Anthony Bowens Details Serious Injuries While Continuing to Wrestle for AEW
Photo Credit: Anthony Bowens / Instagram
by Chris Tremblay Aug 28
3 MIN READ
Anthony Bowens, an All Elite Wrestling performer and former tag-team champion, has described a series of serious injuries he says he has sustained while continuing to work in professional wrestling.
In an interview with sports columnist Charles Hallman, Bowens said he does not have a medial collateral ligament, commonly known as the MCL, in one knee and that the right side of his meniscus is torn.
He also said that surgeons had previously cleaned up his other meniscus and that he has experienced multiple diagnosed concussions, bruised nerves in his lower back and chronic neck pain.
“The physicality is very real,” Bowens said in the interview.
“I don’t have an MCL,” he continued, before listing the meniscus injury, previous surgery, diagnosed concussions, lower-back nerve damage and chronic neck pain.
Bowens said that after a match he can feel like “an older gentleman who’s been through it all” and can struggle to get out of bed.
The comments were reported in August after Bowens spoke with Hallman while AEW was promoting and staging wrestling events in Minneapolis.
Coverage of the interview focused partly on Bowens’s response to the idea that professional wrestling is “mostly fake.”
Professional wrestling generally involves predetermined storylines and match outcomes, but performers execute physically demanding maneuvers in front of live audiences.
Bowens’s account addressed that distinction from the perspective of a performer who remains active despite describing substantial orthopedic, neurological and pain-related problems.
The reports did not state that Bowens had been medically cleared by a physician to compete, nor did they provide independent medical records confirming each injury.
Accordingly, the reported medical details should be understood as Bowens’s own account of his health rather than as a new independent diagnosis.
Bowens has been a regular AEW performer since signing with the company in November 2020, according to WrestleTalk’s report.
He became widely known as one half of The Acclaimed alongside Max Caster, with the team winning AEW’s World Tag Team Championship.
Recent coverage identified Bowens as a member of The Opps, a group associated with Samoa Joe, HOOK and Katsuyori Shibata.
His most recently reported match before the August coverage was a July 21 victory for The Opps on the “Beantown Beatdown” special of Ring of Honor, where Bowens teamed with HOOK and Shibata.
The available reports did not announce that Bowens was withdrawing from AEW competition or taking a medical leave.
They also did not specify when the MCL injury occurred, whether it was associated with a particular match, or whether the meniscus tear would require another procedure.
Bowens’s injury disclosures came during the same month that he spoke publicly about Heated Rivalry, a television hockey drama centered on closeted professional athletes.
In an interview with PinkNews, Bowens said the program showed “a very authentic side of what it’s like being a closeted athlete.”
He said the series captured the experience of having to hide one’s identity and the fear associated with that concealment, while adding that the amount of sexual content was different from his own expectations.
PinkNews reported that Bowens came out as gay in 2019.
That discussion places Bowens’s public career in two connected contexts: the physical demands of his work and his visibility as an openly gay professional wrestler.
His comments about Heated Rivalry were presented as his personal assessment of the show’s depiction of closeted athletes, rather than as a claim that the program documented his own life.
The August reporting established that Bowens described significant injuries and ongoing pain, but it did not establish the precise clinical status of his knees, neck, back or brain health.
No report reviewed for this article cited a statement from an AEW physician, an outside medical specialist or Bowens’s treatment team.
The coverage likewise did not provide a formal timeline for recovery, details of any planned surgery or an announcement about whether Bowens would change his wrestling schedule.
The central confirmed development is therefore Bowens’s own account that he is performing while managing multiple injuries, including the absence of an MCL and a torn meniscus.
He also said that surgeons had previously cleaned up his other meniscus and that he has experienced multiple diagnosed concussions, bruised nerves in his lower back and chronic neck pain.
“The physicality is very real,” Bowens said in the interview.
“I don’t have an MCL,” he continued, before listing the meniscus injury, previous surgery, diagnosed concussions, lower-back nerve damage and chronic neck pain.
Bowens said that after a match he can feel like “an older gentleman who’s been through it all” and can struggle to get out of bed.
The interview and its wider significance
The comments were reported in August after Bowens spoke with Hallman while AEW was promoting and staging wrestling events in Minneapolis.
Coverage of the interview focused partly on Bowens’s response to the idea that professional wrestling is “mostly fake.”
Professional wrestling generally involves predetermined storylines and match outcomes, but performers execute physically demanding maneuvers in front of live audiences.
Bowens’s account addressed that distinction from the perspective of a performer who remains active despite describing substantial orthopedic, neurological and pain-related problems.
The reports did not state that Bowens had been medically cleared by a physician to compete, nor did they provide independent medical records confirming each injury.
Accordingly, the reported medical details should be understood as Bowens’s own account of his health rather than as a new independent diagnosis.
Bowens’s AEW role
Bowens has been a regular AEW performer since signing with the company in November 2020, according to WrestleTalk’s report.
He became widely known as one half of The Acclaimed alongside Max Caster, with the team winning AEW’s World Tag Team Championship.
Recent coverage identified Bowens as a member of The Opps, a group associated with Samoa Joe, HOOK and Katsuyori Shibata.
His most recently reported match before the August coverage was a July 21 victory for The Opps on the “Beantown Beatdown” special of Ring of Honor, where Bowens teamed with HOOK and Shibata.
The available reports did not announce that Bowens was withdrawing from AEW competition or taking a medical leave.
They also did not specify when the MCL injury occurred, whether it was associated with a particular match, or whether the meniscus tear would require another procedure.
A separate conversation about LGBTQ+ visibility in sport
Bowens’s injury disclosures came during the same month that he spoke publicly about Heated Rivalry, a television hockey drama centered on closeted professional athletes.
In an interview with PinkNews, Bowens said the program showed “a very authentic side of what it’s like being a closeted athlete.”
He said the series captured the experience of having to hide one’s identity and the fear associated with that concealment, while adding that the amount of sexual content was different from his own expectations.
PinkNews reported that Bowens came out as gay in 2019.
That discussion places Bowens’s public career in two connected contexts: the physical demands of his work and his visibility as an openly gay professional wrestler.
His comments about Heated Rivalry were presented as his personal assessment of the show’s depiction of closeted athletes, rather than as a claim that the program documented his own life.
What remains unconfirmed
The August reporting established that Bowens described significant injuries and ongoing pain, but it did not establish the precise clinical status of his knees, neck, back or brain health.
No report reviewed for this article cited a statement from an AEW physician, an outside medical specialist or Bowens’s treatment team.
The coverage likewise did not provide a formal timeline for recovery, details of any planned surgery or an announcement about whether Bowens would change his wrestling schedule.
The central confirmed development is therefore Bowens’s own account that he is performing while managing multiple injuries, including the absence of an MCL and a torn meniscus.
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