If wrestling fans have had any ideas of "Dem Boys" bringing their country ways and "Redneck Kung-Fu" style to All Elite Wrestling, WarnerMedia has sadly put those hopes to rest. Due to some unfortunate remarks made by Jay Briscoe in an outburst on social media several years ago, a "person of influence" within WarnerMedia has firmly requested that AEW is not to sign the Briscoes tag team to any formal deals.
This comes as an unfortunate wrinkle in the week following Tony Khan's groundbreaking announcement that he has purchased the Ring of Honor promotion, of which the Briscoes were the final tag team champions before the promotion went on hiatus in late 2021. It has also brought the simmering feud between the Briscoes and FTR's Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler to a screeching halt, following FTR kicking things off with a post-match assault on the Briscoes following their climactic tag title win at ROH's final pre-hiatus PPV Final Battle in December 2021 and several teases ensuing on social media about a grudge match between the two ultra-physical teams.
The formal request for AEW and Khan to not sign the Briscoes came from an anonymous higher-up at WarnerMedia who had apparently become aware of some unfortunate and blatantly threatening remarks by Jay on Twitter in 2013 concerning the Delaware senate's then-recent legalizing of same-sex marriage, saying that if they were to "try and teach my kids that there's nothing wrong with that...I'll f***ing shoot you." Jay, who was ROH World Champion at the time, immediately retracted his statements after extreme fan backlash occurred on social media, and he would later delete his Twitter account, followed by both him and the ROH promotion issuing formal apologies a week afterwards. While that matter has been put to rest for some time now, the ramifications of Jay's statements seem to have stood the test of time, as one of ROH's most prolific tag teams and recent inaugural inductees into the promotion's Hall of Fame has effectively been blackballed by TBS' parent company.
What is most unusual about this development is that even before his announcement of the Ring of Honor purchase, Khan had no real designs on having the Briscoes signed to AEW anyway, citing that while he acknowledges them as a great team and "definitiely someone to keep an eye on," he has made no official attempts to sign them, even for a one-off match with FTR. That in itself is nothing unusual, as Khan often wants to break news of a big signing immediately after a surprise debut, but rather it is the fact he seemed so adamant about it even before the request from WarnerMedia came down to block out the Briscoes altogether.
Given that Khan is an admitted lifelong wrestling fan with a keen knack for observing critical moments in and out of the squared circle and having followed teams like the Briscoes for the majority of their careers, it would stand to reason that he was likely already aware of Jay's controversial comments from years prior and simply decided to not take a chance on the farm-raised duo. Even with the promotion's "TV-14" rating in place for all its live events, it would be quite the daunting task to keep the Briscoes' foul-mouthed tendencies and attitudes under wraps across AEW's social media platforms. Given how quickly AEW wrote a debuting Brian Kendrick out of a recent show due to past antisemitic comments of his coming to light, one could hardly blame Khan and company for taking a pass on the Briscoes, even if Jay has indeed made amends for his statements.
That said, many AEW fans are displeased with the edict handed down by WarnerMedia, feeling that it and AEW are being somewhat harsh, perhaps even hypocritical given the company's past one-shot dealings with the likes of Nick Gage and Mike Tyson, both with noted criminal histories, and several notable AEW wrestlers like Scorpio Sky and Sammy Guevara making extreme verbal gaffes of their own and receiving little to no punishment outside of making a public apology. The fans' points are valid, and perhaps it does seem a little over-the-top to judge individuals purely on statements made nine years ago that have long since been rescinded and apologized for, but until WarnerMedia sees fit to change their minds, the hope of seeing the Briscoes tear it up in the AEW tag division is simply a pipe dream for now.