 Steel in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Guy[6] (1973-01-25)January 25, 1973 (age 53) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Ace Steel Sexy Ace Steel[1] Ace Lynch[2] Donald Trump[3] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[4] |
| Billed weight | 215 lb (98 kg) |
| Billed from | Chicago, Illinois[5] Hollywood, California |
| Trained by | Windy City Pro Wrestling[5] William Regal Fit Finlay Dave Taylor Harley Race |
| Debut | October 1991[5] |
Christopher Guy (born January 25, 1973) is an Americanprofessional wrestler, better known by hisring nameAce Steel. As of February 2024[update], he is signed toTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling as aproducer. He is perhaps best known for his time withRing of Honor and occasional appearances forWorld Wrestling Entertainment, as well as his stint in WWE'sOhio Valley Wrestling developmental territory and two short runs inAll Elite Wrestling as a backstage producer. As a trainer, he has trained several well-known wrestlers, such asCM Punk,Colt Cabana, andJoe Hendry.
Ace Steel was born Christopher Guy on January 25, 1973 inChicago,Illinois.[6][1]
Guy became interested in professional wrestling after watchingAmerican Wrestling Association shows at theInternational Amphitheatre as a child. He debuted in October 1991 after training withWindy City Pro Wrestling.
Steel eventually formed atag team with Danny Dominion first known as the L.A. Connection in Windy City Wrestling then the Hollywood Hardbodies. Along with Dominion, Steel worked as both wrestlers and trainers for St. Paul Championship Wrestling, anindependentpromotion andprofessional wrestling school, from 1998 to 2001 until the promotion was renamed to Steel Domain Wrestling.[7] During this time, Steel held the promotion's Television Championship, and became the last man to hold it under the SPCW banner and the first under the SDW banner.
Steel worked forIndependent Wrestling Association Mid-South. On February 8, 2002, he defeated Kurt Krueger for the promotion'sLight Heavyweight Championship. Steel defended the championship againstRey Mysterio Jr. in hard fought time limit draw. He held the title until March 8, when he lost it to Vic Capri. Steel would eventually reclaim the title on May 3 after defeating Capri in a thirty-minuteIron Man match, but was stripped of the title in June when he failed to defend it within the thirty-day limit.
Steel was signed byNWA: Total Nonstop Action soon after the promotion opened in May 2002. He wrestled a tag team match with his former student,CM Punk, as the Hatebreed and received a smallpush as part of theX Division, but was used irregularly, working a handful of dates before his contract expired in October 2003.
In early 2003, Steel joinedRing of Honor and reformed the Hatebreed with CM Punk. On March 22, Punk and Steel faced Punk's enemyRaven and another student of Steel's,Colt Cabana, in a tag match. Cabana appeared to badly injure himself afterbotching amoonsault to the outside of the ring, forcing Punk to wrestle the majority of the match single-handedly. Raven eventually managed to defeat Steel following anEven Flow DDT, but after the match, Cabanaturned on him and aligned himself with Steel and Punk. Punk, Cabana and Steel named themselves theSecond City Saints, in reference to all threestable members being from Chicago.
The Second City Saints started a feud with The Prophecy, mostlyB. J. Whitmer andDan Maff. The rivalry led to a Chicago Street Fight. The match had many dangerous spots including a Spear through a barbed wire board, a splash from inside the ring to the outside onto Maff on a ladder supported by the guardrails, and akneeling reverse piledriver off the top rope through a table.[8]
Steel joinedHarley Race'sWorld League Wrestling promotion in 2003, and in November and December 2003 he represented WLW on a tour withPro Wrestling Noah inJapan. Steel enjoyed working in Japan and began appearing regularly with Noah. The Gold Exchange (Matt Murphy and Superstar Steve) were the reigning Tag Team Champions, and, when Superstar Steve was injured, Steel took his place as Murphy's partner and helped defend the Tag Team Titles until Steve returned and reclaimed his half of the championships. After Murphy left the promotion, Steel became Steve's partner, and on May 7, 2005 inOzark, Missouri Steel and Steve defeated Wade Chism and Dakota for the Tag Team Championship. Thought to be retired but Steel returned for technical contests withWWE ‘sWilliam Regal in 2011 and 2012. In 2014, Steel returned to win the WLW Heavyweight Championship and lost it later that year.
