EDGE Rewind: Out Hunk Anthony Bowens Hopes to Be First Gay All Elite Wresting Champion

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Out pro wrestler Anthony Bowens is on the brink of a major accomplishment: On September 21, he will compete to become the first gay champion in All Elite Wresting (AEW). Along with Platinum Max Caster, he is part of the tag-team the Acclaimed who will fight in a rematch with the current tag team champions Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland of Swerve in Our Glory, following the teams' highly regarded face-off at AEW's "All Out" pay-per-view event earlier this month. The event takes place at New York City's Arthur Ashe Stadium and will be aired on TBS at 8 p.m.

The New Jersey native came to wrestling after pursuing baseball through college, but after losing interest in that sport, turned to wrestling after encouragement from pro champ Santino Marella. He received a setback when he auditioned for the WWE in 2015 and was turned down, in part, he was told, because of his personality. Undeterred, Bowen took acting lessons, pursued stand-up and found an acting agent who placed him in national commercials in addition to his wrestling pursuits. He signed with AEW in 2020 to appear with Caster as the tag-teaming The Acclaimed.

He has since become one of the franchise's most popular stars, with iconic moves and a catch-phrase –"Scissor Me Daddy Ass" – that recently found its way on a the fastest-selling T-shirt in the franchise's history.

The 31-year old Bowens came out as bisexual in 2017, then came out a second time (in a video entitled 'COMING OUT... again') two years later. In the video he said he's in love with his current partner, Michael, and pictures being with him for the rest of his life, so he no longer identifies with the term bisexual: "I now feel more comfortable labeling myself as gay."

But while the AEW has been welcoming, some attending their events have not. Last December, a slur – "f*****g f**" d" – was hurled at him at a match. He responded at the time. "This is actually the first time I've audibly heard something like that during a performance or television. It's not indicative of the AEW fans at all because any interaction I've had with them since starting the company has all been positive. It's the first time it's happened in that sense.

"I have really thick skin and I'm kind of used to it from my boyfriend Michael and I, we have our own YouTube channel and when we first started it, the comments were brutal. I can't even repeat them. We're kind of used to it. There's always one person who oversteps the line and this time it was picked up on camera and I'm kind of glad it was because it amplifies the message that we still have work to do but it also shows there is so much positivity out there from the response, which is awesome to see."

Bowens recently spoke to Fred Rican at TSC News, where he talked about his goal of being AEW's first gay champion at Grand Slam and what attracted him to the franchise in the first place.

"It's one of the things that attracted me to come into AEW when I came here as an extra before I was signed. I saw people like Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose just walking around being themselves without judgment and people being inclusive with them, and there was no fear for them at all. That was super important to me for wherever I would land at the time. There's never a time at work where I'm consciously thinking about it, it's something that's openly celebrated. I bring it up openly in front of my friends and co-workers, so we've come a long way on inclusiveness in locker rooms and such.

"Fans from time to time" will show anti-LGBTQ+ hostility, he added, which illustrates that "we still have got work to do, but it's been overwhelmingly positive. I take that responsibility of being an out athlete very seriously, because I'd like to show that you can be a successful openly gay professional athlete without it being the center of attention or center of focus." Though, he acknowledged, "At times, it is important to bring it up."

He even sees his sexuality as motivating him towards his championship goal. "Max and I are going to fight for our lives in this match. And we also want to bring home gold and if we do, I ended up being AWS first gay champion, which is something that I would be super proud of. So I'm gonna have some extra inspiration, I guess underneath me for that match."

He went on to tell Richani of his work out regimen. "I work out four to five times a week for at least an hour and a half three of those times, and make sure there's a very high-intensity cardio at the end. Other than that, there's nothing really specific. I kind of fluctuated based upon how I'm feeling."

Asked what advice he would give someone about success, Bowens expressed his upbeat credo: "Never take no for an answer, and always be just a patient. I always say persistence and patience. A lot of times people have big goals. They have big dreams and big aspirations, but they lack patience to achieve it. They kind of want things right now. 'Hey, I worked hard for a year Why am I not in this position?' Sometimes it's going to take two years. Sometimes it's gonna take 10 years. Sometimes you might get lucky and you might be an overnight TikTok sensation; you just don't know. But you got to be willing to put in the effort from the beginning all the way to the end. If you start letting up on the gas," he went on to say, that can end up "really hurting" progress toward one's goals. "So just floor it and continue to believe in yourself for advice."

Bowens also broke the news that he's writing a book. "It's the first time I've said that openly. I'm about 45,000 words in, and I hope to have that out in the next few years or so. So I like to dip my toes in every avenue that I can, and I've read a lot of wrestling books growing up, so now that I'm achieving success and I think I have a story to tell that would resonate with people, I want to put that out there eventually. So that's a goal of mine."

Click here to visit Michael & Anthony's YouTube channel to view their videos.