Wrestling / The Briscoe Brothers

aka: The Briscoes

DEM BOYS!
(Mark on the left, Jay on the right)

The Briscoe Brothers (also known simply as The Briscoes) were a Professional Wrestling Tag Team composed by Jay Briscoe (real name Jamin "Jay" Pugh) and Mark Briscoe (real name Mark Pugh), who spent almost their entire career in Ring of Honor. They also competed in Combat Zone Wrestling, Impact Wrestling and National Wrestling Alliance.

Since ROH's inception, and without taking account a 18-month hiatus, they remained a focal point within the promotion until 2022, with Supercard of Honor XV being their last participation. Together, they were 13-time ROH World Tag Team Championships, one time IWGP Tag Team Championships for NJPW, and one-time Impact Tag Team Championships, in addition to numerous tag team championships in the independent circuit. In addition, Jay was a two time ROH World Heavyweight Champion, with Mark the current ROH World Champion along with winning the ROH Honor Rumble in 2013.

They are part of the inaugural ROH Hall of Fame 2022 class alongside with Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and CM Punk. Sadly, Jay Briscoe passed away on January 17, 2023 after a car accident. He and his brother were the reigning Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions when he died. After his death, Mark would officially sign with AEW and continue to wrestle for ROH as a singles wrestler, stating that he will never have another permanent tag partner to replace his brother. At Supercard of Honor 2024, 11 years to the day after Jay won his first ROH World Championship, Mark defeated Eddie Kingston to win the same championship himself.

DEM TROPES:

