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So how did you get involved with Max Caster? As The Acclaimed, you two just seem like such a perfect fit together. An All Elite Wrestling graphic shows Anthony Bowens and “Platinum” Max Caster. But eventually, I found myself with an AEW contract. It felt like I kept getting so close and the rug kept getting pulled out from underneath me. I understood there was more important things going on in the world but, from a very selfish standpoint, it felt like it was never gong to work out for me. There was an independent company in New Jersey and I was going to defend their belt around the country… and a week before I got told I was going to be making my AEW debut, the pandemic hit and everything shut down. I was still struggling on the indies trying to gain some momentum. It’s incredible to see considering you haven’t even been performing in AEW for that long… But nowadays, even with matches against someone like Sting, there’s a nervous energy, but it’s positive it’s more about excitement to get back out there and perform. Because you want the respect from the locker room and the respect of your peers. It could be that it’s wrestling in front of your fellow wrestlers and you feel like everybody’s judging you on how entertaining your performance is.
Young gay men wrestling in a ring full#
Funnily enough, I was more nervous during the pandemic shows when there was no audience than I am when I’m performing in front of full arenas. I’m itching to get back out there as quickly as possible. To go from that to performing in front of millions of people every single week is quite the transformation.Īnd now you’re headlining AEW’s flagship show Dynamite against one of the biggest icons – no pun intended – in the entire industry.Īt this point I’m so comfortable with my environment and I’m comfortable within myself and as a member of The Acclaimed. A very, very stressful day actually and it was a day that I didn’t think was going to happen because I had severe performance anxiety and was having panic attacks the day of the show to the point where I didn’t even know if I could show up. I made the final four and then I got eliminated. It was Tony Nese versus some other kid and he beat the crap out of him, and so all the new students came out and made the save, and it turned into this big battle royal. I do! It was a battle royal on January 19 2013. What was your first match like? Do you recall back then? Never did I think that a little more than a year later we’d be main-eventing Dynamite together on the ninth anniversary of my very first match.ĭoes it get anymore poetic than that? On the anniversary of your very first match.
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I found out that he was going to be in AEW the night he debuted when he walked past Max Caster and I, and I was like. I saw a commercial for Starrcade 97 and it was Sting walking through a warehouse or something, stepping on Hulk Hogan’s face and I saw him and was like, “Who is this guy?! He’s so mysterious.” I ended up becoming a big WCW fan – and Sting was my guy for years.
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Young gay men wrestling in a ring professional#
It’s so crazy! Sting was the first thing that drew me into professional wrestling. It might take a few weeks, because it was such a massive match, and it’s going to take a while to let it all soak in. Have you even recovered from that yet? How’re you feeling?Īnthony Bowens: I haven’t really fully processed it yet. PinkNews: Anthony Bowens! We’re speaking to you just a handful of days after you and Max Caster main-evented AEW Dynamite against the legend, the icon, Sting and Darby Allin. Jake Atlas, who retired from the sport citing mental health reasons, recently returned to the business after signing a contract with AEW. Nyla Rose, for example, made history as the first-ever trans women’s pro-wrestling champion on TV. Things are certainly changing in pro-wrestling and it’s AEW that’s emerging as the destination for elite LGBT+ pro-wrestlers with a deep and diverse roster made up of athletes from all walks of life. Sprinkle in some good old-fashioned locker room homophobia to boot and you don’t exactly have the most welcoming environment for us queer folk.Īt least, that’s how it used to be. Then there’s the allegations that former champion Chris Kanyon, a closeted gay man, was released from his WWE contract on account of his sexuality – Kanyon would later die by suicide in 2010, aged 40-years-old. There’s WWE’s infamous Billy and Chuck storyline from back in the early 00s, of course, in which two heterosexual men pretended to be in a same-sex relationship for jokes and cheap pops, complete with every offensive stereotype you could possibly imagine.