Goodbye, Vinny...
Sometimes life throws an unpleasant punch to the gut at an unexpected time.
I was settling into my Sunday afternoon when one of my friends texted, “What happened to Vince Steele?” Almost immediately, I felt a pit in my stomach.
As I started to scour social media, as many do in this day and age, to see if anything had popped up, I received a message that confirmed my worst fears.
“He’s gone.”
Instantly, my heart sank.
As the story turned out, during a match at BCW in Ridgefield Park, NJ, after delivering a powerful maneuver to a group of unwilling victims, Vinny suffered a medical episode. To the absolute courage and instincts of the referee and staff, they did their damnedest to keep Vinny with us.
In spite of their incredible efforts, Vince Steele couldn’t kick out this time. Like the text I received, he was, sadly, gone.
I know in the coming hours and days, so many people that went to battle with, interacted with, and had experiences with will tell their stories on how much Vinny touched their lives. Here, I’ve decided to give mine.
This is not just a story about Vince Steele the wrestler. This is the story of Vincent Rosa, a proud father, friend, and overall man.
I hope I can do him justice.
—--
The first time I ever met Vince Steele was in the Fall of 2007. Ed and Tom Scanlon, Dan Murdoch, and I were given permission by both Jay Lethal, the head trainer of the ACE Wrestling Academy, and Mike Morgan, ACE founder and promoter, to start coming to events and begin helping out wherever needed through the night.
Around the same time, Vinny was being brought in to ACE after his humble beginnings with the Bodyslam Wrestling Organization. A former BWO United States Champion, his 6 '6, over 300 pound frame held a unique style of power and agility not seen anywhere in the business.
One thing I learned later on was that during his BWO days, he would live with Traci and Biff, who I later would get to know and hang out with. Traci, to this very day, would call Vince her unofficial son and Vinny, from future conversations, would tell me about how incredible she was, for both her warmth and hospitality. The bonds that are made through professional wrestling…
Almost immediately, I got to witness “the Remix of Pro Wrestling” up close, doing ringside camera for the majority of the matches in the second installment of the ACE Arena on 725 Sip Street in Union City, NJ. Although initially terrified of the man, I quickly learned that Vince was the personification of a “gentle giant”. He truly had a big heart and was so easy going. However, when the bell rang, a whole different beast came out to fight.
I remember in early 2008, Dan Murdoch had his first singles match in pro wrestling. To this day, I remember it vividly. Murdoch came out to the ring first in his cowboy hat and black training pants. His name should have been “Lamb Being Led To Slaughter” that night.
As Murdoch stood in the ring, the lights went dark, while the different strobe lights began to flicker, and the smoke machine began to unfurl, “I’m So Hood” by DJ Khaled began to play. Following the 44 second build, out walked Vince. Sleeveless hoodie, bandana covering his face, arms in the air, bellowing “YEAH!” to an ovation from the ACE faithful. There was an aura I felt, just by holding the camera and filming his entrance to the ring.
After about five to six minutes of sheer dominance, the hairy-chested Murdoch was laid out on the canvas, and Steele was heading to the top rope. In an incredibly impressive display of agility for a super-heavyweight, Vince delivered an awesome Harlem Hangover to the prone Cowboy from Beaumont, TX. One flattened opponent and three slaps of the mat later, Vince Steele was your winner.
Vince was given a pretty steady run on top of ACE throughout his entire run. How could you not? He was loyal, talented, and always there to help. Especially during his time in the ACE Arena, he was wrestling names like Mo Sexton, Jay Lethal, “Hollywood” Joe Hardway, Christian Faith (who would later be known as Rickey Shane Page), and William Wyeth.
Most of the time, whenever I would come up to ACE during the week to help out Mike, Mikey, Ken Carrera, and William Wyeth, Vinny would normally be in the venue. If he wasn’t training, he’d just be hanging out. And this was where I began to know more about Vinny.
His knowledge of pro wrestling was incredible! One of the coolest facts I learned about Vinny was that he really got into it after watching GLOW! The fact that a kid from Bronx loved the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling and turned it into an independent career was impressive.
