OPINION: Warner Media Should Have Never Barred The Briscoes From Their Programming

Yesterday, Tony Khan announced on Twitter that Mark Briscoe will be making his AEW debut tonight. He’ll be taking on Jay Lethal in a match to honour their late brother/friend, Jay Briscoe. Dave Meltzer’s been reporting for months now that Warner Media wouldn’t allow the Briscoe Brothers on TBS and TNT due to a homophobic tweet made by Jay Briscoe years ago.

Last week, Jay Briscoe passed away. It shook the wrestling world and took away a father from a family. It was a terrible accident and everyone terribly misses Jay. Jay and Mark wrestled as The Briscoe Brothers for Ring of Honor, the company that’s now owned by Tony Khan. When ROH was acquired by AEW, many of the brand’s wrestlers appeared on the show in an effort to build familiarity with the national audience.

Two names missing from Dynamite and Rampage? The Briscoes. Because of a Tweet made years ago, Warner Media reportedly didn’t want to use the brothers. Which I think is insane, considering AEW regularly promotes Sammy Guevara on TBS and TNT TV. Sammy Guevara said something dumb too. He apologized for it and nobody talks about it. Jay Briscoe apologized and acknowledged how irresponsible and misguided his comments were. Yet Warner Media still had umbrage with them.

Last week following AEW Dynamite, a tribute was taped for Jay Briscoe to air on YouTube and Honor Club. There was no tribute show on Dynamite, like many like myself was hoping for. Why not?

According to Dave Meltzer, Warner Media didn’t want to air a tribute to Jay Briscoe on their programming. Fans were outraged. They called out the hypocrisy of using a wrestler like Guevara week in and week out, yet they wouldn’t allow a tribute show to a wrestling legend.

They changed course. According to Dave Meltzer in a report on Monday, Warner Media still wouldn’t allow AEW to use Jay’s brother, Mark Briscoe. Then Tony Khan Tweeted that Mark would be wrestling Jay Lethal. People are calling out Dave Meltzer for being wrong and I honestly don’t know. I do know that they could have easily aired a Jay Briscoe show on Dynamite or Rampage last week but didn’t.

Do you think that public outrage made Warner Media change course on this? Hit me up on Twitter for more.

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