Max Caster

[4.0] "While he knows how to get a reaction from the crowd and showcases he has the promo ability, he's lacking in the ring and a good gimmick. Personally, the edgelord nonsense he does in his promos by referencing whatever the hot topic of the past week in his raps always gives me an eye roll whenever he's on my screen. Not to mention, his raps are really bad, they feel like they're water downed versions of what a 4chan user would come up with, very try-hard energy, super desperate to come off as shocking and provocative. As an in ring performer, he's nothing noteworthy aside from the rare few good Acclaimed matches, but the quality comes from his partner and their opponents than him, he's always felt like he's a few steps behind everyone he's in the ring. Now his team is over and now he's doing the "Best Wrestler Alive" gimmick and I already don't care for this run, I don't see him going anywhere now that Anthony is on his own and will likely be a top mid carder or even a main eventer in the future. Just put the fries in the bag, bro."

[7.0] "Max is fun! By no means an incredible act, but he's very self-aware and I think his current role as the Best Wrestler Alive has been extremely fun."

[6.0] "Let's Go Max Caster You're The Best Wrestler Alive. The crowd got fully on him into that jobber gimmick and it is quite funny, I guess. Not a huge fan of that guy, some of the "raps" he did at AEW came pretty close to look criminal. Not his biggest fan, but can't deny his talent to get heat, both on screen and on social media."

[4.0] "He's not a terrible wrestler, and he's over with the crowd, but he's not my cup of tea. As part of The Acclaimed he was somewhat decent, though then again, I'm living proof that not everyone likes The Acclaimed, so I'm semi-subjective."

[3.0] "Max is average in ring, but my goodness is he cringey. His raps almost always sucked and his current gimmick is ass as well."

[7.0] "[6.4 on 7/25/24] Max feels like the Jannetty to Anthony Bowens' Michaels and it's not even an argument to me. He's just okay, nothing really stands out about him as a huge positive or negative. The rapping to the ring gimmick was fun for a while but just has grown kind of stale. The fact that that gimmick is the most likeable thing about him and frequently causes him to get himself in trouble is an issue only compounded by him both getting increasingly more obnoxious in and out of character with the "Greatest Wrestler Alive" bit and also being very quickly overshadowed in terms of overall quality by Bowens. As I alluded to, generally just there, and doesn't feel near as fun to watch or as put together as his partner. EDIT 5/19/25: [6.5] I am genuinely amazed that Caster was able to rehab himself as well as he has. This redone Best Wrestler Alive gimmick has turned him from one of the most unlikable guys on the roster who did dumb shit on the internet to the detriment of him and his tag partner into an absurdly entertaining heel jobber. I do not think most wrestlers would be secure enough to lose like that repeatedly, but Caster was."

[5.0] "Looking at the ratings drop from year-to-year, it's not too comment to see someone fall out of favor as quickly as Caster has. As part of the Acclaimed, he was interesting & fun to watch every week. He was never the best in the ring, but he was serviceable & charismatic enough where the wrestling didn't need to be amazing. But after the Acclaimed died, so did Max. He eventually started calling himself "the best ever" which, even if was meant to be taken in jest, was so far from reality that it did a lot of harm. Nothing has ever really come from him as a single & the split from Bowens was never capitalized on to the extent that it should have. He seems so damaged at this point that I'm not sure he'll ever even make it beyond a lower midcard position again."

[0.0] "He sucks, Bowens carries the team, just look at their eliminator match against the bucks or the Blood & Guts match, he was easily the worst wrestler in the matches, he regressed after his matches with Swerve In Our Glory, now he's holding Bowens, only thing working for him is his mic work but that too has gotten worse specially when he still uses sensitive topics for his raps he thinks he gets heat but he forgets he's a babyface"

[5.0] "Breaking up a team like The Acclaimed to try to have a career as a single wrestler and automatically becoming the punching bag of the AEW roster is quite sad, plus the public doesn't even react when he speaks these days, but I give him a 5 for his days in The Acclaimed since they were quite good."

