On the Monday night edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez asked if Mark Briscoe would be allowed on AEW television or if, despite his brother's passing, Warners Bros. Discovery would prevent one-half of The Briscoes from appearing on Dynamite or Rampage because of his brother Jay Briscoe's past homophobic comments from nearly a decade ago. Meltzer's answer, at least at the time, wasn't too encouraging.

“Oh boy, I already know the answer, and the answer is no, okay?” Meltzer said.

Drawing an understandable “what?” reaction from Alvarez, Meltzer expanded on his answer.

“I can't tell you more. It could change, but that's the answer,” Meltzer asserted.

After seeing Alvarez's dumbfounded reaction, Meltzer added a little more without peeling back the curtain more than he's presumably allowed to.

“Hopefully, it will change, but right now, that is the answer,” Meltzer said. “It could change, hopefully, it does change. It's a very bad answer, and perhaps there will be such a fear that it will change.”

Fortunately for professional wrestling fans the world over, that change did happen, as on Wednesday, January 25, none other than Mark Briscoe, still billed as one-half of the Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions, will be wrestling a match at the Lexington, Kentucky edition of Dynamite against Jay's long-time ROH rival Jay Lethal on what would have been his brother's 39th birthday.

While it's impossible to know exactly what made this change a reality, be it some strongarming from Tony Khan or a genuine change of heart within Warner Bros. Discovery, but after refusing to air a Jay Briscoe memorial show on or after Dynamite the previous week, it's pretty incredible to see Mark's toothy scowl on an AEW Dynamite poster.

Tony Khan comments on Mark's Debut in WWE.

So how, you may ask, was Khan able to get Mark on AEW television? Fortunately, fans can find out from the man himself, as TK stopped by the Battleground Podcast with Tim Battle to break it all down.

“It's going to be a great match to honor a great man,” Khan said via Fightful. “These two men requested this match, Wednesday would be the 39th birthday of the late, great Jay Briscoe. His longtime friend and rival, Jay Lethal, and his brother, Mark Briscoe, wanted to have this match to honor the legacy of Jay Briscoe and I fought hard to make it happen and I'm really excited about the match. I believe it's going to be a great one and it's great that they're going to be able to honor the legacy of somebody that everybody in pro wrestling has so much respect for, the great Jay Briscoe, on his 39th birthday. With everything happening, this is going to be something really great for everybody in the locker room who is rallying around the Briscoe family.”

Asked to expand on the atmosphere of Dynamite one day removed from Briscoe's passing, Khan peeled back the curtain to explain how the locker room was feeling.

“Last week, to be honest, a lot of us were still in shock,” Khan said. “We were not 24 hours off finding out that Jamin had passed away. Jay Briscoe is somebody that is beloved in the wrestling business and everybody here really liked him and we've gotten to know him, many of us at AEW, a lot better in the last year since I acquired Ring of Honor with the Briscoes being the top tag team in the history of Ring of Honor and now the Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions. The whole thing was a shock to everybody and I think everybody in the locker room immediately tried to rally around Jay's family, around Mark, and everybody trying to bring good energy together to try and support Jay's two daughters in their recovery from what was a tragic accident. Thankfully, there has been some positive news about the recovery that Jay's two daughters are making from the accident. The whole thing has been a shock. Going into this show, we'll see how everyone has been coping this past week, but I know it's not going to be easy.”

Even if Khan was never able to bring The Briscoes to Dynamite, it's at least nice to pay tribute to Jay with a match featuring his brother and one of his long-term rivals from the last era of ROH.

“I'll never forget where I was and it's one of those things, you'll never forget where you were when you hear some of these terrible things,” Khan said. “Absolutely, I think we were all in shock. It's at least beautiful that everybody can come together on Wednesday Night Dynamite and honor the life and legacy of Jay Briscoe this week because it's not only been a week since he was tragically taken away, but it's also his 39th birthday. It's a beautiful thing that his brother Mark and his long time friend and rival Jay Lethal can go out there and go one-on-one to celebrate Jay Briscoe on AEW Dynamite.”