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The Acclaimed

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The Acclaimed
The Acclaimed (Billy Gunn, Max Caster, & Anthony Bowens) in December 2022
Tag team
Name(s)Bowens and Caster
The Acclaimed
Former
member(s)		Max Caster
Anthony Bowens
Billy Gunn
DebutOctober 27, 2020
DisbandedJanuary 18, 2025
Years active2020–2025

The Acclaimed were a professional wrestling tag team and stable that currently compete in All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

The members of the team were Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn. Gunn was the manager of the team but also wrestled alongside them in trios matches. The team had the gimmick of a rapper and hype man.

They were one-time AEW World Tag Team Champions and one-time AEW World Trios Champions.

Career

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All Elite Wrestling

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On the September 25, 2020 (aired November 6) episode of Dark, Max Caster and Anthony Bowens teamed up for the first time together in a loss against Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent).[1] On November 3, AEW owner Tony Khan announced that both Bowens and Caster had signed a five-year contract and the team was given the name The Acclaimed.[2] At Holiday Bash, The Acclaimed would face the Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships but lost.[3]

The team was take off television for two months in 2021. This came after Caster was suspended without pay for rapping during his entrance. Topics he rapped about included the mental health of Simone Biles and the Duke lacrosse rape hoax. It was edited out of the show by Tony Khan.[4][5]

Caster would return to AEW from suspension on September 1.[6]

In 2022, they became friends with the Gunn Club (Billy, Austin and Colten Gunn). In May 2022, Bowens had knee surgery and was was confined to a wheelchair. However, he still continued to cut promos and be at ringside for Caster's matches.[7] Bowens returned to the ring at Blood & Guts. He entered the ring and accidently hit Caster's teammate Austin Gunn with the crutch he had.[8] This caused the Gunn Club to turn on the Acclaimed and the two teams started feuding after. Billy Gunn eventually joined the Acclaimed after his son's turned on and attacked him before joining The Firm.[9]

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 defeated them to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship. This was team's first championship in AEW. Bowens also became the first openly gay wrestler to become an AEW champion.[10][11] They lost the titles to The Gunns (Austin and Colten Gunn) on the February 8, 2023 episode of Dynamite.[12]

At All In, The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn defeated the House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) to win the AEW World Trios Championships.[13] They became allies with Bullet Club Gold and the partnership became known as the "Bang Bang Scissor Gang". Bullet Club Gold eventually turned on Acclaimed at Big Business and defeated them for their AEW World Trios Championships at Dynasty: Zero Hour.[14][15]

In November 2024, Bowens and Gunn started to become annoyed after Caster started to become narcissistic, selfish and call himself the "best wrestler alive".[16]

On January 18, 2025 at Maximum Carnage, the group officially broke up after months of tension between Caster and Bowens.[17]

Championships and accomplishments

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  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    • No. 171 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2022 — Caster[21]
    • No. 304 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2021 — Bowens[22]

References

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  1. ↑ "AEW Dark 10/27/20 Results: Hikaru Shida, Dark Order, SCU, Team Taz, Darby Allin & More In Action!". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  2. ↑ "AEW Signs Anthony Bowens And Max Caster To Contracts, Bowens And Caster Comment". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  3. ↑ "AEW Dynamite live results: Holiday Bash". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Max Caster: Getting Suspended Helped My Career, It Gave Me A Reputation". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Tony Khan: 'Terrible' Max Caster AEW Dark Rap Shouldn't Have Aired". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Max Caster Makes AEW Return During Dark: Elevation Tapings". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Out AEW wrestler Anthony Bowens is out with a knee injury". OutSports. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  8. ↑ "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 January 14, 2025.
  9. ↑ "AEW Dynamite (8/17) Results: CM Punk Speaks, 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match, Young Bucks In Elite Trios Bout". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  10. ↑ "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 January 14, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Anthony Bowens is the first out gay All Elite Wrestling champion". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  12. ↑ "AEW Dynamite (2/8/23) Results: Championship Fight Night Featuring MJF, The Elite, Bryan Danielson". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  13. ↑ "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 January 14, 2025.
  14. ↑ "AEW Dynamite Results (3/13): Keller's report on "Big Business" with Mercedes Moné, Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow for AEW World Title, Darby vs. White, Jericho & Hook vs. Gates of Agony". ProWrestling.net. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  15. ↑ "AEW Dynasty Zero Hour pre-show results: ROH Six-Man Tag Champions Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn vs. AEW Trios Champions Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn for both titles". ProWrestling.net. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  16. ↑ "AEW Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen (1/1/25) Results: Adam Copeland Teams With FTR As AEW Comes To Max". Fightful. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  17. ↑ "The Acclaimed break up on AEW Collision Maximum Carnage". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  18. ↑ "World Tag Team Championship History". All Elite Wrestling. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  19. ↑ "World Trios Championship History". All Elite Wrestling. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  20. ↑ "The Post's 2022 pro wrestling awards". New York Post. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  21. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2022". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  22. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2021". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  23. ↑ "2022 Wrestling Observer Awards Results". WrestlePurists. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
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