The Young Bucks discuss Jay Briscoe's passing.
On January 17, Jamin Pugh (Jay Briscoe) lost his life in a car accident. Briscoe was a 13-time ROH World Champion, and he had also been inducted into the ROH Hall of Fame. He spent the duration of his career with ROH, but he also competed for NJPW, IMPACT Wrestling, NOAH, and NWA, among other promotions. Throughout his career, he and his brother Mark faced the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) many times in ROH, and they were close friends.
On the newest episode of Being The Elite, the Young Bucks discussed Jay Briscoe's passing. The segment was seemingly recorded on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the car accident. Matt and Nick mourned the loss of Jay and noted that it was going to be hard to wrestle that night. Nick stated that Wednesday's taping was voluntary for the wrestles, given the way many of them had knowm Jay.
Matt Jackson: What a rough 24 hours it has been. I don’t even know how I’m gonna wrestle tonight.
Nick Jackson: I feel the same exact way. We lost a very good friend, a brother, someone who we loved dearly, and we shared the ring with so many times.
MJ: I don’t think we’ve wrestled any other tag team more than we’ve wrestled the Briscoe Brothers.
NJ: We love Jay. Our hearts are just broken right now. I’m still in shock. We’ve been talking about him the entire drive so far. Today’s gonna be tough wrestling on TV.
MJ: I don’t know how we’re gonna do it. I was telling Dana, I said, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna do this.’ She just said, ‘When something like this happens, maybe it’s good to be around people who knew him so you can talk about him.
NJ: 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. 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….
MJ: You go through this bond where you wrestle someone, it’s such an intimate experience. 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.
NJ: He wasn’t just a great wrestler. He was a great human being.
Matt went on to recall how he and Nick wanted to sign the Briscoes when AEW was starting out, as they wanted to have the three best sets of brothers in tag team wrestling, but they couldn't get the signing done. He stated that he's glad Mark and Jay had a succcessful last run in ROH, but he wished Jay was still here.
MJ: Yeah, family man. 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. 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.
NJ: His poor wife. I hope his kids are doing okay. 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.
MJ: We love you guys.
Matt also stated that he wanted to pay tribute to Jay in their match against Top Flight on Wednesday night's episode of Dynamite, which they did, as they bit a Doomsday Device. Later in the episode, after their match, the Young Bucks described how they were so thrown off by the loss of Jay that they forgot to bring their AEW World Trios Championships out with them for their match. Plus, Brandon Cutler lost track of time because he had been talking about Jay with others in the locker room.
NJ: We just got back from out match. We had a great one with Top Flight. Those guys are stats already, and they’re future stars in this business.
MJ: They’ve gotten so much better, so good. That was our third match we’ve had with them. Nick: It was a special one. God, it was hard to do. All day today, we’ve been thinking and talking about Jay. Matt: I’ve been so distracted. It’s been hard to focus.
NJ: It’s been tough. We won the trios championships last week, and this is where our head is, we completely forgot to bring them out today during our entrance.
MJ: We forgot to bring the belts out during our entrance. I heard them announcing, ‘The Trios Champions,’ and I go, we don’t have our belts. Our head’s in another place obviously.
Brandon Cutler: I wasn’t even at the go.
MJ: Brandon almost missed our [entrance], at one point I go, ‘Brandon isn’t gonna make it, Nick.’
BC: I came running over.
MJ: clearly we’re all distracted. BC: We’re all just having conversations with everyone in the locker room, and you just lose track of time.
NJ: At least it’s helped us a little bit, talking all day about him, all the memories that we have. It’s just a weird freaking day.
After the Jay Briscoe Celebration of Life was taped on Wednesday night, the Young Bucks, Cutler, and Christopher Daniels left the arena. Matt stated that Mark Briscoe watched their match, and he was texting them. Daniels noted that he also heard back from Mark when he reached out to tell him he loved him.
MJ: It meant a lot, Mark watched our tribute, watched our match, and he’s texting us. Anything that can brighten his way a little bit, I’m all for it.
Christopher Daniels: I texted him just to let him know that I loved him, and he responded, which was amazing. Mark, if you’re watching this, we love you, bud, and support you and your family. Tonight was for Jay.
Conrad Thompson recently said that Tony Khan will do right by the Briscoe family. Check out his comments here.
Click here for an update on how Jay Briscoe's daughters are doing after the car accident and for information on how you can support the family.
Adam Pearce called Jay Briscoe an incredible father and a family man. Check out his comments here.
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