Hundreds gather for memorial service honoring the legacy of wrestling star Jay Briscoe

LAUREL, Del. –  A community still mourning gathered Sunday in Laurel to honor the life of local wrestling star Jay Briscoe.

Hundreds of wrestling fans, loved ones, and those who knew Briscoe’s story lined up at Laurel High School for a memorial service to show their support.

On January 17th Briscoe, whose real name is Jamin Pugh, died in a head-on collision with another vehicle in Laurel. The driver of the other vehicle that crashed into Briscoe also died.

As community members waited to pay their respects, they told us the Ring of Honor (ROH) star may be gone but he’ll never be forgotten. “Me and my friend Jake would go up to Baltimore every time they would wrestle, manly to see them. I made sure I always had my Briscoe shirt on because I was so proud that they represented the area so well,” Edwin Jolley-Lashley said.

“And it just goes to show the type of person Jamin Pugh and how many people he touched. I’m sure there’s lots of people here that didn’t know him personally but he touched them in some kind of way in order to bring a community together like this.”

Briscoe is most known for his time in Ring of Honor, a American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. Briscoe and his brother Mark, known as the “Dem Boys” wrestling duo, were 12-time Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions.