On the February 10, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite, The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) took on MJF & Chris Jericho.
Being in the pandemic era, AEW would tape television to give talent a two-week grace period as COVID numbers remained high. The bout between The Acclaimed, Jericho, and MJF was recorded on February 4.
On Talk is Jericho with Chris Jericho, Bowens and Jericho reflected on the bout and revealed how things had to be edited due to Bowens' knee injury and some botched spots.
Anthony Bowens (AB): There is a move that I do, we still don't have a name for it, Max and I call it the 'special side slam,' it's basically the uranage, sidewalk slam that I do before Max hits the mic drop [top rope elbow] for our finish. I explained it to you and you're like, 'I got it.' We're going through this match, and it's going great. I was also, and I didn't tell anybody, going through severe knee pain. I tore my meniscus in a match sometime in November, I didn't know it, I just felt knee pain. I'd have to take breaks in the airport from walking, but I had just signed and we were getting pushed, so I was like, 'I can't tell them my knee is hurt in the middle of a push, a month after I got signed.' I was sucking this thing up and taping it up every week and giving Max most of these matches so I didn't have to do much on it. I would be like, 'It feels better,' then I would have a match against the Bucks and it was killing me, then it would feel better again. 'I'll just wait one more match, one more match,' then it became, 'I have to get this looked at.' Our match came up and I was like, 'I have to wrestle Chris Jericho and MJF.' I tape it up, we're doing the thing, I get tagged in for the hot tag, I hit you with a tackle, I take one step to punch MJF in the face and my knee goes, it pops. I'm in the middle of the comeback, bumping, and I know it's taped and I could stop at my moment, but I'm like, 'I can't.' I'm in pain, going through this whole thing, and it gets to the point where I know I'm going to hit you with this move [special side slam]. I go to pick you up, but your legs go the other way.
Chris Jericho (CJ): I thought, the reason I fluffed it off, is I thought it was a rock bottom. I thought you were giving me a rock bottom. You pick the guy up, your legs go out, then you come down on your back. When you went to give me the move, it didn't go right. I was like, 'What happened there? That's weird.'
AB: We do it once, your legs go the wrong way and I'm like, 'No, the other way.' I don't know if I said it loud enough. Then you did it again, but even further the wrong way. 'Oh no.'
CJ: I'm really trying to throw my legs around. I've taken 1,000 rock bottoms, I know how to do this. [laughs]
AB: I'm like, 'Oh no.' I hear you go, 'One more time.' It's even more extreme in the wrong direction and I kind of let you down. I'm telling you, my heart sank down into my stomach. You shot up, pissed. 'What's this move!' I was like, 'Uhhh, uhhh.'
CJ: Then I realized, 'This kid is terrified.' I go, 'Okay, please explain to me what I'm supposed to do.' I'll never forget the look on your face because you were so scared and terrified.
AB: I was frightened, but I'm also no selling the fact that my knee is in excruciating pain. My knee is in pain, this guy I look up to hates me, I'm probably going to get fired tomorrow, I need to hit this move. I explain it to you, we roll again, we hit it, the match goes off. Actually, I'm supposed to dive onto MJF after this. I jump up, and my knee, I couldn't get it up and off the ground, so my toe hit the top rope and I nosedive face first into the mat on the outside. By that point, I just had it. I laid there, people were checking on me, 'I don't want to talk to you. I just want to go to the hospital.'
CJ: You guys wouldn't know this, but I was always really involved in the edits of my match. It was flawless, it looked amazing, but I remember the fourth time, I was like, 'Now, I'm getting embarrassed.' We had 20 people in the crowd, some are like, 'Chris Jericho is the GOAT.' I'm like, 'Chris Jericho doesn't know how to take a move. This sucks.' I know it's not your fault, what am I doing wrong? 'Can you please just tell me what we're supposed to do,' and we did it. I remember the dive and I'm like, 'What happened there?' We had to zoom in on it and tighten it up or whatever it was. I was laughing so hard. I went to Tony (Khan) after and went, 'it is not his fault.' I had no idea what we were doing there. My apologies.
AB: I feared for my job. I was like, 'these guys are going to think I suck. I'll never work here again.'
CJ: That was all on me.
Jericho & MJF were victorious in the bout. Bowens would take a couple of months off from in-ring action to heal his knee.
Bowens missed more time at the beginning of 2022 with a knee injury, but looked healthy on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite when he arose from his wheelchair.
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