Anthony Bowens was recently a guest on the LGBT Sport Podcast, where he revealed that WWE wanted him for NXT some time ago.

“A couple years before that, I had interest from NXT/WWE Then I didn’t hear from them. When my match with AEW aired, I heard from them the next day and they offered me a deal. Tony Khan caught wind of it and brought me down to Jacksonville, which ended up being the same thing that was happening to Max Caster. And Tony ended up pairing myself with Max Caster, he wanted us to be The Acclaimed."

On being offered his AEW contract:

“We went out and wrestled that night, and he offered us contracts when we came through the curtain. AEW, since it opened, was where I was looking, I switched my focus to it. I just really wanted to be here. So I took the opportunity and we ran with it.”