WWE ‘Put Pressure’ On AEW To Sign These 2 Stars

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan has revealed which AEW stars WWE “put pressure” on him to make sure he got signed.

In an interview following the announcement that AEW would making its New York debut in September, Khan spoke about some of the young AEW success stories, naming the Acclaimed (Max Caster and Anthony Bowens) as an example.

Speaking with PWInsider, Khan said:

“There’s also a lot of big success stories in AEW. Red Velvet and Will Hobbs and a number of other wrestlers, including a team that I put together, the Acclaimed. The Acclaimed were singles wrestlers. They both went to the same school, Create A Pro, but they’d never teamed. And I saw them both on Dark and they were, frankly, the WWE put a little pressure on me with both of them. I think they were both people the WWE wanted, and I really wanted to use both of them. And then I thought about it and I had this thought about the Acclaimed and I brought them together. And there’s a lot of teams that have gotten, I think, the benefit of Dark and Elevation as platforms that are kind of teams that I’ve kind of put together. The same, the Acclaimed got the amazing reaction at Double or Nothing. Particularly in the beginning of the Battle Royale when Max rapped.  Anthony is an actor, such a versatile wrestler. Max Caster and Anthony Bowens are a tremendous pair and they’ve gotten to develop and they really became an act and got over on Dark and Elevation with the fans and then got integrated into the regular programming on Dynamite. I wanted to keep using them and keep featuring them in special ways. And they’ve really delivered time after time.”

The Acclaimed are currently the #2 ranked tag team in the official AEW tag team division rankings, behind the Varsity Blonds (Brian Pillman Jr and Griff Garrison).

A funny side note that Chris Jericho mentioned not long ago is that when the idea for him to lead a faction was being thought up, one of the names Khan suggested for it was ‘Chris Jericho and The Acclaimed’ – not with the current Acclaimed members, just that name.

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• the acclaimed
• tony khan
• AEW
• wwe

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