Anthony Bowens is recovering following a procedure on his knee.
Bowens wrote on social media that he underwent a procedure to fix his knee, blaming it on an attack that took place on AEW Dark Elevation that aired this past Monday.
“Without getting into too much detail..bc of the attack after Elevation on Monday, I had to undergo a procedure this week to fix my knee,” he wrote. “Story of my life..1 step forward, 2 steps back.”
Without getting into too much detail..bc of the attack after Elevation on Monday, I had to undergo a procedure this week to fix my knee. Story of my life..1 step forward, 2 steps back. #AEWRampagepic.twitter.com/QtSga0eFeC
During an interview backstage on Rampage tonight, footage was shown of the attack. It wasn’t made clear who attacked Bowens. Caster and The Gunn Club were upset about the attack. Billy Gunn said that all factions had to go through this kind of adversity together, but when Bowens is ready, they will celebrate with a scissors party.
In the last few weeks, The Gunn Club and The Acclaimed have formed a faction in backstage segments. On Elevation, they defeated local competitors in an eight-man tag team match prior to Bowens being attacked.
This week’s matches were taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.
Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) defeated Ariya Daivari and Invictus Khash
Khash took a free shot at Silver when the bell rang, but it made no effect. Reynolds came in after helping Silver perform a double team move, but before Reynolds could make an impact, Khash dragged him down from the top rope with a handful of hair — leading to a small period of dominance from he and Daivari.
Silver eventually got the hot tag and delivered a sit-out power bomb to Daivari. Shortly after, Reynolds assisted Silver with some double team maneuvers before pinning Khash with an bridging German suplex.
QT Marshall (w/ The Factory) defeated Pat Brink
Brink surprisingly unloaded some great offense early on and had Marshall reeling. The match changed course when Brink was distracted by The Factory, leading to Marshall pushing him into a steel post.
Marshall worked on Brink very methodically and the match started to drag. Brink found himself in a position to win after he was able to nail a few clotheslines and a powerslam. After an unsuccessful pin attempt, Brink fell victim to Marshall’s diamond cutter.
Max Caster (w/ Anthony Bowens) defeated Cameron Stewart
One half of The Acclaimed dominated from the bell with Stewart getting very little offense in. There was one spot where Stewart had pushed Caster off the top rope and had a moment of hope, but that was put to bed after Caster delivered a brainbuster followed by a Mic Drop for the win.
Tony Nese defeated Carlie Bravo
This was a fun bout for what it was, mainly because of Bravo’s great facial expressions. Bravo also had some great crowd backing.
Nese tossed around Bravo early on, flexing in between moves. Bravo didn’t go down too easy and had a great fake out punch spot in the corner that disrupted the Nese’s focus. Nese had a hilarious spot a few seconds later where he was doing a bicycle exercise on Bravo who was hanging upside down from the turnbuckle.
Nese would go on to win shortly after with a running piledriver.
Emi Sakura defeated Angelica Risk
Sakura immediately threw Risk to the mat by her hair. While playing to the crowd, Sakura locked in a submission and mocked Risk which would come back to cost her momentarily. Risk did a hip toss in the corner with her spare seconds before Sakura took back control of the match, hitting the Queen’s Gambit for the three count.
2point0 (w/ Daniel Garcia) defeated Metro Brothers
2point0 dominated from the bell with the Metros getting no offense in at all. The duo hit Chris Metro with The Show to win the match in about twenty seconds.
MT Nakazawa defeated Joey Sweets
Nakazawa started by talking through his headset. Sweets took advantage of the distraction and struck him from behind, but Nakazawa recovered quickly. Nakazawa kept getting distracted with different tech equipment, but was still wrestling. After striking Sweets with a clipboard, Nakazawa hit a piledriver for the win.
Frankie Kazarian defeated Luke Sampson
Sampson tried to bull rush Kazarian early, but was met with a dropkick from the “Heavy Metal Rebel.” Sampson rolled to the outside to recover and when he returned, he delivered a chokeslam to Kazarian.
Kazarian was up in no time and would go on to make Sampson submit with a crossface chicken wing.
Jora Johl defeated Axel Rico
Johl delivered an onslaught of forearms early as the match spilled to the outside. Rico tried to fight back, but was the victim of a backbreaker on the apron courtesy of Johl. When the match ended up back in the ring, Johl delivered a fantastic pump kick to secure the win.
Dark Order (Alan “5” Angels & 10) defeated Chaos Project
This was a display of what both teams represent: high octane offense mixed with good comedy.
Serpentico flipped off Angels as the two started out. Angels tried to end the bout early with a backslide, but Luther pulled Serpentico out of the ring in an attempt to coach him up.
Angels tagged out to 10 which didn’t bode well for “Snakeman.” 10 threw Serpentico around with ease before he allowed Luther to enter the match for the first time. Angels came in and got powerslammed by Luther. He then instructed Serpentico to lift him up which didn’t end up working out.
The conclusion of the match came quickly after when 10 submitted Serpentico with the full nelson.
Anthony Bowens (w/ Max Caster) defeated Fuego Del Sol
Del Sol pushed Bowens of The Acclaimed in the corner when the bell rang and tried to put together a string of high speed offense. Bowens rolled outside in an attempt to recover, but Del Sol hit a torpedo off the second turnbuckle to take him out.
The match made its way back to the ring with Del Sol still firing off with great offense. After hitting a standing shooting star press, Del Sol scored a near fall.
Bowens found his second wave of momentum shortly after the kickout and slowed down Del Sol very quickly. After firing up with a few big moves, Bowens hit a reverse draping DDT to pick up the victory.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, AEW’s Anthony Bowens responded to having a homophobic slur yelled at him by a person in attendance at last week’s Dynamite.
The slur was yelled by a member of the crowd as The Acclaimed (Bowens & Max Caster) & 2point0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker) were facing Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) & The Varsity Blonds (Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison) in an eight-man tag match at last Wednesday’s show at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Bowens told TMZ Sports that it was the first time he’s audibly heard something like that yelled at him during a performance or during television. Bowens said his other interactions with AEW fans have always been positive, but he’s kind of glad that the slur was picked up on camera so that it can amplify the message that we still have work to do. Bowens said it can also show the positive message of the support he’s received since the incident.
“Unfortunately that kind of stuff comes with the territory, being an out LGBTQ athlete. This is actually the first time that I’ve audibly heard something like that during a performance or during television. It’s not indicative of the AEW fans at all, because any interactions that I’ve had with them since starting with the company has all been positive, so that’s the first time that’s actually happened in that sense,” Bowens said.
“I have really thick skin — I’m kind of used to it from, like my boyfriend Michael and I, we have our YouTube channel ‘Michael & Anthony.’ And when we first started that, woof, the comments were brutal. I can’t even repeat them. So we’re kind of just used to that, but there’s always kind of one person that kind of just oversteps the line. And this time it was picked up on camera — and I’m kind of glad it was because it just amplifies the message that we still have work to do, but it also shows that there’s so much positivity out there, like you said from the response, so that was really awesome to see.”
TMZ Sports asked Bowens what he would say to the person who yelled the slur at him.
“I’m not kind of the reactive type. I’m the type of person that likes to have a conversation. And honestly, if I did meet him, I’d sit him down and listen to him and I’d hope he’d listen to me and hope that we can find some common ground or at least educate him to why that was wrong to do,” Bowens said. “And I hope the person grows. I think instead of just kind of beating down other people and throwing back the negativity that they’re giving to you, it’s an opportunity to educate and help the person become a better human being.”
Bowens came out as bisexual in 2017 and now identifies as gay. He debuted for AEW in 2020 and formed his tag team with Caster.
A new match has been added to tonight’s AEW Dynamite.
Jungle Boy of Jurassic Express will face Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed in singles competition. AEW CEO Tony Khan made the match announcement today on Twitter.
As part of a storyline, The Acclaimed are claiming to be antagonized by Khan, and Khan has responded by booking Bowens against Bryan Danielson on last week’s Rampage, and now against Jungle Boy on Dynamite. Danielson defeated Bowens on Rampage.
Here is the full Dynamite lineup:
Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page AEW World Championship match at Full Gear contract signing
Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero (w/ Orange Cassidy)
PAC vs. Dax Harwood
AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker, Rebel & Jamie Hayter vs. Tay Conti, Thunder Rosa & Anna Jay
Lio Rush & Dante Martin vs. Lee Moriarty & Matt Sydal
“What you’ve seen the last 4 months was me basically wrestling on 1 leg,” he wrote. “I can’t wait to get back full throttle. Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of Acclaimed content coming your way each week. I’m excited for everyone to get to know us/me a little better outside the ring.”
The Acclaimed last competed as a team back on the edition of AEW Dynamite that was taped on February 4, losing to Chris Jericho and MJF of The Inner Circle. Bowens’ tag team partner, Max Castor, competed in the Face of the Revolution ladder match at Revolution this past weekend. However, that match was won by Scorpio Sky.
Left My Wallet returns with AEW star Anthony Bowens, one half of The Acclaimed.
Bowens burst onto the wrestling scene with past guest Max Caster and has been both a high level baseball player and huge baseball fan his whole life. Join us as we talk about his time playing college baseball at Seton Hall and Montclair St. University, the mindset a slumping hitter goes through, his favorite player growing up, who he patterned his playing style after, going to visit as many MLB ballparks as he could with his father, his love of the San Francisco Giants and more.
We also talk about wrestling and the learning curve he and his partner have had to learn going from relative obscurity to the top of the AEW tag team division, how he and Caster first teamed up and built chemistry, the nuances of tag team wrestling, and training under Pat Buck.
Spring training is here so join us for a talk about baseball and tag team wrestling.
Anthony Bowens and Max Caster have signed with AEW.
AEW President Tony Khan confirmed today via an interview with PWInsider that Bowens and Caster have signed, and will be going forward as a team under the name The Acclaimed.
PWInsider also reported that Bowens had WWE interest prior to signing with AEW.
Bowens and Caster have appeared on AEW Dark in recent months, with Bowens previously teaming with Lee Moriarity and Caster losing to Shawn Spears in a singles back back in June. The two teamed together on the October 27 edition of AEW Dark, losing to Best Friends.
Caster, trained by Brian Myers, has wrestled for Create A Pro Wrestling since 2015, winning their championship twice. He has also wrestled for Beyond Wrestling, CZW, and WrestlePro.
Bowens started wrestling in 2013, wrestling for promotions such as Limitless, Beyond, Defy Wrestling, and CZW. He also competed in a match taped for Impact’s Xplosion show, losing to Fallah Bahh in a singles match back in 2018. He also appeared on a NXT taping back in 2016, teaming with Jonathan Ortagun in a losing effort against The Authors of Pain.
