Terrible breaking news from Ring Of Honor owner Tony Khan: Jamin Pugh, known to fans worldwide as Jay Briscoe, one half of The Briscoes with brother Mark Briscoe, is dead. He was only 38. No details are known except there are rumors of a car accident.
The Briscoes rose to fame in Ring Of Honor and became one of the top tag teams in the world over the last 20 years, but they had their fair share of incredible singles success too.
More as it becomes available. RIP and GOD BLESS, until we meet again our dear brother…
UPDATE: New Japan’s English website has posted a brief obituary/tribute to Jay Briscoe that includes details of their time and successes in Japan in their career, which may not be known to many:
https://www.njpw1972.com/141096
Additionally, tributes from throughout the wrestling world are flooding Twitter and social media as wrestlers, fans and promotions around the world remember Briscoe.
If you’re in the US and have money to spare, now is the time to get an HonorClub subscription and start binging all of the great Briscoes matches that are available, both singles and tag team. I know I’ll be looking to see if any of their old New Japan matches are on New Japan World.
UPDATE 2: According to this morning’s “Busted Open” radio show, Briscoe was killed in a car accident. His 2 daughters were in the car as well, one is hospitalized in stable condition and the other is going in for surgery this morning. I believe one or both are elementary school age.
UPDATE 3: A couple more details about the car accident-it occurred in Laurel, DE yesterday at about 5:30 PM ET and was multi-vehicle. At least one of the other drivers involved was killed. According to a Facebook post by Jay’s widow, one of his daughters was going into surgery earlier today for back/leg injuries (possible paralysis), another had unspecified serious injuries but is stable and resting and a third child either was not involved in the crash or has already been able to go home.
A separate FB post from an area news/media outlet has additional details and names of the victims, confirming Jay Briscoe was one of them. A warning that details may be upsetting to some:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid031sDCuZw1LdV9A551yAorBGVdJAYCENLbBAcbw1PiHKZQfibTR58S7KP9cdZLyqvel&id=100064360823022
UPDATE 4: During the 1/18/23 AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan announced on Twitter that a tribute show will be taped that night after the live show. It will be available for free at a later date on HonorClub (no subscription required for this) and YouTube.
UPDATE 5: It’s now been confirmed the reason for no tribute on AEW Dynamite on 1/18/23 was WarnerMedia/WBD not allowing it. They had issues with past homophobic tweets by Briscoe from a decade ago and thus forbid The Briscoes from being on AEW TV. There will be two taped tribute specials-one on YouTube & HonorClub as mentioned above and then a second one with all Jay Briscoe matches will be put together. Finally, they will do something at Supercard Of Honor, ROH’s next PPV, at the end of March in Los Angeles.
UPDATE 6: On 1/23 AEW & ROH released a Jay Briscoe memorial short for sale on prowrestlingtees.com starting at $24.99. All proceeds will go to support the Briscoe family.
UPDATE 7: AEW has added Mark Briscoe (Jay’s brother) vs. Jay Lethal to the 1/25 AEW Dynamite. It would have been Jay’s 39th birthday. It’s also been confirmed that Warner Bros Discovery/WarnerMedia relented on their stance to never allow the Briscoes on AEW/ROH TV so Tony Khan will be able to do televised Jay Briscoe tributes on this week’s programming.
UPDATE 8: More details about when the upcoming HonorClub/YouTube tribute special will be available will be announced tonight (1/25) on AEW Dynamite. It will be 3 hours and feature matches taped last week in Fresno, CA, some of Jay’s best matches and interviews.
UPDATE 9: The video will premiere on YouTube TONIGHT at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET. You can watch below:
