While All Elite Wrestling boasts an impressive array of indie standouts and ex-WWE talent, there are also a number of homegrown stars that many fans had not known about before — including The Acclaimed, the tag team of Max Caster and Anthony Bowens. With a unique entrance where Max Caster delivers a new rap each time and an outrageous catchphrase in “Scissor me, Daddy Ass,” The Acclaimed has become one of the most beloved homegrown acts in AEW.
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Because they came into prominence in AEW, fans might not know what Caster and Bowens had been up to before arriving in the promotion. Let’s take a look at their careers before becoming All Elite, including the shocking number of interactions they had before joining up.
10 Anthony Bowens Was “Discovered” By Santino Marella
It’s not uncommon for future wrestlers to be discovered while working out, though, in Anthony Bowens’ case, it was more than a little planned. While in college, Bowens told his professors he was sick on the day WWE came to town, taking the opportunity to work out in the gym that the wrestlers tended to frequent.
After meeting wrestlers and taking pictures, Santino Marella noticed that Bowens had the look of a wrestler, and hooked him up with wrestler/trainer Pat Buck.
9 Both Were Trained By Pat Buck
Anthony Bowens receiving training from Pat Buck is particularly notable because his future tag team partner Max Caster can also claim the same.
Before becoming a producer for WWE and later AEW, Buck opened the Create A Pro Wrestling Academy, a school and related promotion that boasts notable alumni like MJF, Mark Sterling, and Kris Statlander, among others. However, the two debuted a couple of years apart, with Bowens debuting in 2013 and Caster in 2015.
8 Bowens Got Concussed By The Authors Of Pain On NXT
While coming up in the 2010s, Anthony Bowens worked several squash matches for the majors — i.e. WWE and Impact Wrestling — though his NXT experience would end up being a notable one, while taking on The Authors of Pain in NXT in 2016.
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Bowens sustained a concussion when his tag team partner Jonathan Ortagun was powerbombed on top of him, with Ortagun’s elbow hitting Bowens in the head. According to Anthony Bowens himself, AOP was super apologetic about the incident, going as far as taking care of Bowens the next day.
7 Caster Wrestled For CZW
While still wrestling with Create A Pro’s related promotion, Max Caster found himself performing for one of the more notable indies of the 21st century, the New Jersey-based Combat Zone Wrestling.
There, Caster took part in Dojo Wars, a series of events focusing on up-and-coming talents like Ace Austin, Wheeler Yuta, and Jimmy Lloyd. While most of Caster’s CZW work was in Dojo Wars, he did end up wrestling a couple of bouts on CZW proper in 2018.
6 Never Tagged Together Before AEW
Given how popular The Acclaimed has become and how so many of AEW’s roster basically worked the same gimmicks on the indies, it should surprise many fans to find out that Anthony Bowens and Max Caster never teamed together before AEW.
While Bowens and Caster primarily worked as singles wrestlers, both worked in tag teams as well, with Bowens being a part of teams with names like The Untouchables and The Alpha Males. As for Caster, he was part of a stable called The Shook Crew, with whom he captured the Create A Pro Tag Team Championship.
5 Only Had One Match Together Before AEW
Considering that they were solo wrestlers and had the same trainer, it stands to reason that Anthony Bowens and Max Caster must have clashed in singles bouts before being paired together in AEW. This is shockingly not the case, as they never had a singles match before.
On top of that, they only ever had one match ever — a five-way match at WrestlePro that also included Bobby Wayward, TJ Crawford, and AEW regular VSK of The Trustbusters, with Crawford getting the win.
4 Caster Was One of Bobby Lashley’s Sisters
While Anthony Bowens’ WWE experience includes the aforementioned Authors of Pain squash, Max Caster has the unique distinction of being in one of WWE’s more reviled segments in recent years. The year was 2018, and the heel Sami Zayn was feuding with the newly returned Bobby Lashley.
RELATED: 10 Matches You Forgot Bobby Lashley Competed In
This weak feud included an in-ring promo where Zayn brought out a trio of men in drag that he claimed were Bobby Lashley’s sisters, one of whom was Max Caster. Some unfunny comedy ensued until Lashley came out and beat everyone up.
3 Bowens Tried Out For WWE
Anthony Bowens’ physique and in-ring skills would make him a solid candidate for any wrestling promotion, including WWE where he actually was able to score a tryout with WWE. While the tryout was ultimately unsuccessful, it wasn’t a flat-out no.
WWE officials were impressed with his wrestling skills, but they felt that Bowens had yet to really figure out his persona and therefore wasn’t quite ready in their eyes, with WWE specifying that they were looking for sports entertainers and not just wrestlers.
2 Won Singles Titles On The Indies
It’s not uncommon for wrestlers deemed newcomers in the major promotions to have captured a title or two while on the indies, and the pre-Acclaimed team of Max Caster and Anthony Bowens is no different.
Having debuted a couple of years earlier, Bowens got a bit of a head start and managed to capture three runs with the top title of Pat Buck’s previous promotion, WrestlePro. Caster was no slouch either, having held the Create A Pro Championship twice during his time there.
1 Caster Rapped Before AEW
For fans who saw The Acclaimed come up in AEW Dark, one of the first memorable things about the duo was the way Max Caster would deliver a new rap every week, insulting his opponents on the way to the ring. As the act gained momentum, The Acclaimed would begin shooting music videos to trash upcoming opponents.
But rapping wasn’t a new part of Caster’s gimmick — he was known to do the same on the indies, like during his mixed tag team feud with Anthony Greene and Ava Everett in 2019, where he and partner Kris Statlander collaborated on an original diss track about their rivals.
