WELCOME TO THE C0-MAIN EVENT

This week on 10 Bell Pod, we’re not just talking about a tag team, we’re talking about force: The Road Warriors.

Hawk and Animal were 2 bar room bouncers from Minnesota who didn’t “play” tough guys on television.

The spikes and war paint and made characters, but they were as real as it gets.

This episode isn’t a nostalgia lap. It’s a correction.

The fact is, Hawk and Animal were drawing at Hulk Hogan level without needing Hogan. That they were selling out arenas in Georgia, Minnesota, Japan, and the Carolinas while Vince was still figuring out what to call “sports entertainment.”

We dig into what made them different.
The legitimacy.
The look.
The Doomsday Device.
The promos.

They weren’t just another hot act. They reshaped pro wrestling.

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EPISODE NOTES

This episode examines the Road Warriors not as nostalgia icons, but as a cultural shock to wrestling’s system. From Minnesota bouncers to Georgia monsters to global attractions, Hawk and Animal didn’t just succeed, they rewrote what a tag team could be. This is about power as presentation, marketing as myth, and how being too big for the system eventually creates friction with it.

• They entered fully formed.

  Unlike most teams assembled after singles runs, Hawk and Animal came in together, with a look, presence, and chemistry that barely changed for 20 years. The spikes, the paint, the music, it was immediate and permanent.

• “Road Warrior pop” was real. Their entrance alone could headline. They didn’t need belts to feel legitimate; the aura was the draw. Territories rose when they arrived.

• They bridged worlds. AWA, NWA, Japan, WWF, they worked everywhere and fit everywhere.

• WWF was supposed to be the next level. In 1990–91, Vince positioned them as near equal attractions to Hulk Hogan. However, business structure matters: lower guarantees, thin merch percentages, and steroid era scrutiny created real resentment.

• Money and management broke the myth. As Hawk’s substance issues escalated and Animal tried to stabilize things, financial disputes and creative shifts exposed the cost of being paid like one act when you’re two men carrying the company.

In this episode of 10 Bell Pod, we tell the full story of Jay Briscoe.

This is not just the matches, not just the titles, but the man, the contradictions, the love, the mistakes, the growth, and the legacy that refuses to stay quiet.

From a chicken farm in rural Delaware to blood soaked Ring of Honor main events. From backyard VHS tapes to Japan, CZW, and two decades as the backbone of indie wrestling.

We talk about what made the Briscoes different.

Why they weren’t just a great tag team, but the standard.

Why every era, every promotion, every hot new team had to go through them to be taken seriously. Why Ring of Honor does not exist in any recognizable form without Jay Briscoe.

We confront the tweet. The fallout. The punishment.

The growth.

The way a single moment haunted a man for the rest of his career, and how he chose empathy, accountability, and change instead of bitterness or doubling down.

This is about how people fail and what it looks like when someone actually tries to be better.

And then we get to the ending.

The crash. The loss. The sadness.

This episode is grief.
It’s gratitude.
It’s anger.
It’s love.

It’s about a man who never needed a bigger stage to be legendary.

Reach for the sky.

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EPISODE NOTES

Jay Briscoe:

Jay Briscoe was a worker who embodied what independent wrestling actually was before it became a pipeline.

Through Jay’s life and career, the episode examines wrestling as labor, the value of authenticity over polish, and how entire scenes survive on people willing to give everything without guarantees.

• The Briscoes were infrastructure, not talent experiments. For over two decades, Jay and Mark were the backbone of Ring of Honor and the East Coast indies, consistently elevating opponents, legitimizing new acts, and holding promotions together when money, visibility, and stability were scarce.

• Indie wrestling used to be faith-based labor. Jay worked dangerous matches, drove brutal hours, and held real jobs because the work mattered, not because there was a promised next step. There was no safety net, no TV deal waiting.

• Jay was trusted because he made things feel real. Whether tagging, wrestling singles, or leading a locker room, he brought credibility, emotional weight, and violence that never felt performative.

• The tweet mattered, but so did what followed. Jay said something harmful, faced real consequences, apologized repeatedly, changed his behavior, and spent the rest of his life proving growth through actions, not branding.

• Great wrestling creates community, not content. Jay’s work helped define why people cared deeply about Ring of Honor, AEW’s spiritual roots, and wrestling as something worth believing in.

Just wanted to share some upcoming news and updates.

Sorry other platforms, this is a video on Spotify. I didn't think it would load everywhere. Find it on YouTube and Patreon if you want to watch it.

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