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Professional wrestling tag team

Briscoe Brothers
Mark (left) and Jay (right), at a Ring of Honor event in Philadelphia in 2006
Tag team
Members	Jay Briscoe Mark Briscoe
Name(s)	Briscoe Brothers The Briscoes The Midnight Outlaws
Combined billed weight	430 lb (195 kg)
Hometown	Laurel, Delaware
Billed from	Laurel, Delaware Sandy Fort, Delaware Southern Delaware
Debut	May 20, 2000

The Briscoe Brothers are the professional wrestling tag team of Jay and Mark Briscoe. They are currently wrestling for the American promotions Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro, as well as occasionally for the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Their wrestling careers have seen them work in promotions all over the United States and the world, beginning in the northeast United States with the East Coast Wrestling Association and Combat Zone Wrestling. They have won tag team championships in nearly every promotion they have worked for, and are seen as a consistent draw and one of the best tag teams on the independent circuit.

Best known for working in Ring of Honor (ROH), the Briscoe Brothers, along with Bryan Danielson, are the only wrestlers currently working for the company who were featured on its first-ever event in February 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 and holding the ROH World Tag Team Championship a record five times as a team. On December 29 2007, during their fourth reign, the Briscoe Brothers became the longest reigning tag team champions in ROH history.

Early life

The Pugh brothers, Jamin (Jay) (born January 24 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 the World Wrestling Federation 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, Janna, 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, where they have no meaningful history, on May 20 2000 under the ring names Jay and Mark Briscoe.

Wrestling career

Combat Zone Wrestling

Jay & Mark Briscoe made their debuts for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) at Delaware Invasion on January 20 2001, being brought in to job as part of a three-on-one handicap match against Trent Acid. At the inaugural Best of the Best event, a show somewhat atypical of CZW in that it is a tournament spotlighting athletic junior heavyweight wrestling as opposed to violent hardcore matches, the two advanced past the first round in a three-way match with Nick Mondo where the stipulation was whoever took the fall would be eliminated. They were then matched against each other in the second round, with Jay winning and advancing further. This match was seen by fans as the best of the tournament, and seen in retrospect as having been responsible in large part for helping launch the brothers' careers, as they were new to the independent circuit and very young at the time.

After losing in title opportunities at Breakaway Brawl and A New Beginning, the brothers won the CZW Tag Team Championship on July 14 2001, as they defeated the original H8 Club at H8 Club: Dead? They lost it, however, in their first defense, to Johnny Kashmere and Justice Pain on July 28 2001 at What About Lobo? Mark wasn't used for several months after that, but Jay continued on as a singles wrestler in that time, even facing Justice Pain for the CZW Heavyweight Championship at September Slam on September 8, which he did not win.

At the end of 2001 and into 2002, CZW's territory (that is, the area at which they held the majority of their events) was shifting from Sewell, New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in order to hold events regularly at the old ECW arena, beginning with December 15's Cage of Death 3. At this event, they faced Nick Gage and Nate Hatred, but wore masks and were identified as The Midnight Outlaws. This was likely to get around the fact that Jay was only 17 and Mark only 16 at the time; this meant, as they were under 18 years of age, that they could not legally work in a sport wrestling exhibition in the state of Pennsylvania. As CZW regularly began holding shows in the Philadelphia area, the Midnight Outlaws made appearances at the next four CZW events. At A Higher Level of Pain on April 13 2002, Jay appeared across the ring from the Midnight Outlaws, tagging with Ruckus against Mark and someone else. By this time, he had turned 18. Jay and Ruckus were won the match, and this was the last time either Jay or Mark appeared for CZW until April 12 2003, where Jay and Mark both returned for Best of the Best 3. Jay was a surprise entrant after being taunted by AJ Styles, and Mark filling in for the injured Ruckus. Jay advanced to the semi finals, where he lost to B-Boy, and Mark lost his fill-in match to Sonjay Dutt. The two faced off with the Backseat Boyz for the CZW World Tag Team Championship at Truth or Consequences on June 14, but failed to win the belts.

