was also said that Steel’s proximity throughout the situation to longtime friend CM Punk complicated matters.
One longtime AEW talent that had been on good terms with Steel said that the “writing was on the wall” immediately after the All Out 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 talent noted that releasing Steel was a no-brainer decision, and that bringing him back into the locker room, with or without Punk, could have caused a ton of frustration. Another talent said the situation hadn’t been much of a talking point in recent weeks, and really wasn’t after the talent meeting that was led by Bryan Danielson, ROH World Champion Chris Jericho, and AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. One talent said, “Biting people bad,” in regards to the situation.
Steel’s departure marked the most movement on the All Out situation. Not only was Steel released this week, but The Elite was referenced on AEW Dynamite commentary for the first time since the incident, and Punk was featured in a ROH World Title video, and The Young Bucks were seen in a commercial for AEW Rampage. Punk, Omega and The Young Bucks still have not been added back to the Dynamite intro.
However, Tuesday also marked the first time there’s been talk, or movement, or optimism on “potential returns,” though that was left vague. It was noted that the parties involved are more in contact with AEW now than they have been for a while before, but the context of that was not included.
It was previously reported that the threat of legal action had “stalled everything” in relation to the third-party investigation into the All Out incident. After Dave Meltzer first broke the news of Steel’s release today, which has also been confirmed by PWInsider, it was also noted that “a lot of other stuff” is going on in regards to fallout from the third-party investigation.
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