Post by CW on Nov 14, 2018 19:43:46 GMT -6
Ace Steel Interview - September 2001
By the time Ace Steel's arm was raised in victory Saturday at the Sweet Science 16 tournament in Charlestown, Ind.,
Steel Domain wrestling had put its stamp on the two-day event.
To win, Steel needed four victorires beating Suicide Kid, Danny Dominion, Adam Pearce and former ECW star Nova.
Steel vs. Dominion - a quarterfinal match - pitted the Steel Domain namesakes against each other.
Steel said Suicide Kid seriously hurt his arm during their first-round match.
Dominion beat American Kickboxer in Friday's first round before losing to Steel in round 2.
CM Punk lost to Dino Bambino in Friday's first round, then won a three-way dance over Tracy Smothers and Sabu.
Punk pinned Smothers.
Colt Cabana lost to Tarik the Great in Friday's first round, then teamed with American Kickboxer to win a tag match
over Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush.
And Steel claims Pearce as a Domainer, so count his first-round victory over Hero, a second-round win over BJ Whitmer
and a semifinal loss to Steel on the Domain scorecard.
Steel said despite he and Dominon's close friendship, the two have not had many 1-on-1 matches. "We've really only been
in the ring against each other maybe 5 times over the last few years," Steel said. "It's less than 10."
Because it was a tournament, their quarterfinal match couldn't go long, but Steel said it was satisfying.
"I wouldn't say it was a barnburner," Steel said. "But it was good for what it was supposed to be. It was about 6-8 minutes.
A lot of guys said it was good to see two buddies stiffing the hell out of each other out there."
Steel also enjoyed his match against Pearce.
"It was very nice to get back in the ring with Adam," Steel said. "I would never turn a blind eye to him, ever. Anyone could
burn down the ring with him."
He said Pearce works like the rest of the Domain guys.
"We all like to work snug," Steel said. "We like to get the crowd involved. It was a hard-hitting match. I wish I would have
had more time. I worked four main-event guys and with two - Danny and Adam - I would have liked to go longer, but I wasn't allowed.
It would have taken a lot more out of me."
Against Nova, "there wasn't a lot that we did, but we did enough to put the capper on the night for the whole Sweet Science thing,"
said Steel, who said he took the tournament concept seriously. The emphasis for tournament matches was on technical wrestling.
"We did not put in bump after bump. It was not like his ECW theory. He seems to have gone away from that, at least with me."
Steel said Nova "was very receptive to anything I wanted to do." And from beginning to end, they put on a match faithful
to the concept.
"It was a good time," Steel said. "He was very professional."
Steel said Nova paid him and the Domain guys "the ultimate compliment. He said you deserved jobs, but there were none available
in ECW (when Nova was there), but he said he never doubted what we could do. That's the ultimate compliment, well,
next to getting work."
Steel said Cabana's match " sounded really great." And he said Punk stood out in his three-way match.
Steel said Punk originally was scheduled for the three-way match, then was switched to a match putting him in a six-man tag with
Madman Pondo and Mitch Ryder against Ian Rotten and the Insane Clown Posse.
"Ian had changed his mind and was going to have Punk work with the Cowns, and he was kind of down," Steel said. "He wanted to work
in that three-way match. Tracy got there and asked Punk what happened, and Punk said, oh, go ask the boss, that's what he said.
So Tracy said, no, we've got to have the three-way."
Steel said Punk scored "a decisive win. He got the pin on Smothers, and at the end there was a little table action."
Steel said Smothers "is a machine. He is phenominal. I'd love to work him 10 more times. I know what I'm doing against him,
but he's telling me what I'm going to do before I even do it."
Ace Steel said he didn't believe it when Danny Dominion told him they were booked for Saturday's Windy City Pro Wrestling
show at Taft High School.
"I laughed for an hour when I got Danny's message that (WCPW owner) Sam (DeCero) was going to book us," Steel said.
"I think it's odd."
Steel will face the WCPW league champion Terry Allen, while Dominion faces "All That" Steve Boz.
Steel and Dominion the namesakes of Steel Domain wrestling - are former WCPW stars who left years ago.
With Steel Domain, they train about a dozen high-level independent workers, and they still run shows in Minnesota.
Most who leave WCPW do so angrily. Steel said that was not the case with him, though it was for Dominion,
who stormed away after dropping his league title at a Battle of the Belts show.
"I was gone already (when Dominion left)," Steel said. "I got a job, and my job training took me to Florida.
