Mark Briscoe recently appeared on the Talk Is Jericho podcast for an interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, talked about working in the new Ring of Honor:
“It’s been a blast. I’m seeing a lot of my old buddies that I didn’t get to see regularly for a long time and now I’m getting to see them weekly again, which is really cool. What is different is the weekly TV thing is sometimes I come in, I show up and I’m fired up, ready to have a match, ready to have a 20 minute banger and it’s like, ‘You got a pre-tape. You got a promo tonight’, and I’m like, shit. But then it’s like, ‘Oh, no, You’re still on the show.’ It’s not the same as wrestling, you know, weekend warriors on the independents where it’s all about who are you wrestling and how good is the match. This is about week to week episodic, so that’s new after 23 years of wrestling. That’s something that’s new and it’s something that I’m getting adjusted to, but I’m actually enjoying it because I’m not so sore all the time because it’s not like every single week you’re having a 20 minute match. It’s like some weeks you do and then other weeks you get to chill, eat some catering, film some promo stuff, and talk some shit and have a good time with your buddies.”
Why WWE didn’t bring them in:
“Everybody was saying everybody really liked you. I really think they’re gonna bring you guys on. I guess it was a week or two after we had got home, we were just waiting to hear back because they said we will let you know. John Laurinaitis told me, ‘Yeah, we really liked your stuff but I think we’re going to pass for right now. Let us know if you guys want another try.’ That kind of rubbed me the wrong way. But then I guess when he talked to Jay, as he called Jay either right before he called me or called Jay right after he called me, he said, ‘Man, you know what he told me? He said that we not cosmetically pleasing enough.’”
Finding out Ring of Honor shut down and then Tony Khan bought it:
“We were told that we’re going to keep having shows until Final Battle, but then after that, Ring of Honor is done. We were still getting paid until the end of our contract. We get this news that Ring of Honor is done in October, but we still have the show in December which is Final Battle and then there is no future for Ring of Honor. However, we’re still getting paid to the end of our contracts which go until April. Thank God we still have four months to figure it out. I think it was March when Tony came out and said he’s buying Ring of Honor. I just remember like, holy sh*t, like no freakin way. Then it was, I hope this isn’t where we’re not allowed to be in a Ring of Honor anymore because we’re not allowed to be in AEW because it could all be under the same umbrella, but Tony was like, I want to sign you guys to Ring of Honor contracts. That solved the financial worries, so that was great.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
