AEW star Anthony Bowens from The Acclaimed recently spoke with the New York Daily News ahead of this evening’s Grand Slam Dynamite special, where Bowens and his tag partner Max Caster will challenge Swerve In Your Glory (Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland) for the AEW tag team championship. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On being gay and how hateful some could be because of that:
“I’m privileged in the sense that sometimes people might look at me and not have any idea, while others … may get a lot more hate than I do. And I understand that, but I went through a lot. And I understand how that feels to be judged, to have hate thrown at you. I know that there’s a lot of other athletes out there and just people in general who are going through the same thing that I am, so if I can kind of be a beacon of hope that you can beat all that nonsense and ignore the hate and that it all gets better, I would love to be a shining light for that.”
Wants to be an inspiration for people just like him:
“I’m a skinny kid from Nutley, New Jersey, who if you saw me in high school, you really wouldn’t think that I would grow up to be a global international, larger-than-life superstar. It’s insane. So I’m kind of representing anybody that has a dream that maybe people told them ‘no, that’s impossible,’ because of who they are. No matter who you are, if you have the work ethic, if you have the passion, if you have the drive, if you’re relentless, this can get done.”