Jersey All-Pro Wrestling

The Brothers appeared for Jersey All-Pro Wrestling (JAPW), in the ECW arena, on March 24 2001 at March Madness Night 2, losing to Insane Dragon & Dixie in the opener. It is unclear how, if at all, JAPW's ownership and management worked around Pennsylvania's child labor law, as both brothers were underage at the time of this and two subsequent appearances in the old ECW arena. They made three other appearances in JAPW in 2001, all against Insane Dragon & Dixie - one a victory, one that ended in a no contest due to outside interference, and the last an unsuccessful challenge for Dragon & Dixie's JAPW Tag Team Championship on June 15 at Here to Stay.

They made subsequent appearances for JAPW in 2002, first losing to The S.A.T. on May 3 at May Madness. They then re-entered the JAPW Tag Team Championship picture, wrestling in a three-team match against Da Hit Squad and Wasted Youth, the team of Insane Dragon & Deranged, to fill the vacant championship at Unfinished Business on July 13 2002. However, it was Jay & Insane Dragon who emerged as champions, after scoring simultaneous pinfalls on the members of Da Hit Squad. The six men went on to meet in a rematch of sorts at the next event, Royal Consequences 2 on August 10. Jay & Dragon defended the title against Da Hit Squad and the team of Mark & Deranged in a tables, ladders, and chairs match, which Da Hit Squad won. Two shows later, on September 20 at Family Crisis 2, Da Hit Squad successfully retained the title over the Briscoes in a regular match.

The Brothers did not appear for JAPW again until late 2005, again in a tables, ladders, and chairs match for the tag team title, this time against the teams of Teddy Hart & Homicide, the Backseat Boyz, and the S.A.T. The match, which took place at JAPW's 8th Year Anniversary Show, was won Hart & Homicide. At the next show, Fall Out, the S.A.T. defeated them and thus became number one contenders to the tag team championship. Their last JAPW appearances to date came in early 2006, losing along with the Outcast Killers to the S.A.T. once again at Wild Card II in a tag team title match, and then at Brotherly Love to the team of Sabu and Sonjay Dutt, a match they also lost.

Ring of Honor

The Briscoe Brothers have wrestled most extensively for Ring of Honor. Jay wrestled on ROH's first-ever show, The Era of Honor Begins, losing to Amazing Red. Mark seconded him to the ring but could not wrestle because of Pennsylvania's child labor law (most of ROH's earliest shows took place in Philadelphia). Jay wrestled each of ROH's next four shows, against Spanky, Tony Mamaluke, Doug Williams, and James Maritato, losing to all but Mamaluke. At Honor Invades Boston, when Mark was able to perform, he defeated his brother, in the second-to-last match of the night. The Brothers went on briefly to feud against each other, during which time Jay scored a non-title win over ROH Champion Xavier at Glory By Honor. This earned him a title shot at All-Star Extravaganza, which he did not win. At Scramble Madness, back in Boston, the brothers' storyline involved them picking their own partners for a tag team match. Jay picked past foe Amazing Red, whereas Mark's partner was Christopher Daniels, as he seemingly joined The Prophecy. Daniels pinned Red to win the match. The Brothers' feud against one another concluded at the First Anniversary Show, when Jay defeated Mark in a match, and the two hugged afterward to signify their reunion. Mark never explicitly left the Prophecy, but in forming a team with his brother, he stopped teaming with them.

Newly united as a team in ROH, the Briscoes began, in 2003, to feud with A.J. Styles and Amazing Red, then holders of the ROH Tag Team Championship, losing in title matches at Night of Champions, The Epic Encounter, and Death Before Dishonor, which by stipulation was their last match for the title for as long as Styles & Red held it. Before the last match, a poll was held on ROH's website, asking the fans if they wanted to see a third match between the two teams. Over 80% of respondents voted 'yes.' At Beating the Odds, they returned from a brief absence to score a pair of wins which were depicted in the storyline as being improbable, Mark over ROH veteran B.J. Whitmer and Jay in a Four Corner Survival match with ROH World Champion Samoa Joe, NWA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles, and Chris Sabin, pinning Sabin to earn a future title shot at Joe. At ROH's Maryland debut, Tradition Continues, Joe retained over Jay.

