On the June 23 episode of AEW Rampage, The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, & Billy Gunn) were interrupted by Harley Cameron, who wanted to show off her rap skills.
During the segment, Cameron said to Bowens, "It's pretty clear that you're into me." Bowens laughed and reminded her that he's gay. The crowd cheered Bowens and began a positive "He's gay" chant. Excalibur also noted that Bowens is taken.
Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, QT Marshall discussed how the segment came together.
"If it was a terrible segment, I would have blamed it on someone else. I texted Bowens and said, 'I have an idea. With it being Pride month, you're obviously someone that talks about this, you have the YouTube channel, is there a way with [Harley's] character being naive that you say this in the ring.' 'I'd love to.' 'Okay, if you don't want to do it, delete this text message. If you're okay with it, I think it can be really special.' I thought the crowd would pop. I didn't think the whole arena would chant 'he is gay' in a positive way. I told Billy (Gunn) and was like, 'How do we do it? How do we set it up?' 'You need to stay in the back, have her come out by herself because if you're out there, they're just going to chant QT sucks and no one is going to see the whole thing.' I was overly joyed with how it came out. The Twitter video, I texted Tony (Khan) the next day, 'We're almost up to five million views on this thing. Next week, we need to show this again. Don't share our part, show him.' We took a chance," he recalled.
The video received over five million views in less than 24 hours across multiple platforms.
Bowens reacted to the positive response on social media by saying he was happy to spread the love and a positive message.
The battle between QTV and The Acclaimed continues on Friday's AEW Rampage as The Acclaimed are set to speak on the show.
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