BOWENS
Anthony

• 1. Professional wrestling career

Anthony Bowens is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he teams with Max Caster as The Acclaimed. They are former one-time AEW World Tag Team Champions.

Professional wrestling career

Bowens started training in 2012 and made his professional wrestling debut in 2013. In November 2016, he suffered a concussion during a match on WWE NXT.

Once back from injury, Bowens would work prolifically for tristate and New England independent wrestling promotions like Combat Zone Wrestling and Beyond Wrestling while also making appearances for Global Force Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He captured the WrestlePro Heavyweight Championship twice between 2016 and 2017. On January 21, 2017, Bowens challenged Drew Galloway unsuccessfully for the WCPW World Heavyweight Championship at Battle Club Pro's Fight Forever event, which marked the first time the title had been defended outside of the UK.

In November 2020, All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan announced that Bowens, alongside Max Caster, had been signed to a five-year contract with the promotion. The announcement also stated that Bowens and Caster would compete as a tag team named The Acclaimed. In May 2022, Bowens underwent knee surgery, sidelining him for several months. During this time Bowens still attended AEW shows and performed his regular promos, although did not wrestle and was confined to a wheelchair; Caster would subsequently team increasingly with the Gunns, with whom they had forged an alliance. Bowens returned from injury at the Blood and Guts edition of Dynamite.

At AEW Grand Slam 2022, The Acclaimed would win their first AEW tag team championship. This made Bowens the first openly gay wrestler to become an AEW champion.