On January 17, 2023, the wrestling world was brought to a standstill when news broke that Jamin Pugh, better known by wrestling fans as Jay Briscoe, had tragically lost his life in a car accident at the age of 38. Briscoe was one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions along with his brother Mark at the time, but despite being under the Tony Khan umbrella, The Briscoes were never able to appear on “AEW Dynamite” as WBD had banned them from appearing on their networks. However, Jay had learned from his mistakes over the years to the point where AEW President Tony Khan wanted The Briscoes on AEW programming, but that never materialized, something Khan called his biggest regret during a recent appearance on the “My Mom’s Basement” podcast.
“I fought really hard to get Jay Briscoe on the show, and I fought really hard to have–there were multiple times where Mark and Jay Briscoe came to Dynamite and didn’t do anything, and they just came and I brought them, and I was trying to, and I kept pulling moves. It was a different time, it was a different management, it wasn’t Mr. [David] Zaslav, I could have literally gone to him. I fought really, really hard to get Jay Briscoe on the show, but I really wish I’d been able to have Jay Briscoe on Dynamite just one time, and he came to the show many times. That’s my biggest regret.”
Mark Briscoe would end up appearing on “Dynamite” eight days after his brother’s death, wrestling his close friend Jay Lethal in a special tribute match before being made an official member of the AEW roster a few months later. AEW and ROH would honor Jay’s memory with a special “Celebration of Life” show that aired for free on ROH’s YouTube channel, and have continued to support Jay’s family since his passing.
Please credit “My Mom’s Basement” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
