AEW has new tag champs! Max Caster & Anthony Bowens (known collectively as The Acclaimed) defeated Swerve In Our Glory (Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee) at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 2022 to capture the AEW World Tag Team Championship for the first time in their career.It all went down at New York City's prestigious Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday, September 21 in the second match of the second Grand Slam edition of AEW Dynamite. The Acclaimed did what they failed to do at All Out earlier this month when they overcame the odds and vanquished their veteran opponents Lee and Strickland following a thrilling match that had the crowd pumped throughout.
The finish came when Bowens hit Swerve with a spinning neckbreaker and Caster followed up with a Mic Drop from the top rope for the 1-2-3.
Swerve In Our Glory became champs when they defeated the team of Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs, and defending champs The Young Bucks in the triple threat main event of the July 13 edition of Dynamite.
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During a recent chat with Jack Murley on BBC's LGBT Sport Podcast, Bowens revealed how close he came to joining WWE instead of AEW, and what ultimately inspired his decision to accept an offer from AEW boss Tony Khan.
"I had interest from NXT/WWE,” Bowens said. “Then I didn’t hear from them. When my match with AEW aired, I heard from them the next day and they offered me a deal. Tony Khan caught wind of it and brought me down to Jacksonville, which ended up being the same thing that was happening to Max Caster. And Tony ended up pairing myself with Max Caster, he wanted us to be The Acclaimed."
Based on Bowens' version of events, it seems like Tony Khan was so impressed by Caster and Bowens that he offered them AEW deals which were, presumably, sweeter than the deals they would have been offered by WWE. Luckily, Bowens was an admirer of AEW, and he had no hesitations about putting his signature on the dotted line.
As The Acclaimed, Anthony Bowens and Max Caster are one of the most consistently entertaining tag teams in AEW. They're both solid in-ring workers who have improved immensely since arriving at AEW, and their antics outside the ring endeared them to the company's loyal fanbase. They've more than earned their spot at the top of the AEW tag division.
THE ACCLAIMED HAS ARRIVED ... for real this time.
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