Anthony Bowen has aspirations beyond the tag division
Wrestling star Anthony Bowens has vowed to not only become AEW’s first-ever openly gay World Champion – but the company’s first Grand Slam Champion, too.
It’s a universal truth that everybody loves The Acclaimed. The All Elite Wrestling tag team made up of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster have captured the pro-wrestling zeitgeist, becoming one of the most popular duos through their signature ‘scissoring’ hand gesture, all while facing off against some of the biggest icons in the industry – such as Sting, Jeff Jarrett and Chris Jericho.
But 32-year-old Bowens has aspirations beyond the tag division and wants to make wrestling history as a proud gay man. He exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘I would love to be AEW’s first Grand Slam Champion [a wrestler who has won all available championships]. I hope The Acclaimed lasts forever, because Max and I have so much fun every week, and we’re smart and creative enough to continue to evolve and be a success.
‘If fate, for some reason, breaks us apart and we become singles wrestlers down the line, I would love to be the first Grand Slam Champion where you have the Tag Team titles, you have the TNT title, you have the International title and then the World title. I would love to be the first-ever gay World Champion – that would be absolutely incredible.’
Bowens is no stranger to blazing trails for LGBTQ+ athletes. He already became AEW’s first gay title-holder when he won the Tag Team Championships alongside Max Caster in 2022; he was the first gay wrestler to main event AEW’s flagship show Dynamite; and during Pride Month this year he went viral for all the right reasons after proudly declaring his sexuality in the middle of the squared circle.
The young AEW blue-chipper was sparring on the mic in a segment with QTV stable-member Harley Cameron when she suggested that he was sexually attracted to her. Bowens quipped that Cameron must have been ‘kicked too many times in the head by a kangaroo’ when she was young, proudly clarifying that he’s gay. It led to a rapturous applause from the thousands of fans in the arena and a chant of ‘he’s gay’ directed at Hayley Cameron.
He revealed: ‘I was asked if it was something I was comfortable doing and I was like, “Yes, absolutely!” I say all the time that my activism isn’t in your face – I like to pick and choose my spots to make it mean something even more. No one’s ever really said it inside of a wrestling ring – they only ever allude to [being gay]. I don’t know why, maybe they’re scared to say it. But I’m not.
‘This was a very fun way to do it. I felt like it would be a moment I wish I had when I was younger – a moment where someone who is LGBT can turn on the TV and watch something comfortably without seeing someone represent them being comedic fodder.
‘I didn’t know what the reaction was going to be. Especially with all the anti-LGBT rhetoric that’s going on in Twitter these days, I thought we were just going to be flooded with a bunch of nonsense. But it really wasn’t – it was super, super positive. And the fact we got a full arena giving a standing ovation and chanting ‘he’s gay’… all the reactions in the ring were very genuine between myself, Billy [Gunn] and Caster. The reaction I got afterwards proved that. It meant something to a lot of people.’
It’s just one of the many ways pro-wrestling has evolved since the boom of the ‘90s, when an undercurrent of homophobia ran through much of WCW Nitro and WWF Raw, with LGBTQ+ characters often being portrayed as a punchline – or worse.
Fast-forward to 2023 and WWE is in partnership with LGBTQ+ charity GLAAD while AEW is loudly supporting The Trevor Project, which provides crisis support for queer youth. In the last 12 months alone, two of AEW’s biggest stars Kenny Omega and CM Punk have both come out swinging for trans rights – and trans youth especially – against a backdrop of rising transphobia throughout the US.
The AEW star came out publicly during Pride month in a powerful moment
Bowens reflected and said: ‘You always need allies to help amplify voices that may not be heard. It’s very important that big stars like [CM] Punk do show their support and show that, “Hey, everyone’s human and we all support this.” I highly support anybody who speaks out against this nonsense that’s been going on and against all the hate that gets thrown around – so much respect to them.’
As of mid-August, there have been 494 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed in the US in 2023 alone, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The emboldenment of bigots and surge in queer hate is not something that is lost on the burly pro-wrestler, with Anthony Bowens admitting he watches his back as he travels the US to perform.
‘You have to be, to some degree,’ he said. ‘There are different parts of the country that look at things a lot differently. I’m very lucky in the fact that I grew up near New York City and now live in Los Angeles. Obviously there are pockets of weird stuff, but it’s a very accepting and cultural area.
‘When you do get to other parts of the country, you do have to watch your back a little bit. I am cognisant of where I am at all times, but I don’t let it dominate my thinking. I just have it in the back of my mind not to let my guard down completely because, you know, some people are nuts.’
The next stop on Bowens’ path to greatness, however, is Wembley Stadium for AEW’s All In London PPV – which is being touted as the largest pro-wrestling event in history. It’s certainly going to see the UK’s biggest-ever wrestling crowd, with more than 80,000 tickets sold – smashing a record set for more than 30 years by WWF SummerSlam ’92.
Bowen’s scissor move has become legendary
At All In on Sunday (August 27) – the namesake of the 2018 PPV which essentially acted as the genesis of AEW as we know it – Bowens will be tagging with Caster and wrestling legend Billy Gunn (the later of which has seen a late-career resurgence through his work with The Acclaimed) to take on the menacing House of Black for the AEW World Trios Championships.
Recalling the significance of All In and his time spent under Gunn’s learning tree, Bowens said: ‘This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of as a performer. Every time we do something huge at AEW, there’s something even bigger waiting around the corner. We won the Tag Team titles in front of 18,000 people and that’s a massive crowd – but when you start hearing numbers like 80,000 people… It’s absolutely bonkers. The fact we get to be part of this All In is truly an honour.
‘Billy has been a beacon of light for The Acclaimed and drops so much knowledge on us every single week without even knowing that he has. We’ve had the opportunity to do matches with him and just watch what he does, listening to how he goes about his business – you don’t even realise you’re learning from him.
‘Working with him is fantastic. It’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. He’s a fun person to be around – and really, really funny, too.’
Alongside Max Caster and Billy Gunn, Bowens has introduced the phenomenon of ‘scissoring’ to AEW – probably the most ‘over’ gesture or taunt since Bryan Danielson’s ‘Yes’ chant from his days as Daniel Bryan in WWE.
Of ‘scissoring’, Bowens recalled: ‘It started off as a joke that Max did to me way back in the pandemic days. I was a lot more reserved back then with how I presented myself as a performer, because I was new to the company. I was like, “Oh, I don’t know if we should do that.”
Bowen said you ‘always need allies to help amplify voices’
‘And then at one point, I was laying on the ground and someone on the first row of the audience had their fingers outstretched over the barricade and they’re going, “Bowens! Scissor me!” And I was like, “Huh, I think we’re on to something here.” We started doing it every entrance. And then I added the motor-boating face onto it and we just committed to it.
‘Eventually, when we joined up with Billy and his sons, I randomly thought of “Scissor me Daddy Ass!” in the five minutes before we went on live television – and that was the big kicker for everything. Every single week after that, I would see more and more signs. “Scissor me Daddy Ass” took off, then we got the shirt, and it just became this perfect storm.
‘Now, I scissor people every day. It’s really fun to see how it’s brought people together and the excitement that people have whenever we come out. It’s fun to just connect with people. I hope that we can break some sort of record for the biggest scissoring party at Wembley!’
AEW All In London comes to Wembley Stadium on Sunday (August 27) at 6pm. Click here for the remaining tickets, or tune in via Fite TV.
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Bowens, 32, proudly declared his sexuality for the first time during Pride month.
