Mark Briscoe v Jay Briscoe

[Loss]

Mark Briscoe v Jay Briscoe - ROH Honor Invades Boston

 

After hearing so much about these guys for so long, both good and bad, it was a pleasure to finally be able to see them in action. I'm SO glad they wore different colors, because had they not, I don't think I would be able to tell them apart. While it's far from as good a match, this is more what I'd expect out of a brother versus brother match than Bret and Owen had at Wrestlemania 10 or Summerslam '94, just because they're not afraid to bring the hate here. The story plays itself out nicely that they know each other so well, and also that they're constantly oneupping each other. They actually ... pause occasionally ... to give the moves meaning. It works really well, especially when Mark, who's clearly the heel, gives Jay a Northern Lights suplex, and the look on Jay's face is one of surprise. To his credit, he doesn't overdo it, it's a realistic portrayal. And even though they do pause occasionally, they don't do it at the expense of the pace, as this is incredibly fast and spirited, even when Mark goes outside to catch a breather and rethink his approach, which works doubly well in having him play the heel since this specific crowd is going to reject anything that isn't action, action, action.

 

Mark dominates most of the match, but Jay gets enough hope spots to keep it going, but not so much that it becomes a back and forth even Stephen match. Something is resolved here, both through the clean finish and the way they got there. Jay finally does come back with a flying headscissors and spinning heel kick and goes right to work on his brother's hand, which gets really good heat. Mark isn't totally beaten yet though, pulling out a springboard Ace crusher (!!) before getting overzealous and missing a top rope kneedrop. The only problem at this point is that the selling is uneven at times, with Mark selling his leg between most moves, but executing them without a problem. That's not the case once the match continues, since he tries a springboard later on and can't do it, and he also sells his knee while doing a springboard dropkick, which is nice, but he had to be reminded to go back to selling that leg, and has the acumen to put on a chinlock so he can think about what he's going to do next. After a double TKO, he hits his brother with a German suplex, followed by a Dragon suplex, followed by a Fisherman's suplex, but he misses a moonsault, which I think was excess, as that trifecta should have been enough to put Jay away and it wasn't. Jay teases another comeback with a death valley driver, which gets a great nearfall, and follows that up with a BRUTAL Michinoku driver before missing a senton bomb, which gives Mark all the opening he needs to finally execute the cutthroat driver, which he has been trying to do for the last half of the match, and he gets the win over his older brother.

 

This, like Dragon/Donovan, is more a case of great ideas than great playing out of those ideas, but unlike Dragon/Donovan, they created an in-ring storyline to which anyone with a sibling can relate. So, that said, it's a better match than Dragon/Donovan, but based on what they both showed here, I'm not convinced they could have such a good match against anyone else, especially in singles.

 

***1/2

[goodhelmet]

Wait until you get to American Dragon v. Jay from Final Battle '04. That match is pretty damn good. I think you should rephrase it to say they couldn;t have a great singles match with ayone unless that other one is Bryan Danielson

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

I wanted to point out that this match has one of my favourite bits of psychology ever.

 

Mark busts Jay open, and then starts to try to open up the cut some more. He gets in a kick or two, but mostly just uses his fists.

 

This continues until Jay gets back on offense, at which point he stomps on Mark's hand once or twice.

 

Then, when Mark takes back the offense, he tries to go back to the fists to open up Jay. BUT, since Mark's hand is hurt, he can't effectively punch Jay without hurting himself, so he's forced to use different tactics. I dunno, I loved that.

[Loss]

I didn't even notice that, but you're absolutely right. Very cool.