The 5 Jay Briscoe Matches Every Wrestling Fan Needs To Watch
With the untimely passing of Ring of Honor legend Jay Briscoe, many fans will be looking to dig into his catalog of matches, celebrating his life by watching his greatest performances. While there are countless worthy options to choose from, we've selected five matches that helped define Briscoe's career and legacy, showcasing his storytelling prowess, his athletic in-ring abilities, and his unstoppable determination. Each is worth seeking out for any wrestling fan looking to experience Briscoe's career, whether as a longtime fan or for the very first time, and each took place in the promotion he called home from 2002 to 2023, Ring of Honor.
While Jay was primarily known as a tag team specialist, almost always alongside his brother Mark, there are plenty of singles matches featuring Jay that are well worth watching, including several that saw him on the opposite side of the ring from his brother. Other opponents Jay shared the ring with include Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, The Hardy Boys, Claudio Castagnoli, GUNTHER, and many more. While we've narrowed down our list to five entries, it's worth seeking out as many Jay Briscoe matches as you can find, as he showcased his unique style in both singles and tag action throughout his 20+ year career, and not just in ROH — Jay also had acclaimed runs in such notable promotions as Combat Zone Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe, ROH The Fifth Year Festival: Finale
While Jay and Mark Briscoe spent most of their time together on the same side of the ring, the two brothers also shared a storied rivalry that dated back to the very beginning of Ring of Honor. Out of all their matches against one another, the one that stands out the most has to be their battle at the finale of Ring of Honor's Fifth Year Festival in Liverpool, England.
More complex than a mere grudge match, the story behind the bout was actually about the two brothers wanting to make each other tougher following the loss of their ROH World Tag Team Championship the night before. The match starts off with measured technical exchanges between the brothers, but as time goes on, things inevitably get more personal. After the two men showcase plenty of hard-hitting intensity, trading the advantage back and forth, the finish finally comes with both brothers knocking each other out, and both staying down for the 10-count. It's one of the most satisfying double knock-outs in pro wrestling history, and worth watching for any wrestling fan.
Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, ROH Good Times, Great Memories
Less than two months after the Briscoes faced one another in Liverpool, they had already won back the ROH World Tag Team Championship (already their fourth reign with those belts) and were set to face off against Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, the famed Motor City Machine Guns, with the titles on the line in Chicago. The match starts off slow, but starts to gain momentum as the Guns begin playing up their heelish tendencies.
Over the course of 35 minutes, the Briscoes, Sabin, and Shelley all display an abundance of psychology and wrestling logic, while simultaneously working in plenty of high-flying, eye-catching moves to wow the crowd. Moments such as Mark performing a Shooting Star Press — a move that left him injured about a month prior — inject some much-appreciated storytelling connectivity into the bout, as well. After carefully building the crowd's energy to a fever pitch, the Briscoes are able to put away Shelley with some combination offense to secure the victory in one of 2007's better tag team matches.
Ladder War: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. El Generico and Kevin Steen, ROH Man Up 2007
As evidenced by this list, 2007 was a banner year for the Briscoes, and in September, the duo delivered one of the greatest performances of their careers. It was Ring of Honor's very first ladder match — known in the promotion as a Ladder War — and it featured two future industry stars in Kevin Steen and El Generico, who would later be known in WWE as Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
Streamers are still pouring into the ring and the surrounding area as the title match kicks off, with the two teams starting hot and violently brawling on the outside for the first few minutes of the fight. It doesn't take long for weapons to get involved, with brutal chair shots delivered to both sides, and from there, things only continue gaining intensity. Memorable spots throughout the contest include the Briscoes tossing Generico through a ladder in the corner, Steen pushing over a taller ladder which sends Jay toppling over into the previously broken one, and Steen putting Mark Briscoe through a bridged ladder with a brutal package piledriver.
Finally, after over 25 minutes of pure violence, including a Jay Driller delivered to Steen through another bridged ladder, Jay would — eventually — pull down the championship belts for the win. To cap things off, the match's aftermath also features one of Jay's most gruesomely iconic moments, as Jimmy Jacobs, leader of the debuting Age of the Fall stable, hangs the heavily bleeding Jay upside down from the arena ceiling by his feet and literally bathes in his blood.
Ladder War: Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole, ROH Supercard of Honor VIII
In addition to his tag title success with his brother, Jay is also one of the few men with the distinction of being a two-time Ring Of Honor World Champion, and one of the most memorable singles bout from the elder Briscoe came in the main event of Supercard of Honor in 2014, when he faced off against another of those men, Adam Cole, in a championship match. The story had begun the previous year, when Jay was stripped of the title due to injury — Cole won a tournament to become the new champion and hit Jay with a superkick upon being awarded the belt. Upon returning from injury, Jay began carrying around his own championship belt, and the lengthy feud between himself and Cole kicked off in full force.
The culmination of their rivalry came in the form of another Ladder War, and once again, brutality was the name of the game, as the two men battled one another with the company's top prize on the line for nearly 30 minutes. At various points in the bout, other wrestlers such as Mark Briscoe, Mike Bennett, and Matt Hardy would get involved, and while some might find the match overbooked due to the combination of violence and interference, it's exactly that level of chaos that helps set this Ladder War apart in Jay Briscoe's career.
Double Dog Collar Match: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. FTR, ROH Final Battle 2022
Of the three epic bouts between the Briscoes and FTR that took place in 2022, it's difficult to choose one above the rest. Any one of the three could easily fit on this list, but the final match of the trilogy stands just a hair above the others, for a few reasons. Both teams clearly put an extreme amount of thought and effort into all three bouts, but while violent gimmick matches typically eschew psychology in favor of shock value, the Double Dog Collar Match showed that it's possible to achieve both.
The stipulation, which involved tying the two teams together, results in non-stop action, and the match features numerous callbacks to both of the previous bouts from earlier in the year. It's clear from watching that all four men know they've had something special on their hands with this rivalry, and they intend to bring things to a close in the best way possible. Unlike the previous two fights, the Briscoes ultimately come out on top after a hard-fought battle, winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship for an astounding 13th time (no other tag team has enjoyed more than three reigns with those titles). In the end, all four men celebrate together in the ring as bloody messes, putting a fitting cap on what could turn out to be one of the greatest tag team feuds in wrestling history. It was the penultimate match of Jay Briscoe's decorated career, and if he had to leave this world, it's somehow fitting that he did so while holding the ROH World Tag Team titles with his brother, spearheading the rebirth of the promotion from which his loyalty never strayed.