AEW Star Reveals He Said Yes To WWE Before Tony Khan Signed Him

WWE/AEW

Anthony Bowens has revealed that he had agreed to work for WWE before Tony Khan approached him to join AEW.

Bowens signing with AEW in November 2020 was announced alongside that of Max Caster, forming the tag team The Acclaimed.

In September 2020, Bowens had made his AEW debut teaming with Lee Johnson to take on Chaos Project (Luther & Serpentico) on AEW Dark.

He would first team with Caster on the October 22, 2022 episode of AEW Dark with the pair going on to make their Dynamite debut in December of that year.

Speaking on the Chrissy Chaos podcast, Bowens revealed the early days of his involvement with the company, saying:

“We weren’t there for the very first couple of months, weren’t there for the ground floor, but we are the foundation of AEW and it could have been the other way around.

“I found myself in a position where I was lucky enough to be able to choose, whether I went to WWE or AEW.

“Actually, I said yes to WWE, and then Tony (Khan) found out and flew me down there.”

In the interview, Bowens would also reveal his first meeting with tag-team partner Max Caster, stating:

“That’s when I met Max, my tag team partner, Max Caster, for the first time and he was like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this idea for… or I got this idea for you to be The Acclaimed and I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’

“I don’t know what it is, but cool, that’s really awesome. We went out, we wrestled that night, and then he came back and he was like, ‘Here’s your contracts’ and I signed it right away.”

The Acclaimed held the AEW Tag Team Championship for 140 days and would lose them to The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn).

Bowens has recently revealed that he wants “crossover, mainstream appeal” reflecting that wrestlers all have “an expiration date.”

Transcript from Wrestling Inc.

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• the acclaimed
• Anthony Bowens
• AEW
• wwe

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