AEW Star Max Caster Explains Why Stablemate Billy Gunn Is A 'Harsh Critic'

It's been a union made in heaven for The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn ever since the trio first came together back in 2022. Months later, Gunn helped shepherd Anthony Bowens and Max Caster to an AEW World Tag Team Championship victory over Keith Lee and current AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland, followed by the trio picking up the AEW World Trios Championships at All In, going on to become the longest reigning AEW Trios Champions in the process.

Last week, Caster appeared on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" and discussed how Gunn's inclusion into The Acclaimed had helped him and Bowens rise from a midcard tag team into one of AEW's most popular acts. Caster believes Gunn has helped them the most by being the trio's toughest critic.

"I think it's just how harsh of a critic he is, and not in a bad way," Caster said. "It's just [because] he cares. He's...I think made wrestling way easier for us, because when you don't know that people like you, you start throwing stuff at the wall. Should I take more risks, should I be edgier? Should we change the color that we're wearing? But when he got added on, it just kind of elevated everything we were doing. 

"It added nothing of Billy Gunn, whatever he's done in his career, specifically. It was just 'Now Billy Gunn is doing The Acclaimed's stuff.' And it kind of just validated everything that we did. So it made wrestling easier for us, because it took all of that guessing out of it. 'Do people actually like this?' 'Oh yeah, they do, because now they're way more into it. We have a cosign from an absolute legend, and we're having all this success.'"

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription