Jay Lethal Opens Up About Jay Briscoe Tribute Match

AEW

Hear a behind the scenes story about the Jay Briscoe tribute match between Mark Briscoe and Jay Lethal from Lethal himself.

In an interview with Andreas Hale for the Sporting News,  Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett addressed a variety of topics, including Lethal sharing the emotional story of participating in Jay Briscoe’s tribute match.

Lethal said:

“To start it off, it’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do (Lethal said about the Jay Briscoe tribute match), and the day started when I knew I was going to eventually, in the locker room, at some point, I had to come face-to-face with Mark Briscoe and I just knew that, man, I just gotta try to keep it together and the wild part was and it’s the God’s honest truth, when I got together with Mark Briscoe, instead of me trying to console him, it was the flipside.

“I feel like he was more so consoling me and trying to keep me together and his reasoning which really resonated with me… You gotta know Jay Briscoe but to have either one of us crying or saddened, if Jay Briscoe was there, I can’t say because I can’t curse. I can’t say the bad words that he’d probably say but, he would call us every name in the book. Look at you over there crying.

“That’s why Mark Briscoe, it was easier for him to hold it together, he said, which made total sense. Well anyway, another tough part was I go to the ring and then when I get to the ring, we go to commercial break and while in commercial break, I had no idea — I wish they had told me, especially since we were in commercial so it wouldn’t have mattered but, while we were in commercial break, they played this video on the screen and I don’t know if they played it on TV for you guys eventually but they played one of… all I can describe it is one of the saddest videos that I’ve ever seen in my life because my friend was gone.

“That video broke me down and I remember the ring announcer at the time, Bobby Cruise, he gave me his handkerchief, because he could see (me) and when we got back on, when we came back on television, I was able to pull it together. It really felt like the opposite of what I thought was gonna happen.

“Going into the match, I thought I was gonna have to keep Mark Briscoe, help him keep it together and it was the exact opposite. Mark Briscoe had to help me keep it together and to this day, there has been nothing more, in my life, more tougher to get through and I’ve been put through some pretty tough workouts (he laughed). Nothing tougher to get through than that moment.

“Ultimately, I’m glad it happened. One of the only things I could think to pay tribute to a great friend of mine. But yeah, after the match, I definitely felt a weight was lifted because the whole time, I was worrying about whether or not I’d be able to get through this whole match without just breaking down. So after the one, two, three, I was definitely like, oh, I got through that. So yeah, a weight was definitely lifted off my shoulders after but toughest thing to date that I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

Jay Lethal and Mark Briscoe were back in the ring together again this weekend at AEW Double or Nothing although this time, under very different circumstances.

The match saw Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett attempt to win the AEW Tag Team Championships from FTR with Mark Briscoe serving as special guest referee.

To find out how that match and all the others from Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing turned out, check out all of the results below.

Full results from AEW Double Or Nothing 2023 were as follows:

HOOK, Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy def. Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn & Ethan Page

International Championship Blackjack Battle Royal – Orange Cassidy (c) def. 20 others, last eliminating Swerve Strickland

Unsanctioned Match – Adam Cole def. Chris Jericho

AEW World Tag Team Championship (Special Guest Referee Mark Briscoe) – FTR (c) def. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett

TNT Championship Ladder Match – Wardlow (c) def. Christian Cage

AEW Women’s World Championship – Toni Storm def. Jamie Hayter (c)

AEW World Trios Championship Open House Rules Match – Brody King, Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black (c) def. The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn

TBS Championship – Jade Cargill (c) def. Taya Valkyrie

TBS Championship – Kris Statlander def. Jade Cargill (c)

AEW World Championship – MJF (c) def. Darby Allin, Jack Perry, Sammy Guevara

Anarchy in the Arena – Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta def. Adam Page, Kenny Omega & Young Bucks thanks to interference from Konosuke Takeshita w/Don Callis

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• Briscoe Brothers
• jay briscoe
• mark briscoe
• ROH
• jay lethal
• tony khan

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