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RIP Jay Briscoe

There comes a time when you meet someone in your life, and although it was briefly, they leave a lasting impression. For me, that was Jay Briscoe, one half of the Ring Of Honor (ROH) 13-time Tag Team Champions. Jay unfortunately passed away on January 17, 2023, due to a car accident in Laurel, Delaware. He was 38 years old.

Jay Briscoe, real name Jamin Pugh, started his wrestling career at a very young age, along with his brother Mark Pugh. Both he and his brother would videotape themselves doing training techniques, then rewatch it in order to correct themselves, so they could do the training techniques right. They were eventually trained by Eddie Valentine, Jim Kettner and Glen Osbourne. They debuted in 2001 for various promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) which eventually became their home promotion. Young and hungry, the Briscoes slowly became one of the top tag teams working in the independent circuit. They have wrestled every top wrestling tag team in the United States and abroad.

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It wasn't long before the Briscoes started winning Tag Team Championships in pretty much every single promotion they worked in. Through a working relationship between ROH and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), the Briscoes made their debut in Japan on January 4, 2016 at the Wrestle Kingdom 10 Event in the Tokyo Dome, where in a 6-Man Tag Match, they defeated the Bullet Club to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. This would start a very successful run with NJPW for the majority of 2016, and eventually seeing the Briscoe Brothers becoming NJPW Junior Tag Team Champions. They would lose those titles on October 10, 2016, at the NJPW King of Pro Wrestling Event to the tag team of Tonga and Loa, members of the Bullet Club.

One of the Briscoe Brothers’ biggest achievements was becoming the ROH Tag Team Champions for 13 times, between the period of 2016 and 2023. A record that no other tag team has been able to achieve. The Briscoe Brothers were very well respected and Jamin was a leader in every locker room he entered. I was privileged to work on a couple of shows where Jamin and his brother were also performing and I learned a lot from watching them perform. When they were in the ring together, their moves and performances were an honor to watch. Jamin's professionalism, along with his down-to-earth demeanor, is what many of his friends in the business loved the most about him. We here at Wrestle Talk would like to send our deepest condolences to his family and friends. You will be missed Jamin.

If you would like to send your support to the Pugh Family. You can go to: givesendgo.com/pughlove

Questions or comments? Please send them to eavil183@yahoo.com, have a great weekend!

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