I worked at the legendary Sportatorium in Tampa. It was no pay, but it was pretty good at the time.
It was true that they had us believing there was nothing out there except Windy City, but I found out."
Steel says he was fired by WCPW, and he said it was "something ridiculous. Like I didn't shake Sam's hand,
and then he wanted me to pay dues for working once a month."
But Steel said all is well, and has been for a long time. He believes DeCero is sincere when he says he is ready to move on.
"I read everything on your site, the interview with Sam saying let bygones be bygones," Steel said.
"And I'm pretty much down with that. It was the place I started."
Steel also has had a taste of being in charge, and says he can understand why DeCero has his reputation as a hard man.
"It's difficult doing what he had to do," Steel said. "You've got to fire this guy and that guy. But you have to be a
complete assh*le to get kicked out of the Domain. We have had guys come in and be humbled. But Sam is not a bad guy.
If he's true to his word, he's right, he has kids now. He wants to get away from the attitude he had before."
"He had a bit of a godfather attitude before," Steel added. "But when you've got a gym full of 40 people, you've got to
be intimidating. Does Sam intimidate me? No, I've been around. But he's a father figure in a sense. He'll tell you, do this,
do that. He watches your matches and critiques you, and he knows what he's talking about. He's a father figure in a sense."
Steel said he and Dominion "could be more than a 1-time deal. It would be a great thing to add to the list. It could also
give their newer guys experience. I have a lot of old-school theory and the newer guy needs to see a guy who has watched AWA,
rather than a guy who has watched WWF since 1992. That's one of the reasons Sam might like to have us around."
He said he never has faced Allen, and in fact, only saw Allen in action once.
"It was against Vic Capri and it was very early in his career," Steel said. "I certainly wouldn't judge him now from that match.
I saw he had a 45-minute draw with RVD, which had to be a hell of a match. If you can hang with RVD for 45 minutes,
you're doing something right."
But Dominion and Steel are familiar with Boz. They broke him in.
"Boz had his first match with us," Steel said. "It was, I think, the first taping at Slag Valley. It was the first appearance
of Danny and I as a team. We were the old LA connection against King Cobra and Steve Boz. Sam had him squashed by us.
He's gone on from there, and that's a credit to (Boz). He's got what he's wanted. Other people have left for different reasons,
but he is where he wants to be."
By the time Ace Steel's arm was raised in victory Saturday at the Sweet Science 16 tournament in Charlestown, Ind.,
Steel Domain wrestling had put its stamp on the two-day event.
To win, Steel needed four victorires beating Suicide Kid, Danny Dominion, Adam Pearce and former ECW star Nova.
Steel vs. Dominion - a quarterfinal match - pitted the Steel Domain namesakes against each other.
Steel said Suicide Kid seriously hurt his arm during their first-round match.
Dominion beat American Kickboxer in Friday's first round before losing to Steel in round 2.
CM Punk lost to Dino Bambino in Friday's first round, then won a three-way dance over Tracy Smothers and Sabu.
Punk pinned Smothers.
Colt Cabana lost to Tarik the Great in Friday's first round, then teamed with American Kickboxer to win a tag match
over Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush.
And Steel claims Pearce as a Domainer, so count his first-round victory over Hero, a second-round win over BJ Whitmer
and a semifinal loss to Steel on the Domain scorecard.
Steel said despite he and Dominon's close friendship, the two have not had many 1-on-1 matches. "We've really only been
in the ring against each other maybe 5 times over the last few years," Steel said. "It's less than 10."
Because it was a tournament, their quarterfinal match couldn't go long, but Steel said it was satisfying.
"I wouldn't say it was a barnburner," Steel said. "But it was good for what it was supposed to be. It was about 6-8 minutes.
A lot of guys said it was good to see two buddies stiffing the hell out of each other out there."
Steel also enjoyed his match against Pearce.
"It was very nice to get back in the ring with Adam," Steel said. "I would never turn a blind eye to him, ever. Anyone could
burn down the ring with him."
He said Pearce works like the rest of the Domain guys.
"We all like to work snug," Steel said. "We like to get the crowd involved. It was a hard-hitting match. I wish I would have
had more time. I worked four main-event guys and with two - Danny and Adam - I would have liked to go longer, but I wasn't allowed.
It would have taken a lot more out of me."
Against Nova, "there wasn't a lot that we did, but we did enough to put the capper on the night for the whole Sweet Science thing,"
said Steel, who said he took the tournament concept seriously. The emphasis for tournament matches was on technical wrestling.
