Ace Steel Reflects On His Time Working At The WWE Performance Center

Former independent wrestler Ace Steel, like many wrestlers, found a second career after wrestling in coaching and producing the talent of tomorrow. It's taken him everywhere from AEW to TNA Wrestling to the WWE Performance Center. On the latest "Developmentally Speaking," Steel says that coaching has stolen his heart and recalled his time at the Performance Center.

"I loved working at the Performance Center," Steel said, noting he loves to be a coach. "I love coaching more than I love wrestling ... I love it because I get to hand everything that I've got — every little trick of the trade — to someone and hope that it works out for them. It might not always work out."

Steel says that giving a talent feedback, watching them apply said feedback, and then figuring out why something did or did not work is his favorite part of the business. He added that it wasn't just the coaching aspect that he enjoyed but also the cadre of wrestling legends with whom he was co-workers.

"I got to work with the top coaches in the world," Steel gushed. "Never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd be working with Robbie Brookside, one of the best British wrestlers ever, or Norman Smiley, another phenomenal wrestler, and that eventually turned into working with Terry Taylor, Fit Finlay, Steve Corino."

Steel says that his transition into producing matches was one he resisted for a long time, but was egged on by fellow coaches Adam Pearce and William Regal, who both believed Steel should have the skillset. He says he'd already been giving input for matches he didn't produce, such as CM Punk's chain match against MJF in AEW, but ultimately prefers to have a hands-on training approach.

"I love the fact that [I can be] training with someone for how many ever weeks and [take what we worked on] and put that in the match," Steel concluded.