The Briscoe Brothers

The Briscoe Brothers
The Briscoe Brothers in January 2016
Tag team
Members	Jay Briscoe Mark Briscoe
Name(s)	The Briscoes The Briscoe Brothers
Combined weight	460 lb (210 kg)
Billed from	Sandy Fork, Delaware
Debut	May 20, 2000
Years active	2000-Present
Promotion(s)	NJPW ROH
Trainer	CZW Training School ECWA Wrestletech Glenn Osborne Jon Dahmer Van Hammer

The Briscoe Brothers are the professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers of Jay Briscoe (Jamin "Jay" Pugh) and Mark Briscoe (Mark Pugh). They are currently wrestling for the American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).

The Briscoe Brothers are best known for their work in Ring of Honor and are the only wrestlers currently working for the company who were featured on its first-ever event on February 23, 2002. Other than an 18-month absence from August 2004 to February 2006, the brothers have been focal points of the company throughout its history, feuding with some of their biggest stars.

The Briscoes are record twelve-times ROH World Tag Team Champions and a two-times IWGP Tag Team Champions. They have also held the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship once and the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship twice with Toru Yano. They have also won numerous tag team titles on the independent circuit.

As singles competitors, Jay is a record-tying two-time ROH World Champion, while Mark won the 2013 Honor Rumble.

Early life

The Pugh brothers, Jamin (Jay) (born January 25, 1984) and Mark (born January 17, 1985) grew up in Laurel, Delaware. As high schoolers, both received honorable mention All-State honors their junior and senior years for football, Jay as a fullback and a linebacker and Mark as a tight end and a linebacker. At one point, both were signed to play for Wesley College (Delaware), a fact even used in wrestling storyline at one point, at ROH Beating the Odds, to explain an absence from which they were returning.

The brothers first became interested in wrestling in their youth by watching WWF on one of the two channels their television could receive. Originally, they practiced wrestling moves with one another on a trampoline before the family built a wrestling ring in their backyard. From the beginning, the two of them worked on honing their craft, taping their moves and trying to improve them. Despite the fact that their dad was a coach for their high school's wrestling team, they did not participate in amateur wrestling in their high school years. Their first foray into professional wrestling came with the East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA), while they were still in high school. While their mother, Jana, was in line to purchase tickets to attend a wrestling event, a promoter for the ECWA approached her and asked if her sons had a tape of themselves wrestling. This led to the brothers debuting for ECWA on May 20, 2000 under the ring names "Jay and Mark Briscoe".

Professional wrestling career

Pro Wrestling NOAH (2007)

The Briscoe Brothers toured with Noah in 2007, winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on January 7, 2007 from the team of Takashi Sugiura and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. However, they quickly dropped it two weeks later to Ricky Marvin and Kotaro Suzuki, essentially making them transitional champions. They returned for three shows in July, the first a time limit draw against KENTA and Taiji Ishimori, the second a victory alongside Nigel McGuinness over Takuma Sano, Takashi Sugiura, and Tsutomu Hirayanagi, and the third a loss with McGuinness to Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH's owner), Yoshinari Ogawa, and Ricky Marvin. They have since gone back for further tours.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (2016)

The Briscoes made their debuts for New Japan Pro Wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, teaming with Toru Yano in a victory over Bullet Club members Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, and Yujiro Takahashi to become the first NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. The three made their first successful title defense the following day against another Bullet Club trio of Fale, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, the Briscoes and Yano lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Fale, Tonga and Takahashi in their second defense. The Briscoes and Yano regained the title three days later at The New Beginning in Niigata. On February 20 at Honor Rising: Japan 2016, the Briscoes and Yano lost the title to Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks.

The Briscoes returned to NJPW on June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, where they defeated Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. They made their first successful title defense on August 14 against the Bullet Club team of Hangman Page and Yujiro Takahashi. On September 22 at Destruction in Hiroshima, The Briscoe Brothers defeated reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks for their second successful title defense. On October 10 at King of Pro-Wrestling, they lost the title back to Tonga and Roa.

Personal lives

In May 2013, Jay caused a controversy on his Twitter account, when he threatened to "fucking shoot" anybody that tries to "teach [his] kids that there's nothing wrong with [same sex marriage]". He had previously also made other derogatory comments about homosexual people on his Twitter account. Pugh first apologized for the comment on ROH's website and again at a house show on May 11, while also agreeing to donate his full pay from the next two shows to the Partners Against Hate (PAH) charitable organization.

Their favourite bands are Queen and Elton John.

In wrestling

• Double-team finishing moves
  • Briscoe Bottom (Double sitout side slam) – early 2000s
  • Cut-Throat Driver (Mark) / Diving leg drop (Jay) combination
  • Shooting star press (Mark) / Diving leg drop (Jay) combination
  • Spike Jay-Driller (Springboard spike double underhook piledriver)
  • Springboard doomsday device, sometimes with Mark doing a 180° turn in mid-air
• Double-team signature moves
  • Double forehand chops using both hands to an opponent in the corner
  • High elevation double hip toss
  • High elevation double military press drop
  • Pendulum backbreaker (Jay) / Diving knee drop (Mark) combination
  • Redneck Boogie (Crucifix powerbomb (Mark) / Neckbreaker (Jay) combination)
  • Sidewalk slam (Mark) / Diving leg drop (Jay) combination
  • Simultaneous running low-angle big boot / running low-angle dropkick combination to the head of an opponent seated in the corner
  • Spinebuster (Jay) / Springboard spinning wheel kick (Mark) combination
  • Three-point stance followed into a double shoulder block
  • Uppercut (Mark) followed by a leg lariat (Jay) followed by a jawbreaker (Mark) followed by a jumping big boot (Mark) and finished with a reverse STO (Jay)
• Jay's finishing moves
  • Crucible (Sitout suplex slam)
  • Jay-Driller (Double underhook piledriver)
  • Military press dropped into a Death Valley driver
  • Diving senton – early 2000s
• Jay's signature moves
  • Arched big boot
  • Cannonball
  • Death Valley driver
  • Diving leg drop
  • Elevated cutter
  • European uppercut
  • Frog splash
  • Full nelson slam
  • Hangman's neckbreaker
  • Hurricanrana
  • Muscle buster
  • Reverse STO, sometimes into the turnbuckle
  • Sitout inverted suplex slam, sometimes from the top rope
  • Superkick
  • Three-quarter nelson suplex
• Mark's finishing moves
  • Cut-Throat Driver / Mark-Out (Cut-throat inverted Death Valley driver
  • Froggy Bow (Frog splash elbow drop)
• Mark's signature moves
  • Baseball slide
  • Crab Walk (Mark walks sideways on the middle rope before hitting a diving senton)
  • Crane kick
  • Diving blockbuster from the apron
  • Fisherman buster
  • Moonsault
  • Redneck Kung Fu (Multiple throat thrusts followed by a leg lariat to the back of the opponent's head)
  • Saito suplex
  • Shooting star press, sometimes springboarding to the outside
  • Slingshot double foot stomp
  • Springboard cutter
  • Superkick
  • Ura-nage
• Nicknames
  • "Dem Boys"
• Entrance themes
  • "Reach for the Sky" by Adam Massacre
  • "Fight" by Justin Ostrander, David Dorn, Bryan Edwards and Mark Lonsway (NJPW)

Championships and accomplishments

• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times)
  • NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Toru Yano
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked Jay #7 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015** Ranked Mark #49 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013*
  • Ranked Jay #31 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 and Ranked Mark #83 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016*
  • Ranked Jay #81 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 and Ranked Mark #97 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017*
• Pro Wrestling NOAH
  • GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time)