The Brothers took part in the gauntlet match at Glory By Honor 2, which was held to fill the tag team championship left vacant by Red suffering a serious knee injury. They defeated and eliminated the Special K team of Hydro and Angeldust as well as The Ring Crew Express, before being eliminated by the other Special K team in the match, Izzy & Dixie, due to outside interference from Angeldust. After Izzy & Dixie later won the tag team title, the Brothers were granted a shot at it, at Main Event Spectacles. The reason given in the storyline was they were given the shot since they only lost in the gauntlet match because Special K cheated. In the opening segment of that event, they were aligned with Jim Cornette, because (in the storyline) Cornette wanted to create new champions. They attacked his former client, Samoa Joe, who Cornette abandoned since he already was a champion. They went on to win the belts later in the show. At The Conclusion, The Battle Lines Are Drawn, and The Last Stand, which was by stipulation Joe's last shot at the tag team title for as long as the Briscoe Brothers held it, they retained the belts over Joe and a different partner each time, A.J. Styles, Bryan Danielson, and Jerry Lynn respectively. Since Joe took pinfalls at The Conclusion (to Mark) and The Last Stand (to Jay), both brothers subsequently earned shots at his world title. Both fell; Mark at Final Battle 2003 and Jay at At Our Best in a memorable and bloody steel cage match.

They dropped the tag team title to the CM Punk & Colt Cabana at ROH's Chicago-area debut, ROH Reborn: Stage Two, working in ROH for the first time as outward heels. At the next show, Round Robin Challenge III, the title switched three times among the teams in the round robin challenge, the Second City Saints (Punk & Cabana), the Briscoe Brothers, and the Prophecy team of Dan Maff and B.J. Whitmer. The Briscoes defeated Maff & Whitmer in the fourth match of the night to win the title for a second time, and then lost it back to Punk & Cabana in the main event. The Brothers both participated in ROH's inaugural Survival of the Fittest tournament, with Mark going over Alex Shelley in his qualifier and Jay falling to Homicide. Mark did not, however, win the elimination final. After losing a two out of three falls tag team title match to Punk & Cabana at Death Before Dishonor II Part 1, ending that feud, they lost in separate singles matches to members of The Rottweilers the next night. Between that and their victory in tag team action at Testing the Limit, it is likely that a feud was planned between the Briscoes and the Rottweilers.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla

The Briscoe Brothers have a somewhat checkered history with the California-based Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). They have numerous times been announced for events at which they ultimately did not perform, such as when they were scheduled for a PWG World Tag Team Championship match against Roderick Strong and PAC at Giant-Size Annual #4, but wound up being replaced by Kevin Steen and El Generico.

They were involved in the promotion's early days, appearing at their fourth-ever show Are You Adequately Prepared to Rock?, losing to Super Dragon and B-Boy. Due to the costs of bringing them in from the East coast and the sabbatical from the sport the Brothers took, they did not appear again until 2006, at Enchantment Under the Sea, falling to El Generico and Quicksilver. At the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles, the Brothers' numerous no-shows were worked into the company's kayfabe when PWG announced days before that they had been pulled from the tournament as punishment, but they wound up showing up anyway, attacking Commissioner Dino Winwood on Night One and wrestling in a three-team match on Night Two, with the teams of Scott Lost & Chris Bosh and Homicide & B-Boy for the tag team championship, held and retained by Lost & Bosh. The Brothers then appeared for PWG on May 19 and May 20 2007 in the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament to fill the then-vacant tag team championship. After defeating the Kings of Wrestling on Night One and the Havana Pitbulls on Night Two, they lost in the finals to Strong and PAC.

