Ring of Honor has been in the news of late, from Dalton Castle’s surprise return to the Bullet Club invasion and the returns and debuts of some big names. The RoH crescendo has been leading to ‘Final Battle’ and on 15 December in New York, scores will be settled. One of the most hotly anticipated match-ups will be between Ring of Honor MVPs the Briscoes and the team of ECW alumni, Tommy Dreamer and (despite the tease, an ‘unretiring’) Bully Ray. If you’ve seen the Briscoes live, you’ll know they leave it all in the ring. With a match this extreme, their forthcoming ‘Final Battle’ could be their last! Let’s hope not and in the meantime, read about their exploits whilst you can!
As Ring of Honor originals how would you characterise the position of the company today?
M: We’re at where we’re at but it’s still a grind, it never stops. It’s always just a head down, moving forward process. Its hard to sit back and reflect because we’re still grinding, still going for it and trying to get it.
J: We’ve been in England, done internet and regular Pay-Per-Views. The growth speaks for itself but as far as the mindset of the performers? Its constant grind.
M: Back in 2002, Ring of Honor was known for bringing in the best indy guys from all over the country and have them converging on the same show. Now, in 2017, we’re arguably the number two promotion in the United States of America. That tells you right there, how far we’ve come. But its like Jay said we’re not complacent, not satisfied, still trying to push and make this better every show, every night.
You take no prisoners in the ring. Do you worry about injury or is that part of the excitement of Ring of Honor?
J: That is definitely an advantage we have with our schedule. We’re not wrestling all the time. We wrestled five nights in a week on the UK tour but it’s not every single week like the WWE guys, so we can go out and do a little bit more crazy stuff when we’re out there. Then we’ve got a little bit of time to heal back up and go out there and do it again. The injuries, they’re definitely starting to… well, we’re not getting any younger.
M: Speaking of that match we had in the UK with the Young Bucks, I think one of them put it best when they said with the schedule, we can go out there and have Wrestlemania every night. As opposed to WWE guys who have house show, house show, house show. They are obviously going to work a different style because of how often they work, every single week. We can work a different style, a more exciting, hard hitting style. 17 years into the business, I think I speak for Jay and myself and the whole roster pretty much, the body now is pretty much now just one big callous! So pain management, you just kind of get used to it in a way.
You mention WWE, are you more ‘cosmetically pleasing’ now then you were when they last made an assessment?
M: I ain’t never been so handsome in my whole life.
J: I think I might be getting worse, in terms of how ugliness goes
M: Speak for yourself, I’m waiting for a call from GQ magazine, baby!
Well, perhaps you can update us, we read you’d signed a two-year deal with Ring of Honor around two years ago. What’s the latest?
M: We’ve re-signed. Fans can rest assured, yes sir.
Is there any sibling rivalry between you still?
J: Always, there’ll always be until they put one of us in the ground and then I’ll be mad because, damn, he beat me. He beat me to heaven.
Might we see either of you in the Bullet Club?
Both: No! No, Sir. No!
M: We’re not big on the Bullet Club. I feel if we’re Batman they’re The Joker or the other way round. I feel like we’re always going to be butting heads.
Between you, you have seven children and a farm. How do you manage everything?!?
J: You see the grey hair in this beard?! Well, the alarm clock goes off about 4 O’clock and then that’s when it starts and its pretty much every day. You gotta do what you gotta do!
Finally, we haven’t been able to track down the history of the Briscoe brothers name. How did you get it?
J: Well we trained at a place called Wrestletech, Jim Kettner ran it. It was affiliated with ECWA up in Wilmington, Delaware 18 years ago. He just said that we really reminded him of Jack and Jerry back in the day. So we were originally called – this was the year 2000 – we were called the Briscoe Brothers 2000. We ended up dropping the 2000. We ended up reminding our trainer so much of them two that that is how we got the name. But we have an ‘E’ on the end of ours, so I like to say we’re not family, we’re not blood but its definitely out of respect to them.
M: Total respect, 100%.
Well respect goes both ways and there are few fans that don’t respect the energy, excitement and talent of the Briscoe Brothers. You can continue to track their progress through the Ring of Honor ranks through iPPV or live in person when RoH comes to your town.
