AEW May Have an Issue Signing the Briscoes Due to Past Homophobic Comments

The Briscoes may not be signed by AEW due to past homophobic comments made by Jay Briscoe in 2013 and before.

According to Fightful Select, “a person of influence” at WarnerMedia did not want the tag team signed to AEW due to Briscoe’s comments.

In 2013, Briscoe tweeted:

The Delaware Senate passed a bill yesterday that allows same sex couples to get married. If that makes you happy, then congratulations!!!!!!
… try and teach my kids that there’s nothing wrong with that and I’ll fucking shoot you.

In 2011, he tweeted, “Damn theres a lot of fags out in New York today #WhatTheFuck”

Briscoe apologized at an ROH show in 2013, saying that sometimes he takes his “redneck” character too far and he doesn’t preach hate in his house and teaches his kids to love their neighbor.

He also tweeted, “I feel very strongly about now and who should teach kids about certain things but I showed poor judgment by using that analogy and I’m sorry.” ROH also put out a statement and said that Briscoe was donating his pay from two shows to an anti-hate group.

In October, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that Briscoe’s statements were also a big reason why the team was not signed by WWE a few years ago. “I don’t think WWE would take The Briscoes,” Meltzer said. “Perhaps they would at this point. They wouldn’t years ago because Jay Briscoe once tweeted a very homophobic remark, which wouldn’t be a good thing, but I don’t know if you hold that against him for the rest of his life.”

Sources in ROH told Fightful that there had been no issues with the Briscoes since that incident nine years ago.

It’s unclear how Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor may change the situation. Khan’s ROH deal is not directly affiliated with WarnerMedia as of now.

The Briscoes are the current ROH Tag Team Champions and were announced earlier this year as the first inductees into ROH’s Hall of Fame.