The Acclaimed has remained a constant fixture on AEW television, but Tony Khan has detailed why Anthony Bowens hasn’t wrestled lately.
All Elite Wrestling’s tag team division is on fire right now, with a three-way World Tag Team Championships bout at Revolution between The Young Bucks, reDRagon, and defending champions Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus showcasing this brilliantly. Despite all of this, there is one team unable to compete together right now, that being The Acclaimed. This is due to an injury currently being experienced by Anthony Bowens.
Tony Khan revealed the news on a recent Busted Open Radio broadcast, noting that Bowens was scheduled to return to the ring in two weeks but hasn’t been cleared to compete as of yet (h/t Fightful):
“I really like Anthony a great deal. He’s been injured. We don’t think it’s anything too long-term, but the truth is, he was supposed to be back by now and that’s jammed me up the last couple weeks in planning. He’s been out almost a month and they originally thought it was going to be two weeks. It’s been a few weeks I’ve been looking forward to bringing him back. He’s recovering from what is hopefully a short-term knee injury.”
It’s unknown how, exactly, ‘The Five Tool Player’ suffered the injury, but it isn’t expected to be a long-term issue. Anthony Bowens last wrestled on the 9 March post-Revolution episode of Dynamite, as he and Acclaimed teammate Max Caster failed to lift the AEW World Tag Team Championships from The Jurassic Express. This marked the third title quest for Bowens and Caster, having previously come up short against The Young Bucks and The Lucha Bros in previous title quests.
While Anthony Bowens has been out injured, Max Caster has remained a singles star on AEW programming, having recently lost to CM Punk on last night’s Dynamite. ‘Platinum’ Max has also enjoyed outings vs. Keith Lee and Sonny Kiss on Rampage and Dark: Elevation, respectively.
All Elite Wrestling currently has a number of tag team performers out injured, with The Hybrid2’s Angelico suffering from a torn ACL, The Lucha Bros’ Rey Fenix out with a dislocated elbow suffered on the 5 January Dynamite episode, and Matt Sydal, who regularly teams with his brother Mike, out with a dislocated knee.