Anthony Bowens could be a free agent in a month.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reports that Bowens’ AEW contract is set to expire on October 1. The deal has not been extended, and the outlet has not learned whether talks have started.
His former partner is in the same spot. Fightful Select reported recently that Max Caster’s contract runs out on the same day, with no sign of an extension there either. Caster has not wrestled for AEW at all in 2026 and last appeared on the December 17th Dynamite in the Diamond Ring battle royal. He has spent the year working the independent scene.
Bowens is still being used. He has been part of The Opps alongside Samoa Joe, Hook, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs throughout 2026, and he wrestled at Double or Nothing in May, teaming with Hook and Shibata against the Death Riders. He also takes dates for ROH.
The two came up together. Caster debuted on AEW Dark in 2020, with Bowens following a month later, and Tony Khan put them together and named them The Acclaimed. They won the AEW World Tag Team Championship in 2022, then took the World Trios Titles with Billy Gunn at All In: London in 2023 and defended those 11 times. The team split in January 2025, and neither singles run caught on. They reunited once this March for a House of Glory show.
AEW nearly never had Bowens at all. A 2019 Fightful feature reported that WWE had planned to sign him and that someone involved in the process never followed up. He signed with AEW instead.
