Ring of Honor’s Briscoe Brothers came onto the June 30, 2025, edition of the Battleground Podcast to discuss the upcoming NWA Crockett Cup, dream tag team opponents and, perhaps most importantly, to discuss Jay Briscoe’s inappropriate “homophobic” remarks from 2013, making formal amends for those statements and the rumors of him and brother Mark Briscoe being potentially blacklisted fromAEWby parent company WarnerMedia.
This is coming on the heels of the strong rumors that “a person of influence” within the higher-ups at WarnerMedia has made a firm request to Tony Khan that theBriscoes are not to be signed to AEWor any of its affiliates, including the ROH promotion recently purchased by Khan, due to the aforementioned remarks made by Jay nine years ago.
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When asked about what the Briscoes would say to fans who have followed them from their beginnings, as well as those who have come to recognize them in more recent years, Jay thanks those fans who know what the real Briscoes are all about, and goes on to set the record straight about the common misconception that he and Mark are homophobes. He understands that that particular label came from when he “put out a stupid tweet nine years ago,” calling it “the most dumbest, immature, obnoxious sh*t I’ve ever done.” Jay stresses that the Briscoes love every one of their fans, from all walks of life, and merely want to give them the best show they can put on. He made a point to formally apologize once more for his remarks and understands that while “there are people who look at us like, ‘we can’t cheer for them because they hate a certain group of people,'” he says that the Briscoes aren’t defined by hatred, but rather love for their fellow people, and he thought he’d been “taking a stand” for his beliefs back in the day.
Mark reinforces his brother’s thoughts on the matter, praising him for eventually coming to the realization that what he was doing at the time wasn’t “taking a stand for the Lord,” but rather, being counterproductive to their true beliefs and “to being a human being and relating with other human beings that we live with and love and coexist with.” Jay capped off his response by addressingthe WarnerMedia rumors, understanding that they are “hesitant” to bring the Briscoes into theAEWfold. The podcast host and co-host, Battle and Eli, seemed to try and alleviate Jay’s concerns with the notion that as long as the Briscoes are man enough to own up to their mistakes and still go out and do what they love, people will come to recognize them for who they are now, not who they were and the things they said in the past.
It certainly takes a lot of gumption and self-awareness for someone to recognize that not only were they in the wrong for the things they said in the past, but how it went against the very core of their character and their personal beliefs. Jay has made it very clear he regrets his past remarks not merely because they were wrong to make in the first place, but that it goes against the grain of the “love and respect for all” message he was raised to believe, and he is intent on showing that the Briscoes embody that principle by giving the fans their all each and every night.
It remains to be seen whether WarnerMedia will change their stance on the matter.Even with Brian Kendrickrecanting the antisemitic remarks he himself made years back that led to his would’ve-been AEW debut being aborted, nothing has been heard on the subject since, an unsettling precedent that doesn’t lend much hope to the Briscoes’ current predicament. However, “never say never” has been a longstanding cardinal rule in professional wrestling, so the book on the Briscoes coming toAEWhas yet to be truly closed.