By the time ACE left Union City and took up a new residence at the Wallington Knights of Columbus, later the Morgan Jr Arena, in Wallington, NJ, Vince turned the corner of his career and became a monstrous villain.
Initially, he joined up with Stockade, Smith James, Bill Carr, and Nikki Addams as the New Age Wrecking Crew. He and James actually won the Tag Team Titles in 2013 from the Movement of Jamal Jackson and FNB in a ladder match, thanks to Nikki climbing the ladder and pulling down the gold.
By 2014, Vinny really broke out on his own. He won the ACE Diamond Division Championship from Andrew “Tiny” Johnson, and found him excommunicated from the Wrecking Crew by Mike Morgan, Jr and Stockade. In return, Vince decided to make everyone’s life a living Hell, winning the ACE Heavyweight Championship on September 20, 2014 at the Centennial Field in Wallington, defeating ACE Heavyweight Champion the Midnight Ryder and Stockade in a triple-threat match.
At Crossroads 2014 on November 1, 2014 at the Jose Marti Freshman Academy in Union City, NJ, he had, in my opinion, the most physical match of his career, wrestling Puerto Rican legend and former NWA World Tag Team Champion El Gran Apolo. Those two men beat the ever-loving crap out of each other. In the end of the day, Vinny gained Apolo’s respect big time.
It also really changed the trajectory of Vince’s independent career.
It was around 2015 when Vinny began to branch out to more independents. Places like Violence X Suffering and Brii Combination Wrestling began to also appreciate his passion and drive for the business. Due to his match with Apolo, Vince also started traveling more. He expanded to Puerto Rico several times, as well as the Midwest.
And then, there was CCW in Florida.
Vince’s rivalry with Cha Cha Charlie, CCW’s homegrown star, really gathered some buzz on social media. In a whole new territory, which had never seen the newly rechristened “Jurassic Juggernaut” perform, they were in awe of the size, the power, and the agility of Vinny.
Both Charlie and Vince beat the Hell out of each other so much that a mutual respect was formed. In fact, they became a tag team in CCW known as the Cha Cha Juggernauts. They were so much fun to watch.
In 2022, in fact, I had the honor of calling the Cha Cha Juggernauts in ACE, for one night only, when they faced off with Brolly and the Neanderthal Caveman in a Special Attraction tag team encounter. It might have been one of the more fun matches Classic Mikey D and I ever had the chance to call.
Vince even promoted several shows of his own under the Shadow Wrestling Alliance banner, which he also performed for. I always admire people for taking risks and trying new outlets to expand their creativity. Vinny was no different.
—--
To me, there will always be three stories about Vinny that personify who he was as a man.
The first one was an all-time classic.
To understand Vinny, you had to realize that the dude was so laid back, it was easy to laugh with him. He was just so funny. However, one of the biggest laughs of all time came at his expense.
It was August 8, 2015. ACE ANARCHY 2015. The night is best remembered by fans for the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Ethan Carter III taking on Lucha Underground’s Ricky Reyes, as well as the night Sonny Kiss was put on the map by giving EC3 a “Kiss That Didn’t Miss.” However, for the ACE locker room, it was for one particular reason.
Before the show, a group of us, including me, Classic Mikey D, Cheyenne Ortiz, and Vinny, were sitting around, talking about a plethora of topics and making each other laugh. Vinny, in particular, was laughing really hard. So hard, in fact, that a chair that Vinny was sitting on was beginning to sink.
Within fifteen seconds, Vinny ended up on the floor, still sitting on the seat cushion. You would think that he had broken the chair. No…he FLATTENED it. Unbelievably, I had the where-with-all to snap two pictures with my Samsung Galaxy S5. One was of Vinny, arms folded, smiling in disbelief that this happened. The other was of the chair.
Ironically, Chris “Shady” Torres, referee extraordinaire who had joined the conversation late, snapped an even better shot.
Almost immediately, the entire roster came out to see the chair in its new state. Uproarious laughter was had. Vinny, laughing as hard as we were, picked it up like a trophy, and walked it back to the locker room area. I am not too sure on what happened to that chair over time, but I do know that it sat in that room for quite some time after, being kept as a memento.
On a side note, there were a couple of times that Vinny was on Botchamania due to miscues made in the ring, in particular from the top rope. For many, that would be an embarrassing moment. For Vinny, it was publicity. I remember asking him about it one time and he said to me, “Man, I don’t care about that. They know who I am now. All good.”
That’s not only a man that can laugh at himself, but a man with no ego.
The second was the few month period leading to the one wrestling event that I ran: Project: Diverge.
When I was thinking of running an event, I knew that I wanted to use Vinny on the card. I will never forget sitting in a Walgreens parking lot in East Brunswick, NJ, talking with him on the phone, letting him know about the idea and what I wanted to do with him. He was all in, which made me incredibly happy.
As per the plan of Diverge, every wrestler was going to get a small video produced for them as hype packages for the actual card. Brian Belzer, who was my right-hand man and a guy who never gets as much as he should for those innovative videos, and I traveled to Vinny’s apartment in the South Bronx, mere minutes away from Yankee Stadium, to meet and record with him.
While we were there, I had the opportunity to meet with his sister, who was very friendly, and two of his sons - Gabriel and Aiden. While recording his vignette, Brian suggested that we get some B-roll of Vinny and his boys playing outside in the literal “Concrete Jungle”. On-and-off camera, I got to see how proud he was to be a father and how much they meant to him.
No matter whatever happens in life, I’m proud to say that this footage was edited and put together and hopefully one day, if his kids ever decide to research their father, that they were loved immensely by him and that everything he did was for them.
The third and final moment was probably the last real time I got to see and hang with Vinny one-on-one.
In 2022, there was a real opportunity to try and get Project: Diverge running again as a full-time promotion. Sadly, it fell apart before getting off the ground. However, we did film footage for future vignettes to be put together.
After picking up Vinny from the bus stop in Sayreville, we went back to my mom’s place in South River to hang and prepare. Once Scott Glazer and Nick Reigota - my Diverge production team - and Classic Mikey D arrived, we filmed a boatload of footage, preparing to develop a union between Mikey and Vince. One day, I will unearth that footage and put a clip of it online. It’s a case of, especially now, what could have been.
Once everyone went their separate ways, Vinny stayed behind and we chatted for a long time. Honestly, it was nice to have hung with him for as long as we did. Then, we got into the car and I prepared to drop him off in East Brunswick for his bus ride back to NYC.
One problem: I missed the exit for the bus and ended up on the New Jersey Turnpike. Total rookie move.
In truth, it actually gave us more time to hang out and talk. Looking back, it’s something I will cherish for the rest of my days. A half-hour later, I got him back to the bus depot and he left me with some deep words I will never forget.
“Life is good, man. Just gotta live it to the fullest.”
—--
There are probably so many more memories I could share, and there are probably countless others who have some classic stories to share of their own regarding Vince.
What I can say is this. I’ve known Vinny for almost twenty years. He was a good man. He loved his kids and his mom, who I’m sure are rejoined in heaven. He worked his butt off to provide for them. He was kind to others and had a big heart.
I know that I wish that Vinny would’ve been here longer, but life is fickle sometimes. He lived his life HIS WAY, and he maximized it to the fullest.
In this world of wrestling, sometimes we judge success by their career and where they’ve been. Vinny wrestled in multiple states, a different country, and was talented enough where a company felt strong enough to make him the face of their brand as a champion. I think that’s pretty successful.
Thank you for being my friend and for saying to me that you liked my commentary. Thank you for providing me with kind words that actually inspired me to work harder with Project: Diverge. Thank you for telling me to live my life to the fullest. Most importantly, thank you for being you.
This is still very fresh and I am still processing this news as I finish this piece. But I will say that you will be missed, Vince, by everyone that knew you. It will never be the same.
Goodbye, Vinny.
Jon Harder
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