At PWG's ¡Dia de los Dangerous! show, Commissioner of Food & Beverage Excalibur announced that the Briscoes would return at PWG's March 7 2008 show, to which the crowd chanted "They won't show!" Commissioner Dino Winwood commented that Excalibur gets mad at Winwood booking Roderick Strong, but at least Strong shows up. The Briscoes both arrived for the show but they were unable to defeat Joey Ryan and Scott Lost for the tag team championship following interference from Eddie Kingston and Claudio Castagnoli.

Sabbatical from wrestling

The brothers went on an extensive hiatus from professional wrestling, beginning in August 2004. As was announced before ROH's Scramble Cage Melee, Mark was injured in a motorcycle accident between Testing the Limit and that show, and thus both brothers had left Ring of Honor. As Jay didn't wish to return to wrestling without his brother, they stopped taking bookings from any company. After making their returns in late 2005 to JAPW, ROH, the only company which they had regularly been working for at the time of Mark's accident, hyped their return at the Fourth Anniversary Show in February 2006.

Pro Wrestling Unplugged

The Brothers worked for Philadelphia-based Pro Wrestling Unplugged (PWU) since at least September 17 2005, when they defeated The S.A.T. and All Money is Legal to win the then-vacant PWU Tag Team Championship. They held that title until April 22 2006, when they dropped it to the S.A.T. After further appearances in 2006, which were all matches they lost, the Briscoe Brothers entered PWU's Pitbulls/Public Enemy Tag Team Tournament on October 20. They advanced past the first round match, winning over the Krash Krew, but in the course of this match, Mark was injured when Jay inadvertently struck him in the mouth with the backswing of a chairshot. Mark was taken to the hospital after the match and subsequently lost a number of teeth and sustained damage to his gums as well. In their second-round match of the tournament, against Homicide & Ricky Reyes, Mark was replaced by Joker, who subsequently turned on Jay to cost them the match. They made one further appearance, at an event cross-promoted by PWU and Juggalo Championshit Wrestling. This was a four-way singles match involving Jay & Mark and the members of the S.A.T. to determine the number-one contender to the PWU World Heavyweight Championship, won by Jose Maximo.

Return to Ring of Honor

The Briscoe Brothers returned at the Fourth Anniversary Show, forcibly including themselves in a match that was at first between the teams of Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro and Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze. They won in their re-debut. They then feuded for the tag team championship again, but much as they had against Styles & Red three years earlier, they lost in three shots against the champions at the time, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, at Ring of Homicide, Destiny, and Unified. As before, the storyline was that this cost them any chance at the belts for as long as those champs held them. It was around this time that the Brothers became enforcers for Jim Cornette's heel character as ROH Commissioner, fighting battles against his enemies, most notably Homicide and his partner Samoa Joe at Glory By Honor V: Night Two and in anything goes, falls count anywhere, elimination match at Dethroned. During this time, they also feuded with KENTA and his partners Davey Richards and Naomichi Marufuji, facing KENTA & Richards at Time to Man Up and KENTA & Marufuji at Glory By Honor V: Night One.

At Fifth Year Festival: Chicago, the Brothers finally reached the top of the mountain again, defeating Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal to win the tag team championship. Their reign, however, proved to be exceptionally brief, as they in turn to dropped the belts to Naruki Doi and Shingo Takagi in their first defense, at Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool. After this match, the storyline was that the brothers felt they needed to "man up" due to losing the title in their first defense, just as they had the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship earlier in the year. Thus, the two faced off what was described as "one time only" at Fifth Year Festival: Finale. The match ended in a draw, with both of them unable to answer the referee's standing ten-count. At the next event, All-Star Extravaganza III, they won the title back from Doi & Shingo, but in the course of the match Mark was seriously injured attempting a Shooting Star Press to the floor. Mark was kept in the ICU of hospital for two nights, and suffered a seizure there before eventually being released. Two weeks later, at Fighting Spirit, Mark made an unadvertised and unannounced return, entering through the crowd to come to his brother's side during his match with Erick Stevens against Kevin Steen and El Generico. The storyline was that with Mark out and injured, Jay was tagging with Stevens as a replacement. The No Remorse Corps then ran in and attacked Stevens, and Jay was momentarily left without a partner until Mark entered. Mark eventually suffered the fall in the match after several bumps to the head.

They then began to feud with Steen & Generico. After successfully retaining the tag title over Claudio Castagnoli and Matt Sydal at ROH's first pay-per-view Respect is Earned, Steen & Generico showed up and immediately demanded their title shot; the scene followed with a wild brawl all over the building. The feud was followed on both ROH's standard canon, with Steen defeating Mark at A Fight at the Roxbury, and the PPV series, with the Brothers successfully retaining the tag team title against Steen & Generico at Driven, after which Steen repeatedly attacked both brothers with a ladder. The Briscoes then retained over Steen & Generico in a steel cage match at Caged Rage and in ROH's first-ever ladder match at Man Up.

After the ladder match, Jimmy Jacobs and the other members of The Age of the Fall attacked the Brothers and hanged Jay upside-down from the apparatus which held up the belts. It was announced that this would not be included in the footage shown on PPV, although it was soon after shown on ROH's video wire and was included with the DVD of the event. After Mark was again injured in a motorcycle accident, though considerably less serious, Jay was alone in a match held at the taping for ROH's fourth PPV, Undeniable. This was an anything goes match against Necro Butcher of the Age of the Fall, which he did not win. On November 30, the Briscoes had a match which was taped to be included in Undeniable, a tag team title defense against Davey Richards and Rocky Romero, which they won. At Final Battle 2007, the Briscoes lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black of The Age of the Fall, but won it back on April 12 2008, defeating Richards and Romero, who had since won the championship from Jacobs and Black. On April 20, ROH's official website reported that Mark had sustained a wrist injury due to Jacobs stabbing him with his trademark rail spike and stood to miss up to six months. The next day, the company announced that Jay and a partner of his choosing would continue to be recognized as the tag team champions. This partner was later revealed to be Austin Aries. After their successful defense against Jacobs & Black on May 10, the championship was declared vacant.

Full Impact Pro

The Briscoe Brothers began regularly working for ROH's sister promotion, Full Impact Pro (FIP), in September 2006, after two appearances in May. They won the FIP Tag Team Championship from The Heartbreak Express in their fourth event with the promotion, Southern Justice, after previously winning a number one contenders match over Davey Richards and Colt Cabana. On November 11, at Evening the Odds, the Briscoes were aligned with newly crowned FIP Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong as members of his team for a five-on-five elimination match, where the three of them were the only survivors. After Necro Butcher beat Mark and Mad Man Pondo fought Jay to a no contest on February 2 at Dangerous Intentions '07, the two of them, known as a team as The Deathmatch Kings, fell in a tag title match the next night at In Full Force '07. Both brothers competed in the FIP Florida Heritage Title Tournament held at the next event, the Eddie Graham Memorial Battle of the Belts, but Mark fell to Delirious in the first round and Jay to Roderick Strong in the semifinals. Their feud with the Deathmatch Kings continued at International Impact weekend, April 20 and April 21, culminating in the Brothers retaining the tag team title in a bar room brawl on night two. The Briscoes further went on in 2007 to retain the title in matches over the likes of Tyler Black & Marek Brave, Black & Trik Davis, and Irish Airborne. On November 9, at Unstoppable 2007, their year-long title reign ended, when they dropped the belts to Kenny King and Jason Blade.

Pro Wrestling NOAH

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 & Taiji Ishimori, the second a victory alongside Nigel McGuinness over Takuma Sano, Takashi Sugiura, & Tsutomu Hirayanagi, and the third a loss with McGuinness to Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH's owner), Yoshinari Ogawa, & Ricky Marvin.