Ace Steel participated in tours toPro Wrestling Noah wrestling the company’s ownerMitsuharu Misawa in many tag team matches as well as company legendsKenta Kobashi,Akira Taue and many others during his time there. Legendary wrestlerHarley Race was Steel’s agent for wrestling tours. In 2005, Steel challengedKENTA for theGHC Junior Heavyweight Championship inSteamboat Rock, Iowa forWorld League Wrestling with Noah officials andHarley Race present. Steel has a tattoo on his arm in memory of Misawa.CM Punk andRancid guitaristLars Frederiksen have the same tattoo as a collaborative tribute.
Steel appeared withWorld Wrestling Entertainment on the September 27, 2004 episode ofRaw and had his hair cut byEugene, who would faceEric Bischoff in ahair versus hair match at the upcomingTaboo Tuesdaypay-per-view.[6] Steel used the name "Scott Colton" (the real name ofColt Cabana) as an inside joke.[6] After Eugene inexpertly cut his hair, Bischoff ambushed Eugene and Steel, knocking them out withthrust kicks. Cabana returned the favor on the April 10, 2006 episode ofRaw when he wrestled under the name Chris Guy, Steel's real name.[6]
Steel also made an appearance onVelocity on April 1, 2006 againstOrlando Jordan, as well as various dark matches and TV appearances from July 2000.[9]
On the January 8, 2007 episode ofRaw, Steel portrayedDonald Trump, in an intergender match with Kiley McLean, portrayingRosie O'Donnell,[10] dubbed "The Donald vs. Rosie". "Trump" received the win after throwingFudgie the Whale at Rosie's face and pinning her after a second turnbuckle "hairbutt".[11] It was reported on January 18, 2007, in the midst of 11 releases on that day, that he officially signed a WWE developmental contract.[12] Steel debuted inDeep South Wrestling in February. When Deep South Wrestling shut down on April 19, 2007 Steel was moved toOhio Valley Wrestling where he was added to the roster.[4] He debuted in September 2007.
Steel wrestled on the October 5, 2007 edition ofSmackDown!, quickly losing toChuck Palumbo.[13] Ace was later released from his WWE developmental contract on February 4, 2008 along with five other developmental wrestlers.
On December 5, 2008, Steel returned toRing of Honor at their Wrestling at the Gateway event. He teamed withNecro Butcher to defeat the team ofJimmy Jacobs andDelirious. His next match was a 10-man cage match at ROH'sCaged Collision event on January 31, 2009. He also appeared atTake No Prisoners, losing toColt Cabana.
It was announced that Steel was signed to WWE as a coach to thePerformance Center in November 2019. He was furloughed on April 15, 2020 as a part of cutbacks due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[14] He returned on October 16 of that year. On January 5, 2022, Steel was released by WWE.[15]
During the post-show conference forRevolution,All Elite Wrestling ownerTony Khan announced that Ace was working with AEW in a backstage capacity. On the August 31, 2022 episode ofAEW Dynamite, Steel made an appearance with an on-camera hype promo to encourage CM Punk to sign the open contract for a rematch withJon Moxley atAll Out for theAEW World Championship. Steel would appear in a pre-match entrance segment with Punk at the event.
During theAll Out post-event media scrum, CM Punk made several comments insultingKenny Omega andThe Young Bucks, among others. This led to a backstage fight between Punk, Steel, Omega, and the Young Bucks. The Young Bucks allegedly barged into Punk’s dressing room with several others and started an altercation with Steel’s injured wife present.[16][17][18] As a result of an investigation, Steel was released by AEW on October 18, 2022. Steel’s wife was never interviewed.
On May 18, 2023, it was reported that Steel was re-hired by AEW months after the All Out post-event media scrum.[19] He worked remotely for AEW as a member of the creative team forAEW Collision until it was reported on September 7, that Steel was released by AEW.[20]
On February 20, 2024, Steel confirmed that he's working forTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling as a producer.[21] He made an on-screen appearance on the May 13, 2024 edition ofTNA Impact!, whereJoe Hendry announced Steel would be managing him for his match againstFrankie Kazarian at that week'sAgainst All Odds show.[22] At Against All Odds, after Kazarian defeated Hendry by use of a foreign object, Steel confronted Kazarian and attacked him. The following night at the IMPACT tapings, Steel and Kazarian would have a Chicago Street Fight having Kazarian as the winner. Hendry ran in to stop any other post match punishment from Kazarian.[23]
