The Acclaimed Win The AEW World Tag Team Championships at AEW Grand Slam
The Acclaimed's Max Caster and Anthony Bowens finally captured the AEW World Tag Team Championships on Wednesday night at AEW Grand Slam, defeating Swerve In Our Glory's Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland. Billy Gunn was able to consistently antagonize Strickland throughout the match, making Lee stop him. The final sequence saw Lee try to hold Strickland back and get pushed away outside the ringl, enabling Gunn to nail him with a Fameasser. He tossed Strickland back in the ring, Bowens hit The Arrival and Caster nailed a Mic Drop from the top rope for the victory.
The win gives Caster and Bowens their first titles in AEW. Meanwhile, Lee and Strickland's reign ends at 71 days with three successful reigns.
#TheAcclaimed have done it! We have NEW #AEW World Tag Team Champions in @PlatinumMax & @bowens_official, with @realbillygunn!
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 22, 2022
It’s #AEWDynamite Grand Slam LIVE on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/W4afBZZGrY
The two teams first collided at All Out earlier this month. Despite The Acclaimed having massive support from the fans (to the point where some argued an audible should've been called), the champs successfully retained. Tony Khan quickly indicated a rematch would happen at Grand Slam, much to Lee and Strickland's chagrin.
"I personally think, with Grand Slam coming up, I can't imagine a better match for New York than, hypothetically, a rematch between Keith and Swerve vs. The Acclaimed," Khan said at the time during the post-show media scrum. "I'm just saying, I think it would be a great match and if people are asking me, I think it would be the best thing we could do at Grand Slam. I need to take some time to think about it, but it would be a great match for Grand Slam and be great for the fans of New York. Tonight was a great milestone, one of the best matches we've had."
"It's interesting that in our losses, we had to go down the ladder, but you want to do this rematch," Lee responded. "I'm not going to speak to that. I will admit, I enjoyed the battle, they brought it, they stepped up. However, if they want to bring it properly, I would advise putting away the stereotypes, the silly raps, the jokes."
FTR indicated they wanted to finally challenge for the titles after being the No. 1 ranked team since April, but they were interrupted by The Gunn Club. Stay tuned for continued coverage of AEW Grand Slam.
