Of all of the teams who wrestled The Briscoes over their 20-plus year run in professional wrestling, few have as much history with the Ring of Honor legends than the Young Bucks, AEW's EVP duo who currently hold the World Trios Championship belt alongside Kenny Omega.
Since first taking part in an Honor Rumble for Ring of Honor all the way back in 2009, the Young Bucks have shared the ring with The Briscoes on 46 occasions, according to Cagematch, with 12 of those matches being wrestled for championships. Though the duos haven't wrestled one another since 2018, just before the Bucks left ROH to start AEW, they have clearly stayed close and may have even been one of the teams Tony Khan had lined up to challenge for the ROH Tag Team Championships, which the Delaware-based brothers took off of FTR at Final Battle in December 2022 as part of one of the matches of the year, a double-dog collar match.
After wearing armbands to celebrate the memory of their friend and each donating $10,000 to the family's GiveSendGo fundraiser, the Bucks peeled back the curtain to break down their initial feelings following Jay's passing on Being the Elite, with the brothers disclosing that the Dynamite immediately following his passing was completely voluntary for wrestlers in both locker rooms.
“Today, it’s completely voluntary for the wrestlers to come to the show because a lot of us, we came up in the business with him, a lot of the current AEW roster,” Nick said via Fightful. “Obviously we own ROH too, so a lot of his brothers work in our locker room. So it will be good to see all the close wrestlers that were buddies with him. But it’s a tough day. It’s weird, I was telling Matt [that] this hurts more than my own family dying, and I’ve had, in the last two years, quite a few family members, grandparents, uncles….”
“You go through this bond where you wrestle someone, it’s such an intimate experience,” Matt added. “You go through, and there’s so much pressure, and you’re holding their life in your hand. When you get through that, it’s something nobody else understands unless you are a wrestler, and he was one of the good ones.”
“He wasn’t just a great wrestler,” Nick concluded. “He was a great human being.”
After reading through comments on Briscoe's passing for hours, it's safe to say that final sentiment from the younger Jackson is the prevailing sentiment from all who knew him: he was a really good dude. In a world as polarizing as pro wrestling, few things are universal, but when Jim Cornette, the Bucks, Omega, Seth Rollins, Effy, and Chris Jericho all point out how good of a guy Briscoe was both inside and out of the ring, it's pretty safe to say that was the truth.
The Young Bucks let it slip that AEW wanted to sign The Briscoes in 2019.
While The Briscoes had the hardest time trying to get on AEW television before Jay's passing, with a message delivered by The A** Boys The Gunns the closest thing to an appearance allowed by Warner Bros. Discovery, there was a time in 2019 when The Bucks were lobbying hard to get Dem Boys under contract before they ultimately re-signed with Ring of Honor. While it's impossible to know how that would have turned out once television companies got involved, as Jay's tweets would have still been public knowledge, it's hard not to imagine what could have been.
“I remember when we first started AEW, we told him, we wanted to start the tag division, we said, ‘We need the Lucha Brothers, and we need the Briscoe brothers, ‘” Matt said. “We need those sets of brothers. We want the three best brother tag teams in the world, and they were one of our first teams we tried to hire. We couldn’t get it done. But I’m so glad they got to have their little final run in ROH, and he got to, as far as wrestling goes, go out in style. Wresting just seems so silly right now, all things considered. I just wish he was still here with his kids.”
“His poor wife. I hope his kids are doing okay,” Nick said. “We sent Mark a little text, just telling him how much we love him. Feels like I’ve been telling everyone that I love them more after yesterday. You just never know when your time is up. It’s sad, it breaks my heart to even think. I love you guys, I won’t take this for granted, being on the road with you guys. I just love everyone that supports us. I love you, Mark. I love you, Jay. I love guys.”
“We love you guys,” Matt concluded.
Is there a future for The Briscoes in AEW? Will Khan find a spot for Mark Briscoe in one form or another to keep him involved in the program? Or will the extent of their memory be in tributes on Ring of Honor television, where Mark may be in attendance but not working in the ring? Either way, it's safe to say their memory will live on indefinitely among the people who loved them and the fans they entertained.
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