AEW star Max Caster recently appeared on the Sports Generals podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, including thoughts on his pairing with Anthony Bowens, where the duo wrestle as The Acclaimed. During the interview Caster reveals that “The Acclaimed” name was originally pitched to the promotion’s first world champion, Chris Jericho. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says The Acclaimed name was originally pitched as Chris Jericho’s faction name, which eventually became the Inner Circle:
This is another Tony Khan idea. He apparently had this idea for a tag team called The Acclaimed for a long time. I also heard that it was almost the name of The Inner Circle in AEW where he pitched to Chris Jericho, ‘what if it was Chris Jericho and The Acclaimed, like your band,’ since Chris is a rockstar. They didn’t go for that.
How he and Bowens ended up getting the team name:
Tony, I guess, just wanted a tag team called The Acclaimed. From there, it was just up to us. ‘Max Caster and Anthony Bowens, you are The Acclaimed.’ ‘Oh great, what is that?’ We sat back and realized that it makes perfect sense. We are both highly acclaimed professional wrestlers in our area on the Independents, me and Anthony have very similar paths, which, a lot of people would tell us, ‘You guys are incredible wrestlers, but you just need to be on TV. You don’t fit in on the Independents.’ That’s something that always frustrated us because it sucks being told, ‘You don’t belong here if though you’re the best.’ We proved everyone right. We got on TV and we became everyone’s favorite tag team. We’re highly acclaimed wrestlers and we’re highly acclaimed outside of wrestling. Me with my music, Anthony is a model and actor, he’s in a lot of commercials and he’s a YouTuber. We’re highly acclaimed in multiple fields and that’s really what The Acclaimed is at its core. Now, people want to hear what I say and want to see Anthony superkick people in the face and they want to see me drop the elbow and win.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful
)