• Action Dad
  • Jay used his world champion money to help support Mark's children. Didn't stop Mark from challenging for the belt, though.
  • Their own dad. Jay says he'd whip either of them, though maintains they could whoop big man if they were allowed to act as a tag team against him.
• Annual Title: Originally they were billed as the Briscoe Brothers 2000, to differentiate them from the original legendary Brisco Brothers. They soon became notorious enough not to need it anymore.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In ROH: The Prophecy, The Age of the Fall, S.C.U.M. (and by extension, its leader Kevin Steen), The Kingdom (both incarnations), Villain Enterprises, The Righteous and FTR (before the latter turned Faces).
  • In Impact Wrestling: Violent by Design.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Jay in particular likes a camouflage print.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Usually averted, they've spent a good part of their career as Faces, despite Jay admitting they are not going to win any beauty contests.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT hit Papa Briscoe. Likewise, for Papa Briscoe, do not kick either one of the brothers in the testicles, if their Cinematic Match with each other is any indication.
• Blood Knights: At Rising Above 2007, they cut a promo where Jay said, "Boy, ey, we go to random cities into the dumpiest, sleaziest bars, drink everybody under the table, then just start up a big-ass brawl fight, for the hell of it."
• Blood Upgrade: They are CZW veterans, especially Jay, who went ballistic on Adam Cole after finding out his back was cut open during their ladder war.
• Burning the Ships: Jay attempt to smash their blower and burn their lawnmower on the rational a victory at the 2016 Best In The World would eliminate the need for cleaning and grass cutting money. Mark didn't see things his way.
• Cain and Abel: Mark joined the Prophecy to remake ROH after accusing Jay of holding him back. They got over it, however.
• Cardiovascular Love: Mark's "I Love Jesus" hat uses a Heart Symbol in place of the letters.
• Charlie Brown from Outta Town: Used to wrestle in masks very early in their career, because Mark wasn't 18 yet and definitely shouldn't have been licensed to wrestle.
• Chubby Chaser: Jay thinks Jennifer Hudson looked better fat. Jay Briscoe doesn't care what the rest of her looks like though, any woman with a fat ass is his self admitted weakness.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb:
  • Both of ROH's television deals saw them try and adopt a Lighter and Softer tone, which they then abandoned after giving up on trying to tone down Jay Briscoe on one side and realizing the fans weren't getting the message on the other. That said, Jay's language has become cleaner, when the subject isn't Adam Cole.
  • Jay was once asked on TV to comment on Adam Cole. It started with Jay saying, "That mother[BLEEP]er is nothing but a sorry B[BLEEP]" and went downhill from there, to the point that the cameraman moved away from Jay's face for the rest of the promo.
  • Then when Cole challenged the legitimacy of Jay's personal world championship belt...
• Continuity Nod: In his Fight Without Honor against Adam Cole, Jay fed him thumbtacks, calling back to a tactic Cole's Mount Rushmore stablemates had tried.
• Deep South: Their trunks even have the Stars and Bars on them. Subverted, in that they're from Delaware, which never seceded.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Mark, courtesy of Scarlett Bordeaux, during his match with ROH World Television Champion Matt Taven at ROH Border Wars 2013.
• Double Knockout: Neither was able to answer a ten count after their "Man Up" match they had at the Fifth Year Festival: Finale, a match they had in order to beat each other up for being soft enough to lose both the ROH and Global Honored Crown Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles to Naruki Doi and SHINGO.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: What usually precedes their entrance as a team, though the audio often implies its cocking after shooting someone.
• Enemies List: Before the tenth anniversary show Mark began to list off all the wrestlers they had whooped over the decade but trailed off, saying they really didn't have the time.
• Facial Markings: Jay on the path to get his World Title belt back from Cole.
• Failure Hero: Before his shot at Supercard Of Honor against Kevin Steen, a video package containing all of Jay Briscoe's failed title shots and other losses in general was played.
• Feed by Example: Subverted. We do see Mark Briscoe eating the bird feed before giving to the chickens and other birds on the farm, but we've also seen him continue to eat it in the event there is excess left over after they are all fed.
• Finishing Move: Springboard Doomsday Device, their preferred Tag Team Finisher.
  • Jay: The Jay-Driller, a double underhook piledriver, and a Military Press into a Death Valley Driver.
  • Mark: Froggy Bow, a Frog Splash into an elbow drop, and Cut-Throat Driver, an inverted Death Valley Driver.
• Funny Bruce Lee Noises: Mark tends to make them when he really gets going.
• Genius Bruiser: Believe it or not, Mark Briscoe! Or maybe Ditzy Genius, but he knows his electronics and ballistics well. Jay isn't that far behind himself...
• Gun Nut: Mark Briscoe is the more subdued brother on every topic except shooting things, where he gets a little crazy. Mark also goes to shoot things when he gets angry, creating a vicious cycle. And he has lots of different kinds of guns to ensure he won't be stopping anytime soon.
