It was an interaction that neither Ian or Caprice were expecting.
It’s been well over a year since the passing of Jamin Pugh a.k.a. Jay Briscoe. There were televised tributes in honor of his memory on both AEW and Ring of Honor programming.
The tribute match on the Dynamite saw Jay Lethal go one-on-one with Mark Briscoe. Ring of Honor commentators Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman joined Excalibur at the commentary desk to call the match.
There’s an extensive interview with Riccaboni that was conducted by Jim Deegan of Lehigh Valley News. He recounted Jim Ross approaching him and Caprice and giving words of encouragement ahead of joining the commentary desk for the aforementioned tribute match.
We had a really tragic situation where Jay Briscoe passed away in January 2023. And they brought myself and Caprice Coleman in to call a match with Mark Briscoe, Jay’s brother, against Jay Lethal, one of Jay Briscoe’s most notable opponents. And Jim (Ross) pulled us aside and he said, ‘I was there the night Owen Hart passed, and the show had to go on. And the folks are dependent on you to give Jay life tonight and to remember Jay.’ And he goes, ‘That’s a heavy responsibility. But I trust you guys to be out there and clearly everybody here trusts you guys.’ And that was really inspiring. That’s what we needed to hear, but also, we never expected in a million years to hear it.
AEW President Tony Khan expressed that he wishes Jay Briscoe got the chance to wrestle for AEW. Khan added that he ‘really tried’ to make it happen.
Together, Jay and Mark Briscoe are 13-time ROH World Tag Team Champions and are part of the company’s first and only Hall of Fame class.
