ABOVE: Anthony Bowens, photo courtesy Bowens.
Professional wrestler Anthony Bowens, one of many LGBTQ wrestlers at All Elite Wrestling, has had a very public coming out journey.
Bowens first came out as bisexual in Outsports in 2017 where he discussed his relationship with his boyfriend, Michael Pavano. Two years later, he came out again announcing he is gay.
Making his professional wrestling debut in 2013, Bowens now wrestles next to Max Caster. Together they’re part of a tag team known as The Acclaimed at AEW.
Bowens spoke to Watermark over the phone and discussed LGBTQ representation in professional wrestling, the coming out process and explained how professional wrestling is just like “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
WATERMARK: Tell me a little bit about The Acclaimed. How did you two come to be?
Anthony Bowens: It’s an interesting story the way we came to be. Basically, Max Caster and I were drawing interest from other places and we went down to meet the AEW owner, Tony Kahn, not knowing each other were kind of in the same situation. There was an elevator and he happened to walk on.
Max, I’d known of but not personally too much. We train under the same umbrella of Creative Pro Wrestling Academy – he’s in the New York location and I’m in New Jersey, so I knew of him … and then someone happened to tell us that we’re both going to the same meeting. Tony Kahn found out everything that was going on – he had an idea to put us together as a tag team called “The Acclaimed” and we liked the way that sounded. An hour and a half later we were having our first match together and then the next day he signed us.
Over a year later we’re at the top of the tag division and it’s pretty cool.
You are not the only out wrestler at AEW. You have Nyla Rose, Sonny Kiss, Leyla Hirsch, just to name a few. What’s it like having them around and what is it like having AEW supporting you?
Well, that was one of the biggest things that struck me when I first went [to AEW]. I had my first opportunity to work with AEW back in September, October of last year and the first thing that hit me was the difference between the locker rooms.
The AEW locker room was very diverse and it was very laid back and comfortable. Everybody was free to be themselves. I always kept track of how everyone treated Sonny because we’re on a similar career path. And [genderfluid wrestler Sonny Kiss] was free to be himself.
It was just so accepting and you’re just free to be you. There was no judgment. There was no worry of having to hide certain elements of your personality. It just feels free and I’m sure everyone else does as well because I’ve never heard a complaint. So the AEW locker is fantastic. They create an atmosphere of inclusion and that was one of my biggest draws to coming to AEW outside of it just being a fantastic company in general.
Your coming out journey has been fairly public, first as bisexual and then later as gay. What has that been like?
I am the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. It was the best decision I could have ever made. I was in the closet for a good while, but once I really discovered myself, I would say hiding for eight years or so, I told my best friend. He’s the first person I told back in 2010 and he was accepting.
My friend group knew, my family eventually knew, everyone was accepting of me, in support of me, which I know I’m very lucky to have that support. That made things a bit easier, but I was still under that constant stress of fans finding out, other wrestlers finding out.
There’s always that fear, that anxiety that was just always looming over me, and I just couldn’t shake it. The second I came out, it was just gone. Just poof. I was happy. I felt a sense of ease. It helped me in the ring as a performer because I guess as a closeted man, you always kind of have these walls up, and I didn’t know they kind of followed you everywhere, including when you’re performing.
So once those walls came down, I was able to connect with people more. My relationships have been stronger. It was just all around the right decision to do. And on top of it, I get to kind of be an example for other people who may be struggling with the same things that I did. So I’m in a very good place right now.
That’s fantastic. Have you been able to mentor other athletes that are closeted, or would you have any advice for folks that are closeted and in that decision making process?
I do get messages. I don’t want to say all the time, but a decent amount from [people in the] wrestling industry or just people in general who may be acquaintances or someone on the off chance that’s trying to just seek advice and hoping that I answer. I get that all the time and my advice to them tends to be the same. Come out when the time is right. You’ll know. Don’t let anybody influence you, let the decision be yours because only you know when you’re ready.
It’s also hard, and I say this all the time. I would just love to say, “Hey, be you, be happy, come out, be out, be proud,” but not everybody is in a similar situation like I am. I was very lucky enough to live in the liberal Northeast and have my friends and family around me. There might be people who live in places where it might not be safe to be out and proud and be who you are. That could cause harm to them.
So I always toil with that and try to figure out what is the right advice to give. But in general, there are people like myself, there’s people at Nyla Rose, Sonny Kiss, Leyla, we’re trying to make the world and entertainment a better and safer place for our LGBTQ+ athletes. Just know that there are people out there like us trying to make the world a better place so that your life path is a lot easier than ours was.
How would you explain professional wrestling to the unacquainted queer person?
Okay, so professional wrestling is almost exactly like “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” I’ll admit at first I always supported drag, but I didn’t particularly understand it until I watched “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” I saw all of these wonderful people who just came out of their shell and became this different person, became a character and became larger than life.
They had different personalities and different looks and things that make them step out of their comfort zones. Wrestling tends to be the exact same thing. We are characters. We’re human beings at the foundation of things but we’re characters. We are larger than life. We express it in larger-than-life ways, and we go out and we perform against each other.
In “Drag Race,” you’re doing lip-syncing and dancing, you’re showing off your costumes. We have the exact same thing. We have elaborate, flashy costumes, but we go out there and we fight each other. We battle each other, and there’s drama, there’s gossip, there’s good versus bad, there’s different storylines. There’s so many different people to connect to, whether it is the LGBTQ+ representation on the roster, whether it’s just all our other athletes, whether you like the bad guys, like an MJF, who is this mean, terrible person who says anything that he feels or like young up-and-comer Sammy Guevara, who’s always going to fight for what’s right and fight for what he believes in. So there’s always something to connect to like that. I hope that is a good answer. (Laughs.)
Why should queer people check out AEW?
It’s exciting … There’s fashion, there’s drama, there’s gossip, there’s action, there’s love. There are so many different elements of entertainment packed into one into all the characters that our AEW roster represents. It’s just one of the most exciting programs on television. I think the ratings reflect because we’re usually the number one program on cable. So get on board now while we’re on the rise.
What’s on the horizon for you and The Acclaimed?
On AEW Dynamite this week, you’ve got crazy action. You got one of my best friends, and I think one of the most exciting athletes on our roster, Dante Martin taking on the dark, demented Malakai Black. You got the tag team titles on the line with the Lucha Brothers – and if you are a hardcore professional wrestling fan, you don’t want to miss Bryan Danielson versus Bobby Fish.
That’s the thing about AEW Dynamite. There’s so many different styles and so many different personalities packed into one show. If you like comedy, there’s comedy. If you like hard-hitting professional wrestling, you got that. You’ve got the lucha libre flavor of professional wrestling that comes out of Mexico. You’ve got high flying in terms of Dante Martin. So you literally have everything packed in to two hours when you’re watching AEW Dynamite and that’s why it’s the most exciting wrestling show or TV show, in my opinion, in general on television.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for supporting AEW. Thank you for supporting The Acclaimed. If you want to know more about Anthony Bowen, about my life, you can follow me on Twitter and on Instagram. Or you can also go to YouTube for my YouTube channel with my boyfriend, which is “Michael & Anthony.”
We just hit over 200,000 subscribers, which we are super excited about. We parody pop culture: Kardashian’s, 90 Day Fiancé, Netflix films, we do it all. So if you like a little slapstick comedy, check that out, like and subscribe.
Catch Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed at AEW Dynamite, Oct. 23 at Addition Financial Arena.
