Mark Briscoe Recalls Coming Up With Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, & AJ Styles, Knowing They Were Going To Be Top Level Until They Retired

Mark Briscoe knows that his generation was special.

The Briscoes came up at the very beginning of the 2000s alongside other performers like Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, Low Ki, and many other names. In a new interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Mark Briscoe said that Joe, Danielson, and AJ Styles really showed promise at that time.

“The first two that come to mind would be Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson. Those two is just like, ‘Wow, if we can stay at this level, then we’ll be seeing them for years and years and years, but these guys are going to be top level until they retire.’ It is like Joe and Bryan and then when we met AJ Styles, which I guess looking back, it seemed like it was a while, but it’s probably just a matter of a few months. We met AJ Styles after Bryan and Joe, but then AJ Styles, he was just like, oh my gosh. The smoothness and the grace, but then the violence all at the same time. Joe, AJ and Bryan, they’re definitely the first names that come to mind.”

Briscoe continued on and reflected on that “pivotal” period of wrestling history.

“In hindsight, it really is crazy what a pivotal period in pro wrestling history that was, that 2000-2010, 2015, whatever it was, wherever you put that. Just the post-ECW, coming out of ECW, moving forward into what we have now. That was such a pivotal period of time. It’s pretty crazy, ‘cause we didn’t notice it. We didn’t realize it at the time. It’s like in hindsight, it’s like, ‘Whoa, man, crazy.’”

At the time, Briscoe and company had no idea how important they would be in the future.

“It really is pretty cool that we were that group that change the game, like changed the in-ring game. I think, at the same time, we all have learned to move fast, but then to slow down and breathe and let everything register and let the fans digest everything. I feel like that’s something that we didn’t necessarily do so well back at the beginning of this millennium, back in the early 2000s. But it really is a cool feeling to look back in hindsight, it’s like, ‘Wow, we didn’t even know that we were part of this group that is legit changing the game of pro wrestling.’ It’s wild.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Briscoe spoke about his Forbidden Door cage match. Check out his full comments by clicking here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Mark Briscoe in the video linked at the top of this article.