Mark Briscoe is dealing with real life issues that are more important than wrestling. In no way am I trying to be disrespectful to him and his wrestling ability.
With the tragic passing of his brother Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe is on the verge of fading into irrelevancy and unemployment. The Briscoe Brothers were one of the best tag teams in pro wrestling. And the only reason they aren’t a household name is because they had the misfortune to be employed by Ring of Honor.
For those of you that don’t know, mainly because ROH isn’t on any tv channel and the company is terrible at trying to grow the company, The Briscoe Brothers have held the ROH Tag Team Championship for 12 times. Jay has held the ROH World Championship 2 times in his career while Mark has held 0 individual titles.
Jay had IT, Mark does not. Jay can be the top of a company, he could deliver promo, he looked the part, could sell a move, great finisher, there was nothing Jay couldn’t do in the world of wrestling. Mark is good, but not great. Teaming with Jay took a lot of pressure off Mark, which is why they were such a successful tag team.
Mark acts like a wild animal in the ring. He doesn’t wrestle, he fights. Which obviously is his character, but it doesn’t look good in long matches or against top talent. Jay has been at the top of the company. Put on great matches against Adam Cole, Samoa Joe, Jay White, Bandido and a ton of other opponents I watched in preparation for this article.
What happens to Mark now? Where does he fit in on AEW? As I said before, a successful singles career is not in his future. Are you going to team him up with someone? Who? Now the WWE has given us some interesting tag pairings that looked strange at first, but were successful. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, Team Hell No, Ricochet and Aleister Black, The Bar were all fun to watch.
Who does Mark team with? I’ve looked through the AEW roster, I don’t see any pairings that work. The only thing that would work is some big faction, maybe Lance Archer, Mike Bennett, but the more I write this the more ridiculous it sounds.
Mark was his own unique character. Teaming with Jay fit the theme they were trying to portray. There is nobody in wrestling that I think fits with Mark. And now that Jays gone, Mark is lost in the shuffle. Looking at the current AEW roster I found 60 wrestlers more equipped the be the head of the company in some capacity over Mark and none of them seem to mesh with Mark in a tag or faction capacity.
Tony Khan is doing a terrible job at managing his 5 shows. Dynamite, Rampage, Dark, Elevation and ROH are all clumped into one roster and you might go weeks before a feud or one of your favorite wrestler is on tv. For Mark to survive in the company, he needs to be placed at the top of a show and be on a roster of wrestlers that aren’t head and shoulders above him.
Where do you think Mark Briscoe is going in AEW and how would you book him going forward?
Simptastic Joe
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