From being a marquee tag team star in The Acclaimed to the “5-Tool Player,” and now one of Samoa Joe’s boys in The Opps, Anthony Bowens has had quite the character transformation in the singles division. When speaking with “Studio 1 Sports,” the former AEW World Tag Team and Trios Champion described how he’s weathered the storms of these character changes, and what led for them to never take off the way he envisioned them to.

“If you were actually watching the show, and not just, like, picking things up randomly, we were moving in a specific direction, where my character was starting to…it was losing a lot of matches and he was getting frustrated…The love was going to Max Caster and not to me. And then slowly, people weren’t buying into this ‘corny’ ‘Five-Tool Player’ thing, which was by design,” he said. “You know, think Rocky Maivia [in] 1996, where it’s like this hokey version of him slowly descends into The Rock, slowly descending into this character, this ‘Pride of Pro Wrestling’ guy, who goes, ‘do all of this stuff for the industry and for the company. You should love me. You shouldn’t love Max Caster…’ How do I descend and fall off a cliff, and where do I get that adulation from? Never got to get to that point, creative changed.”

Keeping realism in the forefront of his newly chosen path, Bowens is excited to sink his teeth into this new opportunity with the Opps. Since joining the stable, he has gained one victory with Joe against The Lethal Twist (Jay Lethal and Lee Johnson), and one loss at the hands of The Death Riders. Since his return last April, Bowens has had his eye on the TNT Championship, currently held by Kevin Knight.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Studio 1 Sports Channel” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.