I’m so sad to hear the news about Jay Briscoe passing away. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and his brother Mark in New York City in 2019 just before their match at Madison Square Garden. I’ve watched the interview back recently and while there’s things I can critique about my own performance, I wouldn’t change anything about the way they were.
In the few moments that I spent with them, I got so much. Before the interview I told them about the nightmare I’d had with my hotel having cockroaches and they joked about going down there to sort it out for me. The stress of needing to find a new hotel half way across the world while trying to navigate a press event, all went away with these two.
They were both very funny, patient and incredibly kind. Professionally speaking it was great for Rebellious Noise too when Jay Briscoe called out The Usos during the interview. This was a huge deal and I knew instantly that it was the headline we would need and that it could do a lot for us as an outlet. I like to think that Jay knew that as well. He didn’t need to give some random guys from London that soundbite, but he did.
The interview was well received and caused a bit of buzz on the wrestling scene at the time, with The Usos responding on Twitter and this was at a time when WWE talent didn’t really acknowledge non-WWE talent publicly.
I’ve seen so many people praise Jay for being a great friend but also a great family man. The first thing he talks to me about during the interview was their crazy schedule. How they’d got to New York the day before to do press and then went back home to Delaware to “hang out with the kids” that night. Then they had left home at 5:30am to fly back to New York to be there for press duties again that morning.
The circumstances surrounding his death are a real tragedy and I pray for his loved ones. I didn’t spend long with him but I gained a lot from it and feel real pain today, so I can only imagine what it’s like for those who spent more than just a few minutes with him.
Rest in Peace Jay Briscoe.
This article has been adapted from an Instagram post by the author. If you would like to read more posts like this then you can follow him at @Scott_RebNoise.