• I Can Still Fight!: Jay received his first injury in his then thirteen year career after a gore from SCUM's Rhino but told his doctor to piss off when he was told to get surgery and go on the shelf because that would mean missing Supercard Of Honor VII and his title shot at SCUM's leader Kevin Steen. Jay won but SCUM's new leader, Matt Hardy, injured his shoulder again, forcing Jay to hand over the belt. Still, it took Nigel McGuinness, Mark, Papa and Kevin Steen to get him to do so.
  Jay:"I'm not even that hurt, I'm right handed anyway."
• I Got Bigger: The Briscoes have always been bony but they have gained a noticeable amount of muscle over the years. They started as junior heavyweights at best, being around 180 and 190 lbs and indeed NOAH did push them as a junior team. Around the time of their New Japan debuts Mark was at 229, Jay at 231, and thus competed for the IWGP Heavyweight belts instead.
• I Know Kung Fu: Mark Briscoe's especially dangerous Redneck Kung Fu.
• Improvised Training: In a promo for a title match against then-champions reDRagon, the brothers said that they didn't have the time to train like the MMA-inspired team could, but they did have their ways. Mark jumped up and started doing pull ups on a nearby tree on their farm, while yelling "Who's gym? This is God's gym!" and then picked up a heavy stump and threw it over his head. Jay demonstrated the same by doing curls with five gallon buckets filled with chicken droppings.
• Irony: In their first ROH match it was Mark defeating Jay, but of the two brothers Jay would end up having a much more individual success in the company.
• Leet Speak: You can't blame Kenny King for running to the TNA X division because Dem Boys had been owning All Night Express all last year and you know that Dem Boys were going to take dem tag team titles on their first defense.
• Lightning Bruiser: Both of them, they're known for both brawling and high flying.
• Literal-Minded: Mark asked how the Bullet Club got their name, since none of them were bullets and Jay suggested it was metaphorical. They both agreed they didn't want to join the club because they already had guns.
• Manly Man: The Briscoes exude masculine grit and toughness, and it is NOT just posturing either. They're Ring of Honor's longest running and most consistently present examples of what it means to be badass.
• Morality Chain: Mark keeps Jay's language in check, from instigating legal battles, refuses to help him assault other members of the family, etc. Ironically, Mark is the one more likely to turn to evil and or go crazy, as his slip ups may be more rare but Jay does a much worse job of holding Mark down when they happen.
• Motor Mouth: Defeated Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) for the ROH World Tag Team Titles at ROH Final Battle 2011, December 23, 2011. On the following episode of ROH TV, Jim Cornette, a legendary Motor Mouth himself, attempted to interview them, and they talked so much that even he couldn't get in a word.
• The Nicknamer: Papa Briscoe is Big Man, Mark Briscoe is Chicken, Team Ambition is Team Jiu Jitsu, The Young Bucks are The Hottest Babes In Pro Wrestling, Fire Ant is Gotdurn June Bug, UltraMantis Black is Black Pelican, Toru Yano is Main Man.
• No-Sell: During The Decade challenge to wrestle Adam Page, Colby Corino grabbed one of BJ Whitmer's crutches and hit Jay. It had little effect and Corino became apologetic but provided enough distraction for Page to use a chair, which Briscoe did sell.
• Patriotic Fervor: Jay's personal "World" Title belt was adorned with Union and Confederate flags.
• Power Trio: When they brought in the Never Openweight Six Man Tag Team Titles they won with Toru Yano. Then they dethroned The Kingdom to hold the ROH World Six Man Title belts with Bully Ray.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Not their gimmick, but new fans to ROH have consistently expressed surprise at how "ghetto" they, especially Jay, are after expecting them to act more like rednecks. This can again be explained by them being from Delaware, while most people think "Southern US" when they think redneck. That, and Mark claims most of their friends are black.
• Product Placement
  • Jay Briscoe cut a promo for the 2012 tag team tournament in Milwaukee wearing a "Powerhouse Gym" shirt and then admitted that he, like Kevin Steen, doesn't go to the gym. Dem Boys got in shape from working, so Jay can eat like Steen without getting fat, he has a good excuse not to be going to the gym.
  • Mark Briscoe got a tractor stuck when trying to move a dog house from his dad's yard to his own(we've all been in that situation, right?) and so turned it into a commercial for Stihl Weadeater(with attachable blade) as he get the straps loose.
• Red Baron:
  • Dem Boys... "The Boys" following Dalton Castle really deflated it. Thankfully for one night only. Castle decided to host Halloween 2016 as one of Dem Boys with Mark in turn as one of The Boys.
  • Mark's Affectionate Nickname, Chicken, eventually evolves into this trope as The Sussex County Chicken.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Jay Briscoe doesn't care if Kevin Steen is the antichrist of pro wrestling cause dem God fearing country boys are gonna beat the hell out of his and Jimmy's asses.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jay is Red, Mark is Blue.
• Revenge Before Reason: Jay wanted revenge against Dalton Castle's boys for getting him misted by EVIL, costing them their match against Los Ingobernables de Japón at War of the Worlds, to the point he gave into Castle's request for a Six Man title shot at Best In The World. While The Boys were guilty of sabotaging his team with their interference, Jay failed to realize it'd make more sense to pursue the more malicious perpetrator, EVIL!
