Anthony Bowens Celebrates AEW Win with Heartfelt Tweet
The Today Show reported that on September 21 professional wrestler Anthony Bowens and his tag team partner Max Caster (known as The Acclaim) won the AEW (All Elite Wrestling) world tag team championship for the first time. The AEW is the rival of the WWE (World Wresting Entertainment).
The victory made Bowens the first openly gay wrestler to win an AEW championship. After winning, the 31-year-old Bowens celebrated with a heartfelt message to say to those struggling that it gets better.
"I'm going to take a second to speak on something that I don't really talk about much in front of a camera," he began in a video recently posted to his social media accounts, becoming visibly emotional. "Some of you know, some of you may not know, but I never thought I'd be able to have a moment like this. I never thought I would be able to live my dream because there was a time where I was very confused, and I didn't know how to accept myself. But I fought through that bullshit. I fought through all that bullshit. And now I cry because I'm a champion."
Bowens continued: "So if you're someone, if you're someone who feels like me — and it doesn't even have to be about your sexuality; it could be you're depressed, you're bullied, if life sucks in general — just know that everything gets better. We're living proof of that. I love you. We love you. But most importantly, everyone loves The Acclaimed."
Prior to his victory, Bowens had told the Asbury Park Press that he "struggled with my self-acceptance and identity, and that was always a huge fear. 'Will the locker rooms accept me? Will national audiences on television accept a successful gay man as a professional wrestler?'"
"We still have a ways to go," he added, "but AEW has an extremely inclusive roster in the sense that I never have to worry about that [at] all," he explained. "As a matter of fact, if it ever does come up, it's in a very positive, supportive way. And that's one of my favorite things coming to work, that I don't have to worry about that."
The APP wrote that the day after the championship win, Bowens celebrated on Twitter with a nod to his late grandmother and by highlighting his win as a momentous moment for the LGBTQ+ community."
Check out these pics from Bowens' IG: