Anthony Bowens

Anthony Bowens (born December 18, 1990) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he is one third of the current AEW World Trios Champions with Max Caster and Billy Gunn as The Acclaimed in their first reign.

He and Caster are also former one-time AEW World Tag Team Champions.

Bowens was born in Nutley, New Jersey.

He attended Nutley High School and Montclair State University.

He played baseball "for eleven years", including at Montclair State and Seton Hall University, playing two seasons each for the Pirates and Red Hawks.

He was discovered by professional wrestler Santino Marella, who asked him whether he had ever thought about professional wrestling.

He went on to train under Pat Buck.

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 using 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.

During this run, they would feud with, and eventually lose the titles to The Gunn Club.

They would also end up forming an alliance with Billy Gunn, Austin and Colten Gunn's biological father, where he was affectionately referred to as "Daddy Ass".

Bowens, Castor, and Gunn would go on to defeat The House of Black to become AEW World Trios Champions.

Bowens is openly gay.

He is a fan of the San Francisco Giants, and previously worked in the production department of the MLB Network studio.