[7.0] "I think the only reason I really disliked him is because he was doing his dumb internet stuff to the detriment of Billy and Bowens' careers. Seeing how he's on TV every week, I think it's clear that Tony Khan likes what he's doing and it's translating to good TV stuff. It's simple in theory, a loudmouth who's not that good calling himself "Best Wrestler Alive" (a rap reference) and promptly losing in embarrassing fashion. He's a great loser. That's why he gets a 7 from me. At one point, he did have a strong connection with the audience in The Acclaimed days, but that's no longer the case. Also factoring the 7. I don't think he has a shot at being a huge star anymore, but I do think he'll be a good hand."

[4.0] "Great promo when he's really on his game(which is becoming rarer and rarer), but that's about it. He's a middling wrestler who can at least be carried to watchable matches. Whenever The Acclaimed break up, he's sadly set himself up to be the Jannetty of the team."

[5.0] "When the Acclaimed first started I was a pretty big fan of Caster, he was obviously the lesser worker of the team but he more than made up for that with his skills on the mic. But ever since they won the tag belts, I just haven't been that into pretty much anything Caster has done. Sure he can still pull out a decent showing here and there in matches but his promos have gotten really obnoxious and his behavior on Twitter is just embarrassing."

[5.0] "Definitely a case of a guy getting increasingly out-paced by his tag team partner. Taken on his own merits, there's not much that stands out about Caster, or anything egregiously bad either. Average wrestler who seems to have stopped trying to really improve, and his mic work consists of lazily regurgitating podcaster insults. The raps are hit or miss."

[6.0] "he's annoying.... and it's not character? like he's getting carried by Bowens in ring and in terms of commitment to the gimmick. His rap isn't good anymore so really, he's just backseating through like this entire run here. it's not layback, and it's not lack of passion, just too much goofing around. idk maybe it's just me."

[5.0] "Max Caster is a charismatic guy, some of his raps work, some doesn't, he's a wrestler that alternates into good and bad moments, which is normal, but I really wish that he decreases the controversial and problematic behaviors, he's talented, I don't think he's better than Bowens, but he's charismatic, I like the gimmick, it's not necessarily original but they got over with it, so I hope Platinum Max focus on doing a good job to entertain the audience, without so many ups and downs."

[5.0] "Excellent on the mic and has good charisma. At this point he's more show than go but he's still very green which quickly becomes evident in longer matches with similarly inexperienced opponents. A good hot tag but needs to drastically improve in the ring to reach the top of the card otherwise his gimmick will just fizzle out."

[8.0] "Caster is a potential star for AEW. Is good on the mic with his rap and has great charisma. In the ring he is slightly better than Bowens in the ring. Caster has more potential as a singles star for that reason in my opinion."

[5.0] "I never really understood this popularity of Max Caster and The Acclaimed, it's entertaining, but in the ring, I don't find them at the level of the best teams."

[7.0] "Credit where it's due: I wasn't into Caster when he first came on the scene, and I thought the rap gimmick was lame. But he's obviously worked very hard on his physique, and his wrestling skill, and it's shown. He's now perfectly respectable as a wrestler, and much better on the mic. While I think he's the less interesting member of the Acclaimed, he's also the one that's improved more in the last year. The Acclaimed are deservedly one of the the hottest tag teams in all of wrestling."

[7.0] "Very charismatic, obviously, and very motivated in the ring, although not terribly exciting (yet). He is still somewhat young and started wrestling relatively late in his life, so there is still potential to improve on that end. Right now he is riding the well-earned high as AEW Tag Team champion with his partner Bowens and I enjoy their current run, but I am also curious how he is going to add some dimension to his character in the future besides being the rap guy that pops the crowd."

[8.0] "Probably the most entertaining thing on AEW right now along with Bowens. Love their alliance with the Gunn's, incredibly entertaining."

[4.0] "Besides his rap promos, which I think he's been more in bad taste then actually good or interesting promo skills, he's completely average in the ring while his tag partner is much much better than him as proved by Caster's performance in his biggest match vs. Swerve in Our Glory as the 4th best man in that match while Bowens was the star of that match. On top of that he's now the 3rd most over guy in his act with Billy Gunn coming in and being the most or 2nd most over with the "Scissor Me Daddy Ass" catchphrase and taunt being arguably the main focus of the team over Caster's raps now. If Bowens gets hurt again or they split them I see Casters charm not lasting, specially if he remains a Face."

