As always, Mark Briscoe to honor brother Jay when he wrestles for Ring of Honor title

Whenever a wrestler main events a huge event, it’s a special night.

Whenever a wrestler competes for the biggest prize in the sport, it’s a special night.

And when Mark Briscoe takes on Eddie Kingston for the Ring of Honor Heavyweight championship in Philadelphia — a two-hour ride from his home in Laurel, Delaware — it will be a special night.

It’s special because Briscoe has been one of the faces of Ring of Honor since the night the promotion debuted Feb. 23, 2002, even though he couldn’t compete at the event.

Due to his age, Briscoe was too young to wrestle in Philadelphia, but he was old enough to serve as a manager of sorts. He was in his brother Jay’s corner that night.

Over the next 20 years, the Briscoe Brothers would become the faces of ROH.

They were the best tag team to ever compete in the promotion and while their bread and butter were as a team, they did some great things on their own.

One of those great things was when Jay Briscoe defeated Kevin Steen for the ROH championship at Supercard of Honor VII on April 5, 2013.

That would always be a huge date for Mark. He and his brothers are 11 months apart and have been best friends for as long as he can remember.

Sadly, Jamin Pugh, better known as Jay Briscoe, passed away after suffering injuries in a car accident in Laurel early last year.

Now, 11 years to the date that his brother won the ROH championship, younger brother has a chance to follow in his best friend and big brother’s footsteps.

He couldn’t be more excited.

And if he can’t have the perfect match — that will always be a tag team match with his brother — this is a great way to honor Jay.

Losing Jay Briscoe, his best friend and partner

“It’s fun, but it’s the most bittersweet of the whole situation, because they’re seeing me in singles action and six man tag or eight man tag teams, it ain’t nothing like the Briscoe Brothers,” Mark said. “No matter how good of a match I can have it doesn’t compare to Mark and Jay, the Briscoe Brothers. It’s like saying one plus one equals two, Mark plus Jay doesn’t equal two, it equals a million. It was and is something that can’t be touched, can’t be duplicated, but I’m thankful and grateful to be able to perform in front of a larger audience.

“I wish we could have done it together. The world wasn’t ready for that, it might have imploded. Things happen for a reason. But I urge anyone who has enjoyed my work and who has been getting the first taste of the Briscoes through me in AEW, go back and watch some of the old tag matches.

“Honor Club is an amazing resource. The weekly show, new content every week, the library on Honor Club, you can see a lot of shows, dozens upon dozens of old Ring of Honor. Watch old Briscoe promos. That was the best time in my life.”

In Philly, Mark will enter the ring alone, but his brother is always in his corner.

And he will have plenty of other supporters, including his wife and seven children (No. 8 is on the way) in the stands too when Ring of Honor brings its pay per view event to the Liacouras Center at Temple University.

If it’s anything like Ring of Honor pay per views since AEW owner Tony Khan purchased the promotion, those supporters will have plenty to cheer about.

Same great wrestling, new Ring of Honor

Since Khan purchased the promotion a little over two years ago, ROH has produced great show after great show. One of the main reasons for that was a three-match series pitting the Briscoe Brothers against FTR, arguably the best tag team from AEW.

The series gave old Ring of Honor fans a chance to see Dem Boys do what they do best. And it gave new fans to the promotion a perfect example of what the Briscoe Brothers can do.

“It was like I’ve been saying since all this stuff has happened and is happening, God is the booker,” Briscoe said. “That’s how Jay Briscoe got to go out in one of the most amazing trilogy, and that’s not me saying it, others have said it. And then the dog collar match, we’ve been wrestling almost 24 years, we did it a long time, that was right up our alley, not too fancy, plenty violent and Jay Briscoe is one of the best bleeders in the business. What a swan song that was for the Briscoe Brothers as a team and him as a performer.”

Briscoe says Khan purchasing ROH was the best thing that could have happened.

It has expanded the roster and features some of the best wrestlers around.

His opponent April 5 is one of them.

Kingston-Briscoe set for classic

Like the Briscoes, Kingston got to Ring of Honor by working hard on the independents.

“Oh my lord, he’s great, that’s my favorite thing about this whole thing, that’s my opponent, Eddie Kingston,” Briscoe said. “We’re cut from same cloth. There are guys who go out and moving fast and doing fancy flips and stuff. People enjoy that. You won’t see that between me and Eddie Kingston, it’s going to be a dog fight, a knock down drag out fight, anyone who buys a ticket or spends money to watch it on Honor Club, you’ll get your money’s worth.”

While the Briscoes eventually climbed their way up through the ranks, their journey started in Delaware.

That’s where the brothers learned how to be teammates and best friends long before they stepped foot in the ring. Sure, they may have already been wrestling, as brothers often do, but it was just Dem Boys being Dem Boys.

“He was awesome,” Mark Briscoe said of his brother. “He wasn’t quite a year older, one week shy of a year, so one week every year we’d be the same age. We spent every minute together up until it was time for him to go to kindergarten. I’m one grade behind. But we did everything together. We moved out of mom and dad’s house, we lived together for a handful of years. We got married and lived three minutes down the road. We saw each other every day, or damn near whether wrestling or working. He had a landscaping business, I was employee of the month every month.”

Representing the First State

And while Delaware might not be the wrestling capital of the country, the Briscoes put it on the map. They represented their hometown very well.

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“Delaware, it’s important, always want to represent where you’re from and make your town and people proud,” Briscoe said. “Me and Jay were born in Salisbury, that’s the closest hospital, but we always lived in Laurel, Delaware. Sussex County, it’s the country. A big difference from Wilmington, but that’s where we started our careers.

“We trained in Wilmington, had our first handful of matches. It’s the outskirts of Philly, same big metropolitan area. Always kind of cool, full circle. We started it in Wilmington, it might as well be Philly. That was even before Ring of Honor, East Coast Wrestling Association, the promotion that does the Super 8 every year. Delaware is big for us.”

Briscoe put in all the work. On April 5, he has a chance to cash in on all that hard work in one of the biggest matches of his career.

His brother might not be tag teaming with him, but it’s safe to say he’ll be there in spirit.

“He would love it, but at the same time, he’s always such a perfectionist, he would critique and nitpick and pinpoint things that he would have done differently or could have done differently,” Briscoe said of his brother. “If I’m coming back from a match or whatever, like in the Continental Classic, I didn’t have a great record, but had great matches. I know if I came back, he’d have grinned ear to ear, critiquing me. I keep that in the back of my mind, not to ever settle.

“I know he’d be proud, but he’d also at the same time, he’d be coaching me. He’d be putting suggestions ‘do it like this rather than that.’” He looked out for me.”

Ready to perform for fans, friends, family

No matter how the match turns out, just as he always does, Brisoe will do himself, his fans and his brother proud.

He has the chance to win the world championship in his promotion on a very special date.

“I can’t put it into words,” Briscoe said. “I’m not a real emotional or sentimental dude, but it would mean a great deal to me. I mean especially just being the same day that Jay won the title 11 years ago. That makes it crazy. How? What are the odds that it will fall on the same day? I’m getting a title shot the same day.

"I think something like that is comforting for my mom. That would make her, give her some peace. Just the date of the match alone is as important as the title shot itself. But it would mean everything.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Mark Briscoe set for battle with Eddie Kingston at Supercard of Honor