Local Reactions And Updates On Jay Briscoe

A day after his shocking and tragic passing, the local community was mourning the loss and reflecting on the life of Jamin Pugh, better known as tag team wrestling legend Jay Briscoe.

Briscoe died Tuesday after a two-car crash near his hometown of Laurel, Delaware. The Delaware State Police said a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction of the two-lane road crossed the center line and hit Briscoe's truck head-on, killing both drivers. Briscoe's daughters (ages 9 and 12) were in the vehicle and taken by ambulance to an area hospital and were admitted in critical condition.

As previously reported, Jay's wife Ashley posted on Facebook that their daughter Gracie was having surgery on her back and asked friends and family to "pray for her precious legs to move again." She had not posted a publicly viewable update as of late Wednesday night.

Laurel is a small, tight-knit community, and the Pughs have been part of that community for generations, so the tragedy hit the town and its residents really hard. The Laurel School District closed on Wednesday. The State Representative for Laurel, Tim Dukes, opened session in the Delaware House of Representatives Wednesday by asking for a moment of silence to remember Pugh:

He was a guy really (who was) only 38 but he was a living legend in Laurel. He and his brother were tag team wrestlers, they were world champions. But he was a guy who would do anything in the world for anybody, and if you knew the Pugh family, the family tentacles go really deep in the community - I know my Laurel crowd really know that very well. (This is) a very, very difficult time for the community and we just ask for a moment of silence and hope that everyone would remember his wife and three children and the rest of the family.

Delaware Online reported that "Pugh was a first-team All-Henlopen Conference Southern Division fullback and linebacker and honorable mention All-State linebacker before graduating from Laurel in 2002 on teams coached by his father, Mike.

"More recently, he was an assistant coach on the Laurel Middle School football team, on which his son, Gannon, played, and also coached youth basketball in the town." Pugh also reportedly visited regularly with local athletes.

(Author's note: Local residents and friends of mine shared some sentiments about Briscoe.)

Both Briscoe brothers were regarded as two very down-to-Earth, low-key celebrities - just regular, local guys, even though they had wrestled all over the world in front of tens of thousands of fans. One Laurel native remembered local kids visiting the Pugh farm and seeing them in their ring, even climbing inside with them early on in their careers. Even those who don't follow professional wrestling were at least aware of their acclaim within the industry, which made their accessibility at home even more notable.