Tony Khan says he fought hard to book Mark Briscoe for AEW Dynamite.
On January 24, Khan announced that Mark will face Jay Lethal on the January 25 episode of AEW Dynamite; the match will come almost a week to the day that Mark’s brother Jay (Jamin Pugh) lost his life in a car accident.
Speaking with Tim Battle on the Battleground Podcast, Khan discussed the announcement that Mark will wrestle on AEW Dynamite. He stated that he fought hard to make it happen so that Mark and Lethal could honor Jay.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be a great match to honor a great man,” Khan said. “These two men requested this match. Wednesday would be the 39th birthday of the late, great Jay Briscoe. His longtime friend and rival Jay Lethal and his brother Mark Briscoe wanted to have this match to honor the legacy of Jay Briscoe, and I fought hard to make it happen.
“I’m really excited about the match. I believe it’s gonna be a great one, and it’s great that they’re gonna be able to honor the legacy of somebody that everybody in pro wrestling has so much respect for, the great Jay Briscoe, on his 39th birthday this week on Wednesday night Dynamite on TBS. With everything happening, this is gonna be something really great for everybody in the locker room who is rallying around the Briscoe family.”
Khan was also asked to describe how Jay’s passing has affected the backstage environment, given the way that many people in AEW were close with him. The AEW President stated that he thought everyone was still in shock this week, and he knows it won’t be easy to put on the show on Wednesday night.
“I think last week, to be honest, I think a lot of us were still in shock.,” Khan said. “We were about 24 hours off finding out that Jamin had passed away, Jay Briscoe is somebody that is just beloved in the wrestling business. Everybody here really, really liked him, and we’d gotten to know him, many of us at AEW, a lot better in the last year, since I acquired Ring of Honor, with the Briscoes being the top tag team in the history of Ring of Honor and now the Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions.
“So the whole thing was a shock to everybody. I think everybody in the locker room really immediately tried to rally around Jay’s family, around Mark, and everybody trying to bring good energy together to support Jay’s two daughters in their recovery from what was a tragic accident, and thankfully there’s been some positive news about the recovery that Jay’s two daughters are making from that accident. The whole thing has been a shock, and so going into this show, I don’t know. We’ll see how everybody has been coping this past week. But I know that it’s not gonna be easy.”
Looking ahead to to AEW Dynamite, Khan stated that he thought it was “beautiful” that they will be able to come together and honor Jay.
AEW has released a Jay Briscoe memorial shirt, and all proceeds will go to the Pugh family.
A donation page for the Pugh family can be found here.
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