"We did not put in bump after bump. It was not like his ECW theory. He seems to have gone away from that, at least with me."
Steel said Nova "was very receptive to anything I wanted to do." And from beginning to end, they put on a match faithful
to the concept.
"It was a good time," Steel said. "He was very professional."
Steel said Nova paid him and the Domain guys "the ultimate compliment. He said you deserved jobs, but there were none available
in ECW (when Nova was there), but he said he never doubted what we could do. That's the ultimate compliment, well,
next to getting work."
Steel said Cabana's match " sounded really great." And he said Punk stood out in his three-way match.
Steel said Punk originally was scheduled for the three-way match, then was switched to a match putting him in a six-man tag with
Madman Pondo and Mitch Ryder against Ian Rotten and the Insane Clown Posse.
"Ian had changed his mind and was going to have Punk work with the Cowns, and he was kind of down," Steel said. "He wanted to work
in that three-way match. Tracy got there and asked Punk what happened, and Punk said, oh, go ask the boss, that's what he said.
So Tracy said, no, we've got to have the three-way."
Steel said Punk scored "a decisive win. He got the pin on Smothers, and at the end there was a little table action."
Steel said Smothers "is a machine. He is phenominal. I'd love to work him 10 more times. I know what I'm doing against him,
but he's telling me what I'm going to do before I even do it."
Ace Steel said he didn't believe it when Danny Dominion told him they were booked for Saturday's Windy City Pro Wrestling
show at Taft High School.
"I laughed for an hour when I got Danny's message that (WCPW owner) Sam (DeCero) was going to book us," Steel said.
"I think it's odd."
Steel will face the WCPW league champion Terry Allen, while Dominion faces "All That" Steve Boz.
Steel and Dominion the namesakes of Steel Domain wrestling - are former WCPW stars who left years ago.
With Steel Domain, they train about a dozen high-level independent workers, and they still run shows in Minnesota.
Most who leave WCPW do so angrily. Steel said that was not the case with him, though it was for Dominion,
who stormed away after dropping his league title at a Battle of the Belts show.
"I was gone already (when Dominion left)," Steel said. "I got a job, and my job training took me to Florida.
I worked at the legendary Sportatorium in Tampa. It was no pay, but it was pretty good at the time.
It was true that they had us believing there was nothing out there except Windy City, but I found out."
Steel says he was fired by WCPW, and he said it was "something ridiculous. Like I didn't shake Sam's hand,
and then he wanted me to pay dues for working once a month."
But Steel said all is well, and has been for a long time. He believes DeCero is sincere when he says he is ready to move on.
"I read everything on your site, the interview with Sam saying let bygones be bygones," Steel said.
"And I'm pretty much down with that. It was the place I started."
Steel also has had a taste of being in charge, and says he can understand why DeCero has his reputation as a hard man.
"It's difficult doing what he had to do," Steel said. "You've got to fire this guy and that guy. But you have to be a
complete assh*le to get kicked out of the Domain. We have had guys come in and be humbled. But Sam is not a bad guy.
If he's true to his word, he's right, he has kids now. He wants to get away from the attitude he had before."
"He had a bit of a godfather attitude before," Steel added. "But when you've got a gym full of 40 people, you've got to
be intimidating. Does Sam intimidate me? No, I've been around. But he's a father figure in a sense. He'll tell you, do this,
do that. He watches your matches and critiques you, and he knows what he's talking about. He's a father figure in a sense."
Steel said he and Dominion "could be more than a 1-time deal. It would be a great thing to add to the list. It could also
give their newer guys experience. I have a lot of old-school theory and the newer guy needs to see a guy who has watched AWA,
rather than a guy who has watched WWF since 1992. That's one of the reasons Sam might like to have us around."
He said he never has faced Allen, and in fact, only saw Allen in action once.
"It was against Vic Capri and it was very early in his career," Steel said. "I certainly wouldn't judge him now from that match.
I saw he had a 45-minute draw with RVD, which had to be a hell of a match. If you can hang with RVD for 45 minutes,
you're doing something right."
But Dominion and Steel are familiar with Boz. They broke him in.
"Boz had his first match with us," Steel said. "It was, I think, the first taping at Slag Valley. It was the first appearance
of Danny and I as a team. We were the old LA connection against King Cobra and Steve Boz. Sam had him squashed by us.
He's gone on from there, and that's a credit to (Boz). He's got what he's wanted. Other people have left for different reasons,
but he is where he wants to be."