Mark Briscoe wrestled for the first time in AEW on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite when he beat Jay Lethal in a Jay Briscoe tribute match.
As previously noted, AEW President Tony Khan made several attempts to get The Briscoes on AEW Dynamite in the past. However, Warner Bros. Discovery wouldn’t allow it because of Jay’s homophobic tweets from over a decade ago. Despite apologizing for the tweets over the years, a ban was in place to not have him featured on TNT or TBS.
After Jay’s passing last week in a car accident, AEW wasn’t allowed to do a full tribute show on Dynamite and WarnerBros Discovery would still not allow Mark Briscoe on AEW television.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted Khan pushed hard to change the minds of WBD. There had been pushed back from fans for WBD’s stance on The Briscoes when they continued with plans to air Dana White’s slap fighting show just weeks after a video leaked of him slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party.
“The whole thing is you have to credit that one to Tony Khan. He pushed and pushed. I mean, he pushed really hard on this one and got them to change their minds. They were pretty dead set against it…it was certainly a lot of people who had been saying, ‘How do you ban the Jay tribute show when you’re showing Dana White on slap fighting,’” Meltzer stated.
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