EXCLUSIVE: AEW wrestler Anthony Bowens says he expects an adjustment period as he portrays a new version of his character in The Opps

Anthony Bowens has been trying to find the next chapter for his character in AEW since The Acclaim broke up in January 2025. He recently joined The Opps in late April aligning with Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, and Hook. Bowens will team with Shibata and Hook to face The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli & Anthony Garcia & Wheeler Yuta) at the Double or Nothing PPV pre-show Buy In at 7 p.m. ET on May 24.

Bowens believes that there’s some deprogramming that needs to be done because he’s been a certain version of himself in The Acclaimed that’s less serious, but he feels that in the next six months he’ll be settled in to his new, more serious role in The Opps.

“I mean, there is some deprogramming that needs to go on because I’ve been, you know, there’s been a certain version of me that everybody has seen and that I’ve presented for six years,” said Bowens in a new exclusive interview on Radican Worldwide available now for PWTorch VIP members. So, in taking photos in my new gear I was like ‘Oh, wait a minute. I need to really feel myself a little bit differently, get a different vibe here.’

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Bowens said that it’s going to be an adjustment to let go of his old habits from his role in The Acclaimed, as he’s going to have to develop new instincts with his new heel character in The Opps. “Because my first instinct was to go (Bowens makes scissoring motion) and I don’t do that anymore,” said Bowens. “So, there is gonna be an adjustment period with that. But everything takes time. You know people get very impatient, and they go, ‘Well, that’s blah, blah, blah.’ It takes time.

“You know, a year from now, I’ll be completely settled. Six months from now I’ll be completely settled in. But, it’s gonna take time to find different things along the way. I have a look and a presentation, but I’ll refine that as time goes on.”

Bowens has had an idea of what he wants to do with his Pride of Pro Wrestling character for a long time, but he realizes that he is going to have to adjust that character to fit the needs of The Opps stable and how they’re being presented on TV. “And then depending on what opportunities lay ahead of me, I can continue to develop the personality of what The Pride of Pro Wrestling is,” said Bowens. “I gave you kind of what I was going for, but that might not look entirely the same in the realm of The Opps. So, it’s about figuring it out. How do I take bits and pieces of what I was going for there and bring it here?

Bowens said one difficulty of developing a new character in front of a national TV audience is they don’t have the patience to allow a new character to get to where it needs to be. “And sometimes that might work,” said Bowens. “Sometimes it might not work initially, but will work down the line.

“There needs to be patience involved as a viewer, but that’ll never happen because everybody’s impatient. You’re gonna get — you gotta take your limps as a TV performer. There’s always gonna be people going, ‘What is he doing?’ Why is he doing this?’

“Watch the show and then you will understand. We get a lot of people that do the equivalent of, I don’t know, watching season one of Breaking Bad, and they go, they watch the first five episodes and then they won’t watch to season three.

“And then they go, ‘Why is Walter White bald? Why is Jesse doing this? This makes no sense.’ Well, you missed three seasons and it’s not on Breaking Bad to recap three seasons every episode. It’s on you to watch. We’re episodic television. So, keep up with the show and if you don’t, don’t complain.”

NOTE: Sign up here and GO VIP to listen to Anthony Bowens’s exclusive interview on Radican Worldwide talking about ahead of the AEW Double or Nothing PPV on May 24. Double or Nothing will be available on most PPV providers, HBO Max, and PPV.com. You can watch the Buy In pre-show for free on HBO Max or YouTube.