After being mainstays in Ring of Honor for the past 20 years, it’s hard to fathom that Mark and Jay Briscoe find themselves unsigned with a major wrestling company. But despite finding themselves in that situation, the Briscoes aren’t complaining. Rather, they’re just going to continue to work wherever they can and prove to the world that they’re the best tag team in the world today.
Adding to that claim is their win at last weekend’s NWA Crockett Cup tournament, which is where the Briscoes sat down with SlamWrestling.net to talk about what they do best, and where they may end up doing it.
“We find out about (ROH’s closure) on a Zoom call in October,” Jay shared about learning about the closure of ROH. “We always did pre-show calls during the week of the show. They just kind of let everybody know. The higher-ups at Sinclair (Broadcasting, the former owners of ROH) said that it just boiled down to the pandemic and it kind of killed us financially. The budget is the budget, and the budget was gone.”
“But it’s pretty cool how things are turning out – or I would say have turned out,” Mark said about the recent news that All Elite Wrestling owner Tony Khan has purchased ROH. “We were very happy to see Tony had bought (the company), and we feel it’s in very good hands. Tony’s a big professional wrestling fan, and that’s what Ring of Honor is all about. Professional wrestling, straight up.”
“In every iteration of Ring of Honor, it’s all been at its core, the best pure professional wrestling on the planet,” echoed Jay. “So with Tony being an avid wrestling fan, and to hear that he has plans, it’s a very exciting time.”
The brothers are also excited about the announcement that they will be competing in what many are calling a dream match, when they defend the ROH Tag Team Championship against the AEW tag team FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) at next week’s ROH Supercard of Honor show, which takes place on April 1st in Dallas.
What is particularly remarkable about the match – and its “dream match” status – is that the two teams have had no direct in-person interactions to build the hype. Rather, all of the promotion has been done through social media. And this was done on their own and wasn’t part of any plan by either company.
“We didn’t even know the match was going to happen until they announced it,” Jay confirmed. “The whole time, I mean, this has just been all real stuff. We take shots at them, we take shots at us. It’s real emotion.”
“It was all natural,” Mark agreed. “It was, ‘Did you see (what they said) on the internet? Well, shoot, let’s make a video.’ And that translates (to fans) because it’s not forced, it’s not something that someone told us to do.”
The sense of realism in their promos and their matches is a hallmark of the Briscoes and is a key factor in their success.
“It’s got to feel real,” Mark agreed. “In this day and age, man, with the popularity of things like UFC – if we’re not giving (the fans) something that they can really believe in, then what are we doing?”
That style certainly has won them a lot of fans – and a lot of titles over the years. But the Briscoes aren’t content to simply bask in their past glory. Rather, they’re looking to continue building their legacy. With the Crockett Cup win, they now have their sights set on the NWA Tag Team Championship, and are also looking to win back the Game Changer Wrestling tag titles.
“We want to go out there and put on the best performances we can, and make everything mean something,” said Jay, age 38. “Everything feels fresh right now, and we feel like we’ve really got the ball, so we’re just trying to run with it right now.”
“We’ve never been this high on the mountain before, so it remains to be seen if we can go to an even higher peak,” Mark said, 37. “We’re as good as we’ve ever been, and we’re definitely not on the downside. By the grace of God, our bodies have been able to hold up, and let us keep doing the style we do. I honestly feel like I’m quicker and more explosive than ever, even with all the injuries and bumps and bruises over the years.”
“God has taken care of us,” agreed Jay. “We’ve been very blessed. And we’re just going to keep it rolling.”
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