The Briscoes, Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe, were, are, and forever will be one of the greatest tag teams in professional wrestling history. Their run in Ring of Honor has reached legendary status, their time away from the brand has become incredibly prolific too, with matches in Impact, GCW, and NJPW during the brand's break, and even if they never made it to AEW, their presence impacted how FTR was booked, which is pretty incredible in hindsight.

But why, you may ask, didn't the brothers Briscoe ever end up in WWE? Well, Mark Briscoe was asked that very question by Chris Jericho in an appearance on Talk is Jericho, and needless to say, his answer was illuminating.

“Everybody was saying everybody really liked you,” Briscoe said via TRJ Wrestling. “I really think they're gonna bring you guys on. I guess it was a week or two after we had got home, we were just waiting to hear back because they said we will let you know. John Laurinaitis told me, ‘Yeah, we really liked your stuff but I think we're going to pass for right now. Let us know if you guys want another try.' That kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

“But then I guess when he talked to Jay, as he called Jay either right before he called me or called Jay right after he called me, he said, ‘Man, you know what he told me? He said that we're not cosmetically pleasing enough.”

Now granted, is this a new story? No, Mark and his brother have stated this before, and it was equally as head-scratching then as it was now, but with Jay passed, it's sad to know that the brothers will never be wrestling together again, be that in WWE, AEW, Ring of Honor, or anywhere else.

Mark Briscoe talks about his AEW debut after Jay's passing.

Turning his attention to Mark Briscoe, the solo act, Jericho asked the Sussex Co Chicken about his debut in AEW and about how quickly it came together.

“It was cool. Jay passed on January 17. January 18 was my birthday. One week later, January 25, was Jay's birthday. To me, that's one of those things where, Jay had such guilt that we never made it to TV,” Briscoe said via Fightful. “He thought it was his fault. It's so weird that, the first night, it was his birthday. It was like his gift to me. His gift to us. He wanted us to know how strong he was in his faith and his perspective, and his thoughts on God and eternity. I know that he was not afraid to die. He didn't want to leave any of us, especially his kids and family, he would never want to leave them without him, but I know that he did not fear death. I, even more so than my mom or a lot of other people that were so close to him, me and him spent more time riding the road and had that connection where we had that same mindset, the same brain. Here we are, on his birthday, a week after he passed, [Speaking as Jay], ‘Here you go. Go head, baby. Do we what we do.'”

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Briscoe then turned his attention to his decision to debut in AEW one week after his brother's passing, explaining that, while some people would have taken some time off, his brother would have wanted him to carry on, so he did.

“I told everybody, ‘If I went and balled up in a corner and cried and was sad and couldn't function, Jaymin would do whatever he could do in his afterlife to hawk my a** in the ring,” Briscoe said. “‘[Speaking as Jay,] ‘What the h*ll are you doing? Come on, dawg.' For that to happen and the timing that it happened, ‘Well, this is the next step. I'm carrying on. I'm carrying on for me and him. Let's role with it.' Until there is an obvious sign of obvious indication that this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing, let's keep rocking and rolling.”

After suffering through what must have been the worst day of his life one day before his birthday no less, it's pretty incredible to see how positive Briscoe has remained both outside of the ring and in it. Though his brother never got to achieve his dream of wrestling live on television, it's clear Mark is keeping The Briscoe name alive and well in AEW, Ring of Honor, and even WWE, where they got a shout-out from Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn following the duo's Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship win at WrestleMania 39.