• Revenge by Proxy: They were at first grateful to be invited for a week's worth of free "developmental" in the revived version of Florida Championship Wrestling in 2009, but the wrestlers there aside from their fellow ROH, CZW etc alumni looked down on their independent circuit work and then the Briscoes were sent home and told they were rejected by Johnny Ace over the phone for cosmetic reasons. So they were a little upset and decided since they had the Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team at Final Battle 2011 they were going get their catharsis by beating on Shelton Benjamin, whom they said represented everything they didn't like about the experience.
• Sibling Team: What, you thought they weren't really brothers?
• Sir Swearsalot: Jay has quite the mouth on him.
• Smoking Is Cool: Jay will wear a tank top out in the cold to disguise the fact it's his breath instead of smoke you're seeing. That said, he will light a "brutal bob". He went to that length with the cigar because it was Big Man's.
• Start My Own: Since Jay was forced to relinquish to the World Championship belt due to injury, he proclaimed he never lost the title and started coming out with his own belt after Adam Cole became the new World Champion. Adam Cole would conspire to put Jay's belt in Matt Hardy's hands, who put his face on it, then in Mike Bennett's, who dedicated it to his love of Maria Kanellis.
• Straight Man: Wild as they are, both of them are to Yano.
• Summon Bigger Fish
  • There are two of them and three Kings Of Wrestling. Solution? Find Amazing Kong!
  • During their feud with The Kingdom, which consisted of Adam Cole, Mike Bennett, Matt Taven, and Maria Kanellis... they got back up from back up none other than ODB!
• Take Up My Sword: Mark's incorporated the Jay-Driller into his finishing sequence since Jay's passing.
• Undying Loyalty: Both to each other and to ROH. Jay debuted at 18, meaning for his entire adult life he's wrestled for ROH. Mark is, of course, younger than Jay, and accompanied him in the beginning until he turned 18 and could also wrestle. They have worked for other companies, of course, but they always come back to ROH, with the vow to help make it the best, and nine times out of ten, they have stood together in the process. There were a few times they got competitive with each other, including a short feud before they became an official tag team in ROH (during which Mark briefly aligned himself with Daniels and the Prophecy, btw) and a stint where Mark went after Jay's ROH World Championship, but those would always be resolved with the two getting back on the same page in short order. And angles aside, the only time Jay voluntarily left ROH was in 2004 when Mark was injured in a motorcycle accident and he barely wrestled anywhere that year, as he refused to return to the ring until Mark was medically cleared.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ingrateful bastards Mark called them, but they weren't impressed with seeing the Chikara locker room empty out in support of Hallowicked and Jigsaw at ROH Homecoming 2012 and not seeing a single member of the ROH roster come out to even the odds for Dem Boys.
• Use Your Head: Both of them make use of headbutts, Mark a little more because he's crazy or, rather, was padding his head with a wig.
• Wax On, Wax Off: They aren't adverse to working out for the sake of working out but Briscoe training involves buckets of water, ladders and jumping on bulldozers rather weights or calisthenics. Subverted when they had ODB fix a tractor and admitted it had nothing to do with getting ready for her match against Kanellis.
• The Worf Effect: Against CHAOS to set up The Addiction at Global Wars 2015. The Briscoes were impressive enough for Yano to recruit them later, though not into the group.
• Workaholic: Papa taught Dem Boys to work as soon as they were able to take steps. Work twelve hours a day. Work while all their friends enjoyed the weekend, while all their friends partied. But he let them watch wrestling tapes and build a ring, and drive out to other cities to train and eventually wrestle to make $20 USD in front of 40 people, cause that's work too. He went on to party with them when they won the tag team titles in Ring of Honor because it's work.
• Worthy Opponent: Jay Briscoe wanted to fight Roderick Strong and Necro Butcher not because he disliked them but actually because he liked them, and wanted to test himself against all styles of wrestling. He and Butcher were actually drinking buddies. Mark liked Roderick Strong too and considered him a brother, which was why he was frustrated that Strong didn't give Mark the same respect he gave his actual brother, Jay.
  • Before ROH took a hiatus, they recognized the reformed OGK (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) as worthy rivals of their own, especially in their ROH Tag Team Championship match that took place in Final Battle 2021.
  • Recently, they found in The Good Brothers, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows nothing but respect since their match in Slammiversary 2022.
  • FTR are now on their list of worthy opponent after their savage trilogy of matches at Supercard of Honor XV, Death Before Dishonor 2022 and Final Battle 2022.
• Would Hit a Girl: They gave Sara Del Rey the J-Driller after interrupting the KOW-Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) ROH World Tag Team Title match at ROH Supercard of Honor V, May 8, 2010. Claudio did NOT take it well.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay: Are legitimately chicken farmers and landscapers in addition to their wrestling exploits.
• Wrestling Family: Not related to those Briscos though.
• You Wanna Get Sued?: Jay Briscoe vowed to take the "Book Of Truth" shine it up real smooth, turn that sumbitch sideways and stick it up Truth Martini's and Mark said no.