AEW’s tribute to Jay Briscoe starts with a celebration of Jamin Pugh

It took a week of Tony Khan fighting for it, but AEW was able to honor the late, great Jamin “Jay Briscoe” Pugh on Dynamite tonight (Jan. 25).

The big moment — when Mark Briscoe makes his long-awaited AEW television debut against Jay’s frequent rival and both brothers’ friend Jay Lethal — will wait for the main event of this week’s episode in Lexington, Kentucky. But the tribute began after the first match of the night with a video that focused as much on Pugh the family man as it did on Briscoe the wrestler.

Even if you haven’t been following the remembrances of Pugh that have been flooding the internet since he died in a car accident last Tuesday, or the updates from friends in the Sussex County, Delaware community the Brisoces call home... you probably know that Jamin valued family above almost everything else. In addition to tagging with his brother, their father was often a part of their Ring of Honor storylines. A video of Jamin practicing a cheer routine with one of his young daughters went viral during the pandemic (it makes an appearance in the video).

So it was fitting that AEW gave us a lot of footage of the Pugh family here interspersed with video of Jay with his various ROH World title opponents like Lethal, Samoa Joe, and WWE’s Kevin Owens back when he wrestled under his real name, Kevin Steen.

Production of the show hit a few hiccups after that video played. Who knows why, but if it hit the folks in the truck the same way it hit me, I can imagine why.

We’ll likely all be a mess come the main event.

Get complete results and coverage of everything from tonight’s episode of Dynamite here.