AEW star Anthony Bowens recently disclosed the chain of events that led to his NSFW gimmick.
Shortly after teaming up with Platinum Max Caster, Bowens started using a gesture with his index and middle finger in the shape of a scissor. While the gesture itself seemed innocuous, the Acclaimed member used it while screaming "Scissor me!", thereby increasing the NSFW tone.
Surprisingly, AEW fans have responded enthusiastically to the gimmick. In a recent interview with Talk is Jericho, Bowens explained that the gimmick came into being quite accidentally.
"I can’t remember what match it was, but I knew we were on to something when the entire front row had their hands out and they were all yelling, ‘Bowens, scissor me!’ And then it just became a thing. And now, we do meet and greats, we just did one last weekend where we signed for 4, 5 hours straight, just a constant line. Every person wanted to scissor, they wanted to double scissor, they wanted to chain scissor, they wanted to do all kinds of scissoring...It’s the new craze in wrestling.” (H/T: WrestlingInc)
The gimmick is undoubtedly a trademark of the duo now, with The Acclaimed steadily rising in popularity in AEW.
Tensions between The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn's sons have risen recently in AEW
Last week, the alliance between the Gunn Club and The Acclaimed trod over shaky grounds as Austin Gunn was shoved by his own father, Billy Gunn.
In the recent Blood and Guts special edition of Dynamite, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, and Max Caster took on the trio of FTR and Danhausen. However, Anthony Bowens' effort to interfere backfired when he accidentally hit Austin Gunn with his crutch.
Post-match, Austin angrily shoved Anthony, which prompted Billy Gunn to push his own son down. This was followed by a terse moment, as the two Gunn brothers exited the ring.
While the incident is suspected to have caused a rift in the family, Austin Gunn stated that everything was fine. It remains to be seen what will happen to the AEW group in the coming weeks.