Mark Briscoe Reflects on His Time in ROH in 2002, Describing It as ‘Special’

Mark Briscoe reminisced about Ring of Honor’s early days in 2002, likening it to the “All-Star Game” of the independent wrestling scene. As a key figure during the promotion’s rise, he shared his reflections on that era in an interview with Fightful, describing it as a “special” time.

At the time, there was really one horse in the race, it was WWE, everything else was the indies. Ring of Honor felt special when it started because it was just an indie show, but it ended up being the All Star Game of the indies. They are flying in people from across the country like Mike Modest, Chris Daniels is coming in from California for an indie show in Philly. Ring of Honor is one of the first things that felt special in that time period.

CZW, my mindset was, when ECW was absorbed by WWE, the spirit of ECW in the northeast there was Ring of Honor, the work rate like (ECW having) Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and those guys, all the way up to RVD, Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, and Super Crazy. That branch of the (ECW) spirit went to Ring of Honor. The hardcore extreme branch went to CZW. That’s how I viewed that transition in wrestling history.

Briscoe is the reigning ROH World Champion, having successfully defended his title against Chris Jericho at AEW WrestleDream.