AEW star Mark Briscoe was awarded the PWI 2023 Most Inspirational Wrestler Award, a day after the one anniversary of his brother and tag team partner Jay Briscoe’s death. In his acceptance speech, Mark dedicated his award, his life, and his career to Jay.
“Well as you can see, you’re looking at the 2023 inspirational wrestler of the year,” said Briscoe. “Now I’ve all my entire life been known as a very inspirational man, but this year has been very special. Started out, not so good. you know, my brother he moved up, he moved on up to the next -– to the next league. He is up there at the squared circle in the sky. This is dedicated to him. My career, my life, is dedicated to Jay Briscoe to Jimi Hendrix of this pro wrestling thing. I want to thank everybody who is inspirational the rest of the year. Y’all inspire me. Thank y’all. Love y’all. God bless y’all. Dem boys, forever baby.”
On this past week’s “AEW Dynamite,” a tribute was held for Jay, during which Mark spoke about the car accident that killed his brother and how his two nieces were in the car at the time of the accident. Both of his nieces came out on stage to be alongside him.
At last month’s Ring of Honor Final Battle pay-per-view, there was a tribute match held for Jay where Mark Briscoe tagged alongside FTR — the same team the Briscoes faced at Final Battle 2022 — and defeated Blackpool Combat Club’s Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli.
Check out the tribute below.