According to Fightful Select, The Acclaimed, the duo that consisted of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster, could be on their way out of All Elite Wrestling after their current contracts expire in just a few weeks on October 1st. The report also said that it’s unclear if any negotiates had taken place between Bowens or Caster and management, citing that it could be an indication that the former tag team and trios champions could exit the organization after almost six-year tenure in the organization.
It’s less about parsing detail of what could’ve or should’ve been with the career of both Anthony Bowens and Max Caster in the company, and more about what the sum of their AEW careers represented as a microcosm of the bigger picture among the AEW landscape.
Despite some legitimate talent and potential to work with, in terms of fresh faces for a newer pro wrestling commodity on the national level, the totality of the careers of The Acclaimed in All Elite Wrestling were the textbook definition of running in place.
Yes, they were discovered on AEW Dark at a time when more or less any independent wrestler was being shuffled through the Youtube series in the midst of the pandemic. Anyone that was fully trained and could test negative for COVID at the time was given a chance, even if they weren’t exactly destined to end up on TBS or TNT since the pandemic brought many limitations with it. And, yes, they stood out from the pack of countless independent names to not only became regulars, but also sign a full-time contract with the promotion. Furthermore, yes, they went from the smaller stage of Youtube shows to national television to become one of the most popular acts in the company, albeit for a relatively short period of time.
On the surface, there was progress made, but was there really progress made in the grand scheme of things?
This isn’t a knock on their talent in any way, shape, or form. Neither Bowens nor Caster were Lou Thez or The Dynamite Kid in the ring, but they were solid performers that proved that they had the skills to work for a national promotion. More specifically, they got over with the crowd and could work the audience more effectively than most of the roster.
It might not be something that can be rated five stars, but Caster’s freestyle raps for the entrance, and Bowens role as the hype man worked. Their act connected with the audience, and their stable with Billy Gunn probably got over a lot stronger than anyone originally expected. Even when Bowens was on the shelf for a few months with a knee injury, he was still on AEW programming with Caster, and the team was still featured as a commodity.
They had a nearly four-month run with the tag team titles from September of 2022 through the early part of 2023, which was probably their peak as stars on television. Since that time, for whatever reason, there was no plan of any substance or firm direction for them. Very similar to many others that are under contract to the Khan-owned organization, The Acclaimed faded into the background, almost as if they were forgotten about. Their tenure as the Trios champions with Billy Gunn in 2024 was also forgettable.
At the beginning of 2025, the tag team officially dissolved, and the brief attempts for a reunion fizzled out quickly. The opportunity to truly propel The Acclaimed as a valuable asset was missed. Again, this had nothing to do with their talent, but rather the way it was handled or lack thereof. Caster and Bowens were cast as secondary figures, and quite frankly, the audience moved onto other performers, and bigger stars in the tag team division. For example, The Acclaimed weren’t booked to work with Adam Copeland and Christian in a storyline that could’ve made them look like rising stars, and the perception from the audience of both Caster and Bowens reflected that after the tag team disbanded.
Caster hasn’t worked a match for AEW since last December, and Bowens only had about a dozen matches for the company each of the past two years. Bowens joining The Opps this past April didn’t do much for him since he was just a background figure since that time, most recently working an eight-man tag team match on the pre-show of All In almost two weeks ago.
The reason that I said that The Acclaimed are the textbook example of running in place is, do they truly have bigger name value in 2026 than they did during their early days in AEW?
They certainly have the talent and the television experience to have a bigger profile in the industry, but aren’t anywhere near as popular as they were at their peak a few years ago so it leaves them at a point of indifference before they appear to be set to test the free agent market.
However, that’s not to say that they’d have to settle for the independent circuit if they wanted to continue to make money in the sports entertainment business.
As with most that had previous national TV exposure in the modern era, Total Nonstop Action could be a possible landing spot for them, especially after the departures that the company had over the past year. If not TNA, or at least something after a possible stint there, I could see The Acclaimed having a successful run in NXT, similar to the way that Ricky Saints and Mike Santana made the jump to the smaller pond of that brand. To speculate if Caster and Bowens would be able to make the transition to the WWE main roster would be getting too far ahead of ourselves in the process. Despite their individual contracts expiring with AEW at the same time, allowing them to work anywhere else on their own, I’d say that they should remain a package deal. Caster and Bowens had their biggest success as a team, and the argument could be made that they had more to do as a team than they were given the opportunity to do in AEW so I’d say that it makes the most sense for them to make their next move as a team. That’s not meant as any type of criticism either, but instead to point out how entertaining the tag team is. When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, it’s often an indication that the act gets over so well because it was tailored to be a tag team. They are dramatic examples, but Hawk and Animal were always going to be more over as a team than singles stars. Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey would too good of a tag team not to pair them together on the card.
Obviously, it remains to be seen, and technically, they could reach a new contract with Tony Khan at some point in the next few weeks to stay a part of All Elite, but they would basically resign themselves to sitting in catering to collect a paycheck. I’d suggest that they have more talent than that, and the previously mentioned Mike Santana is a good example of the upside of performers that bet on themselves when management doesn’t have a bigger role for them. All that being said, the biggest takeaway from this story is that the notion that performers can end their tenure in the company at virtually the same place where they started in terms of career progress or star power is a pattern in AEW.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
