We open this week with a video package featuring the Briscoe Brothers as the Best in the World hype is hot and heavy. That is followed by our opening animation and a fade to some footage of a farm in Sandy Fork, DE. And it looks like we are going to be treated to look at the Briscoes at home. The focus is on their chicken farming lifestyle. Jay calling the chickens “bitches” already makes this night a win. They talk about all the chickens that die and how they dispose of them. Mark has a chicken friend named Harley. Papa Briscoe is pissed off that he has to stay home with the chickens while they go wrestle. This is amazing and almost as good as the chicken bitch is Jay’s Michael Huff Raiders jersey. Papa isn’t pleased with the camera crew on location here either. They try to head out in their truck but the battery is dead, so they take the family RV instead, as allowed by their mom. They head over the Chesapeake Bay bridge as Jay tells us that Mark believes he can jump off the bridge and “be alright”. Mark clarifies and says it depends on the definition of “be alright” as he is confident he wouldn’t die. He then describes the physics behind how he would go about it and stay alive. That takes us to break.
When we return, we learn the difference between southern and northern Delaware and also get an explanation how Sandy Fork is the name of the farm they live on. Papa talks about his boys and how they were crazy as kids. Mark talks about how they were always playing sports and not inside watching TV. He wasn’t a great scorer in basketball but eventually learned how to be a role player, focusing on rebounds and assists. He knows he isn’t very responsible but he takes care of his dogs without issue. Papa had fallen out of being a wrestling fan until his sons got into it and they would all watch on Saturday mornings, specifically WWF and Hulk Hogan. Jay says he fell out of WWF as ECW came around. He remembers going to a live show and getting John Kronus’s blood on him, which clinched his future lifestyle choice. They would practice in the backyard, using a trampoline that they eventually converted into a ring. Papa says they wrestled hardcore style, using tables, barbed wire and fire. Mark walks through all the high spots he would dive of off. By age 16, they signed waivers and went to train in Wilmington. Papa knew they would be wrestlers eventually. Jay and Mark first faced off in Boston for Ring of Honor, fresh out of high school. Mark had been forced to wait and watch Jay wrestle until he was 18. Mark always mocked Jay for losing and that was the crux of their first feud, which culminated here in Boston. We even get to see a portion of this forgotten match. ROH looked a heck of a lot different at that point. You could tell they had great chemistry right out of the gate and they really got the crowd into the match. Mark survived a DVD attempt from Jay as the announcer wonders if this could be a MOTY candidate. I am now made aware that my boy Steve Corino is on commentary here. He sounds just slightly different. Mark actually gets the win here in his debut match. Jay claims that he doesn’t remember who won the match, but Mark reaffirms what we just saw. And we head to commercial. That was a nice little throwback treat.
After a word from RI Dolls, we are back in the RV and discussing the craziest moments they have witnessed in the ring. Mark talks about losing his teeth, blaming his brother, who crunched Mark with a steel chair and knocked them out. Jay did the deed at a small Indy show at the ECW Arena. He was winding up to hit an opponent and Mark was standing behind him and caught the chair flush in the mouth. Jay talking about his reaction to Mark’s empty smile is good stuff. Mark said he wasn’t surprised it happened, as he had always looked at Mick Foley and Chris Benoit and figured it would happen someday. Talk turns to the night they won their first ROH tag team titles. Jim Cornette was their manager on that night. We get to watch a portion of the bout, as the champions Special K defend against Mark and Jay. Match was a spotfest but was pretty entertaining down the stretch, especially Mark’s shooting star press to the floor. In a great homage to the Midnight Express, the Briscoes hit the vegomatic, but can’t pick up the win with it. They follow with the Doomsday Device and a Jay Driller for the title win. Jay says they have become synonymous with the straps, having now won them eight times. Papa says they get lost in their own world and sometimes he is allowed in. Time for break.
The RV pulls up to a gas station as we rejoin the show. Jay fills the tank and Mark goes to grab some snacks for the rest of the ride. Jay and Mark discuss their wild matches with Kevin Steen and El Generico. Jay wonders how they even did some of the stuff they used to do. He would still do it if his body wasn’t so banged up. Mark believes the Ladder War was the best one, because it was the culmination of the series. And thus, we get to watch the back half of this classic. Towards the end, Steen put Mark through a ladder with the package piledriver, wiping him out. Jay gets payback for his brother with a Driller through a ladder on Generico. After a slugfest atop the ladder between Jay and Steen, Jay was able to keep Steen at bay, wriggle the belt free and win the match to retain.
Back from break, we travel to Final Battle 2011 in NYC when the Briscoes battled and defeated Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin to win the titles for the seventh time. Back to Papa, who talks about how much he loves watching his boys wrestle. We even get clips of when Papa got involved in the action, defending his boys during a brawl. Papa even ended up competing alongside his sons as well, which was a highlight he never expected. And he even got to kiss Sara Del Ray. We get to see some highlights from the Briscoe Family battling the Kings of Wrestling. Papa climbed up top and hit the doomsday device. Papa says his wife taught him how to climb the ropes prior to the show. The Briscoes would win the match. Jay talks about how blessed they are for the support their parents give Mark and himself. They still drive their mother crazy to this day. Jay also talks about how his son has changed his life and we see some footage of them screwing around in the ring. Papa and Jay’s son have a big feud going on right now, out there wrestling in the backyard ring every night. Before the kid is able to wrestle, he will pay his dues in the chicken coop. Mark tells us all to take any job involving feces because it humbles you, and humbling precedes honor. And it is time for our final break.
When we return, we visit SCOH 2013, where Jay Briscoe knocked off Kevin Steen to win the ROH World Title for the first time. And that led to Nigel McGuiness granting brother Mark a title shot with Jay after Jay promised he could whip anybody’s ass. Mark demanded that Jay show some humility and laid down the challenge. We hear from some ROH personalities as they all make their predictions for the big match. Finally, Mark and Jay get one last hard sell in. And that wraps things up for us this week. I really enjoyed this episode for a nice change of pace and it made this match seems like a really big deal. The Briscoes are compelling and entertaining to listen to, so this really worked well. Next week, we get the fallout from BITW. Until then, take care and respect the code.
