Backstage Reaction To Mark Briscoe's 'AEW Dynamite' Match

It will be a bittersweet TBS debut for Mark Briscoe this Wednesday. Long banned from the network by Warner Bros Discovery executives that were wary of endorsing Mark and his brother Jay due to Jay's history with homophobic comments, Mark will finally make his "AEW Dynamite" debut on Wednesday against his brother Jay's longtime rival Jay Lethal in a match paying tribute to his recently deceased brother.

According to Fightful Select, those spoken to about Mark's debut were "overjoyed" that the ROH World Tag Team Champion would finally be allowed on their programming. The report goes on to state that some talent believed that WBD executives seemed to be warier of having Jay Briscoe on the program, as opposed to Mark Briscoe, likely due to Jay being the one to actually say the homophobic comments that have followed the brothers for most of the past decade, but further inquiries revealed that was not the case.

The tribute match will be taking place on what would've been Jay Briscoe's 39th birthday. Tony Khan recently explained that he still received pushback from WBD executives about the match, but "fought hard" for the tag champion's debut, telling the "Battleground" podcast that the two wrestlers will be "able to honor the legacy of somebody that everybody in pro wrestling has so much respect for."

Briscoe passed away on January 19, the result of a car accident in his home state of Delaware. Briscoe was driving with his two daughters, who survived the crash but are still on a long road to recovery.