Anthony Bowens
Anthony Bowens | |
---|---|
Born | Nutley, New Jersey | December 18, 1990
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Anthony Bowens |
Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
Billed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
Billed from | Nutley, New Jersey |
Trained by | Pat Buck |
Debut | 2013 |
Anthony Bowens (born December 18, 1990) is an American professional wrestler. He currently wrestles for All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He has also appeared in WrestlePro, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Global Force Wrestling (GWF), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
During his time in AEW, Bowens has been a one-time AEW World Tag Team Champion and one-time AEW World Trios Champion.
Career
[change | change source]All Elite Wrestling
[change | change source]On the September 25, 2020 episode of Dark (aired November 6), Bowens debuted with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He teamed with Lee Johnson and they lost to Chaos Project (Luther and Serpentico).[1] On the November 27 episode of Dark, Bowens would team with Max Caster in a loss against Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent).[2] On November 3, AEW owner Tony Khan announced that both Bowens and Caster had signed a five-year contract with AEW to wrestle as a tag team and the would call themselves The Acclaimed.[3]
At Holiday Bash, The Acclaimed would face the Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships but lost.[4]
In May 2022, Bowens would be confined to a wheelchair because of knee surgery but he still continued to cut promos and be at ringside for Caster's matches.[5] Bowens would return to the ring at Blood & Guts. He would enter the ring and accidently hit Caster's teammate Austin Gunn with the crutch he had.[6]
At Grand Slam, The Acclaimed managed by Billy Gunn and DJ Whoo Kid faced Swerve In Our Glory (Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland) managed by Fabolous. The Acclaimed would defeat them and win the AEW World Tag Team Championship. This was Bowens' first championship in AEW and with the win, he became the first openly gay wrestler to become an AEW champion.[7][8] They would lose the title to The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) on the February 8, 2023 episode of Dynamite.[9]
At All In, The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn would defeat the House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) to win the AEW World Trios Championship.[10]
Personal life
[change | change source]Bowens is openly gay. He is married to his husband YouTuber, Michael Pavano.[11]
Championships and accomplishments
[change | change source]- All Elite Wrestling
- AEW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Max Caster[12]
- AEW World Trios Championship (1 time) - with Max Caster and Billy Gunn
- Battle Club Pro
- BCP Franchise Championship (1 time)[13]
- Independent Wrestling Federation
- IWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[14]
- New York Post
- Male Breakout Wrestler of the Year (2022) shared with Max Caster[15]
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 304 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2021[16]
- WrestlePro
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Most Improved (2022) with Max Caster as The Acclaimed[19][20]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Anthony Bowens & Lee Johnson vs Chaos Project (AEW Dark 10/6/20)". YouTube. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "AEW Dark 10/27/20 Results: Hikaru Shida, Dark Order, SCU, Team Taz, Darby Allin & More In Action!". Fightful. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "AEW Signs Anthony Bowens And Max Caster To Contracts, Bowens And Caster Comment". Fightful. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "AEW Dynamite live results: Holiday Bash". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "Out AEW wrestler Anthony Bowens is out with a knee injury". OutSports. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "6/29 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, Santana, and Ortiz vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, and Angelo Parker in a Blood & Guts match, Jade Cargill vs. Leila Grey for the TBS Title, Orange Cassidy vs. Ethan Page". ProWrestling.net. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "9/21 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson for the vacant AEW World Championship, Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW Tag Titles, Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Jericho for the ROH Title, Toni Storm vs. Athena vs. Britt Baker vs. Serena Deeb for the Interim AEW Women's Title, Pac vs. Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Title". ProWrestling.net. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "Anthony Bowens is the first out gay All Elite Wrestling champion". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "AEW Dynamite (2/8/23) Results: Championship Fight Night Featuring MJF, The Elite, Bryan Danielson". Fightful. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "AEW All In results: Powell's live review of MJF vs. Adam Cole for the AEW World Championship, Will Ospreay vs. Chris Jericho, CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe for the Real World Title, Stadium Stampede". ProWrestling.net. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "Gay wrestler Anthony Bowens lays the smackdown on Christian homophobes with defiant kiss". PinkNews. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ↑ "Official AEW World Tag Team Championship Title History". All Elite Wrestling. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
- ↑ "BCP Anything You Can Do". Cage Match.
- ↑ "IWF Junior Heavyweight Championship". Cage Match.
- ↑ Staszewski, Joseph (December 27, 2022). "The Post's 2022 pro wrestling awards". New York Post. Archived from the original on December 29, 2022. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
- ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2021". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
- ↑ "WrestlePro Gold Championship". Cage Match.
- ↑ "WrestlePro Dream 16 - Tag 2". Cage Match.
- ↑ Jaymond P (February 24, 2023). "2022 Wrestling Observer Awards Results". WrestlePurists. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- ↑ Meltzer, Dave (February 2023). "February 2023 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Results of the 2022 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards". Wrestling Observer Newsletter.