[7.0] "A good wrestler, natural born entertainer who managed to transition from intentionally annoying gimmick to something pretty monstrously over as a face with no change in gimmick, just the addition of story. Good character worker who likes to introduce extra story beats to his matchups and has a tendency to flirt with his opponents especially MJF..."

[6.0] "Dude is always a treat to watch on AEW television. He totally believes everything he says, which really makes him a good act with Bowens. He'll always be best suited in that tag team, and I whether he's a one trick pony is not yet seen, but so far, so good."

[8.0] "Wasn't sure what to make of Max Caster at first. As a hip hop head, there's always a little pain when listening to non-rappers rap. He'd never sell an album, for sure. But the rhymes are actually good and funny as hell. Usually something like this, I would personally watch/listen with bemusement as he did his thing each week. But I'll be damned, as a hip hop fan for 40 years - I enjoy the hell out of it. Rather than cringe, it's genuinely entertaining as %&$@. You get into his ring work, and he's not a modern-day spot-fest guy. And again, I've found that I kinda like that as I watch him more. I like the more old-school moveset. So good to watch in the ring, sells and hits well, good look, has good charisma, and has an entertaining gimmick. When I think back to other music-related wrestlers, Max is the one who really earns the gimmick. Hip hop is fantastic for wrestling (you can smack talk all you want), and he really needs to come up with about 4 witty lines to fill out 16 bars each week. That is achievable. Other gimmicks like rock and roll or country stars, there's no way you can come up with new, different and entertaining material each week - it's a classic bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew scenario. But Max has solved it."

[6.0] "A competent if forgettable in-ring worker, but a very entertaining character with his arrogant yet somewhat witty promos that cover political/cultural events, kayfabe storylines, and IRL backstage drama. Some of his raps have obviously been too spicy (that suspension, lmao) but he still manages to skirt the line with the various topics he covers and the way he chooses to cover them. He needs to work on his in-ring to be anyone I could take as a serious competitor either in singles or tag, but he's so good as self-absorbed heel that I can say overall that I find him quite entertaining."

[2.0] "no. in-ring is whatever. It's very obvious he isn't a rap fan, his rap persona is equivalent to a 60 year olds idea of a rapper. He's introducing an edgy anti-cancel-culture attitude since he got called out for making very distasteful jokes on-air. All of this without much self-awareness at all."

[7.0] "Very talented on the mic, great look and very charismatic. Ring work is not stand out but not bad either. Now it's sad it needs to be said but he's a person of color with progressive politics who loves Tegan and Sara and tags with an out gay man... he's not alt-right and he's not dog whistling to anyone."

[4.0] "Incredibly mediocre in the ring. His raps embarrassing when you realize he's a 32 year old man talking like a 15 year old kid."

[6.0] "Good in the ring but he is devoid of charisma. His gimmick doesn't work and it hurts my perception of him. Other than that, he's fine."

[7.0] "Another Future star on AEW, and one of the most unique character in AEW right now. his in ring is okay, but his entrance is always a must see. With more polishing he can be a top tier wrestler and a big draw."

[7.0] "Max Caster is a really promising talent over at AEW. He's super charismatic, his raps are usually really well done and entertaining, and he's actually a pretty solid technician. There's nowhere to go but up for Caster."

[6.0] "Boatloads of charisma and mic skills that should carry him until his in-ring skills sync up. He's basically Cena when he was with Bull Buchanan."

"Natural charisma and great looks going for him, the guy is a star in the making and I hope he keeps honing his craft"

[9.0] "The Tweener got it. His gimmick and shtick is genuinely so fun. Not only that, he can go go go in the ring. The Shook Crew gimmick is brilliant heat magnet that never fails to slowly turn fans around. Idk what else to say. He is awesome, please go check him out. There's a reason he recently got a try out at the E"