On the 17th of January 2023, Jay Briscoe (real name: Jamin Pugh) tragically died in a car accident, his legacy in wrestling is undeniable as fans, wrestlers and promoters across the world of wrestling sent their tributes and experiences of working with Jay, almost universally positive, and will be remembered in history as one of the greatest wrestlers to never wrestle for WWE or AEW. Today I will be reviewing what some fans call, the most excellent trilogy of tag matches in history between The Briscoes, Jay and Mark, facing off against Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood of FTR, all taking place in 2022. Now, instead of doing a move-by-move review of this match, I’ll talk about some of the Key moments, the overall quality of the wrestling and my overall opinion. FTR vs Briscoes.
FTR vs Briscoes 1, Supercard Showdown: This Match was excellent, They say a great match is where you make a crowd that doesn’t care, care about the match by the end, the same goes for when you make a match, that fans care about, turning it into a match that fans do care about, into a match they care about. A true old-school tag match that I love, Excellent grappling early on, The Hot tag from both teams building up steam, a Briscoe froggy elbow, Jay bleeding after a slingshot into the table, and The Briscoes doing FTR’s Big Rig finisher for a near fall, The Fans cheering louder and louder as the match went on, Briscoes nearly won, but FTR threw out Jay and picked up the win with Big Rig finisher to become the NEW ROH Tag Team champions.
The Wrestling was fantastic, through and through, this is the kind of match you play to people that should be played if you want them to become wrestling fans.
FTR vs Briscoes 2, Dishonor before Valor: This was a fantastic match The first fall went to The Briscoes who after a long-fought traditional Tag, Mark pinned Dax after a doomsday device, the second fall started with Dax being worked over by Jay, Mark furiously chopping Dax outside, Jay starts furiously chopping his chest before tagging in Mark Dax starts firing up hitting two German suplex’s followed by a super back suplex, attempts a tag but Mark pulls Cash off the apron. Jay tags in Mark then hit Dax with a Redneck Boogie for a very near fall. Dax finally gets a Hot tag to Cash by ducking a clothesline and falling backwards into a tag for a very cool spot.
Cash runs wild, clotheslines, belly-to-belly suplexes, running elbow into Mark in the corner. Then hits a brainbuster for a near fall. Cash hits Mark with a Gory special after countering a redneck boogie for another 2 counts. Jay and Dax start brawling in the crowd. Cash hits a cross body to Mark after they brawled outside for a 2, only for Jay to hit him with the ring bell. Mark attempts the pin but Cash kicks out. Cash is bleeding. Spicoli driver followed by the froggy elbow, but Dax pulled Mark out of the ring. Dax flapjacks Mark into the ring steps. Dax blind tags in, and then FTR hit the big rig to pin Jay for the second fall.
Mark is bleeding now, Dax and Mark brawl on the apron with Mark getting the upper hand and then diving outside. Jay Tags attempts a Jay Driller on Dax but Dax counters into his piledriver. Jay kicks out. The Briscoes attempt another doomsday device, but Cash throws mark off the top, FTR try ganging up on Jay, and Dax “accidentally” hits Paul Turner the referee, it was mistimed, so Dax looked like he aimed to direct at him. Jay finally hits Dax with the Jay driller, but there’s no referee now. Jay keeps working over a Dax, another doomsday device is attempted but is thwarted by Cash, Jay attempts a cross body but gets hit by the Big rig, and the ref is thrown in after 5 seconds for a near-fall. Dax is finally hit by the doomsday device, but Cash runs in, stopping the count. Cash and Mark exchange blow. Both messed up a spot but ended up outside. Jay hits Dax with a big boot, who retorts with a Lariat. Exchange of pins.
Mark goes up top, but Cash back-suplexes him into a table, now just Jay and Dax remain. Jay hits a Jay driller for a very near-fall. Fans are on their feet. Dax hits Jay with a Piledriver from the top rope to finally pin Jay and remain the Tag team champions.
FTR vs Briscoes 3, The Final Battle: This is an old-school brutal match, getting plenty of colours early, Both these teams decided to brutalise each other, utilising the chains to their fullest ability. Anything they do normally, they do with a chain. Froggy Elbow from Mark… With a chain. Diving headbutt from Dax… with a chain. FTR doing the Briscoes double finisher… you get the idea. The Ref also got busted open after Jay threw him into Dax’s punch (with a chain.) Mark sets up a stack of chairs outside the ring, which later bites him back, as Cash pulls him from the top turnbuckle on the stack of chairs outside.
Jay later starts beating Dax with a chair, until Dax cuts him off as he counters the Jay driller with his piledriver onto a chair. Finally, Cash throws some of the chairs into the ring to form a pile, Dax attempts a superplex but Jay counters with a low blow with the chain and superplex onto the pile of chairs. This doesn’t score the pin, Jay then chokes Dax with the chain, as Cash Desperately tries to drag himself into the ring, but it’s useless, as Dax passes out from this allowing The Brisoes to win and giving them their 13th ROH world tag title reign.
This series of tag matches tells me several things. The Briscoes and FTR deserve to talk about when discussing the all-time tag teams, they continuously put on their A-game with every team, in every match, no matter what.
FTR are in my opinion, the most versatile tag team ever, literally every team they wrestle, they pull out a match with them. This series is the greatest series of matches between tag teams EVER, I can’t think of another two teams who had three all-time great matches in a single calendar year. (The nearest comparison would be New Day and The Uso’s from 2017 and they aren’t even close).
Ranking: I don’t think it’s fair to compare them, each match is amazing in its own way, but I think it’s fair to say that my preference is Match Two is the third best, to me. Followed by match One, and then match Three takes the cake as the perfect culmination to the epic feud of the year these two teams had.
Rest in Peace Jay.