The Other Side: There Is Another Reason The Briscoes Were Not Allowed On AEW TV

There is more to it than that. Sadly, one of the biggest wrestling stories of the year so far has been the death of Jay Briscoe last week due to a car crash. The wrestling world has poured out tribute after tribute to Briscoe, including a special match this week on Dynamite with his brother Mark defeating Jay Lethal. It was the first time a Briscoe appeared on AEW TV and now we know a bit more about why.

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The main reason the Briscoes were not allowed on AEW TV was a series of homophobic tweets that Jay sent out in 2011-2013. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, in addition to the tweets, Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) did not want the Briscoes on AEW TV due to their use of the Confederate flag earlier in their careers. AEW’s contract with WBD also possibly gave WBD to ban anyone from an AEW event, which prevented the Briscoes from appearing on AEW pay per views despite Tony Khan’s attempts to book them.

The Briscoes were very talented. Check out what could have been on AEW TV a long time ago:

Opinion: While I don’t like the decision, I can get WBD’s thinking here. At the end of the day, the Confederate flag has quite the deeper meaning than just putting it on wrestling gear. Couple that with the tweets and the Briscoes’ look and it would not be difficult for someone to put everything together and wonder why they were on WBD TV. It would not surprise me if WBD was protecting themselves by not putting the team on the air. That doesn’t make it better for fans, but it does make some more sense.