David Bixenspan
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davidbix.bsky.social
David Bixenspan
@davidbix.bsky.social
Wait, what?
Okay, but they still made a change regarding Jay after he died. There was a whole week where they were refusing to even let AEW acknowledge his death on TV. It was not strictly "well, Mark wasn't the problem anyway."
January 21, 2026 at 7:42 PM
Has the latter thing been confirmed? I don't remember ever hearing that, that Mark was never banned.

I guess the ? for me is how much the level of the outpouring defending the Briscoes after Jay's death what's the primary factor in the change and how much Trey would need a similar outpouring.
January 21, 2026 at 7:40 PM
I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to make. Nobody's saying that what Jay said in 2013 wasn't terrible. The question is what exactly WBD is using as their barometer for apologies, repenting, forgiveness, etc.
January 21, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Sure. But what is driving their decisions as far as drawing a line here but never having an issue with Scorpio Sky and eventually relenting on the Briscoes?
January 21, 2026 at 7:35 PM
(I don't think he's an antisemite; I think he made the boneheaded call to say the most hurtful things he could while mad at Starr for what turned out to be legitimate reasons. Which is still bad, of course, but...I also get why, after a while, an apology would be more trouble than it was worth.)
January 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Right, antisemitism and a revenge porn threat, neither of which he ever apologized for, feel like much more realistic reasons for doing something like this than bigoted comments he quickly apologized for, mainly given the comparisons to others in AEW.
January 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM
I agree, but if we're going by the reporting for now, then shit as it stands makes very little sense.
January 21, 2026 at 7:22 PM
How so
January 21, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Yes, although even after they were gone, keep in mind that it took a week of everyone around wrestling guilting WBD for everything to change after Jay died
January 21, 2026 at 7:19 PM
If it's the one I'm thinking of that doesn't explain one of the most obvious comparisons
January 21, 2026 at 7:18 PM
F-slur tweets from over a decade ago that he's since repeatedly apologized for in very introspective ways
January 21, 2026 at 7:05 PM
It was a long time ago and he's been very open and introspective about it. But the comparison is there..
January 21, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Personally I get the vibe, at least in the last 24 hours, that the seeming lack of consistency is what's bothering fans the most. The question of what the distinction for WBD is between Trey and the Briscoes, Trey and Scorpio Sky, etc.
January 21, 2026 at 6:55 PM
Re: Trey, there's a feeling that, especially if it was the 2020 posts and not the David Starr thing that got him fired, he quickly apologized for it, had no subsequent issues, and is being unfairly singled out compared to Mark Briscoe, Scorpio Sky, and others, including others in the WBD portfolio.
January 21, 2026 at 6:52 PM
(Also, MJF's defense of Wentz was so passionate and specific, including Wentz going hard in defending him from past antisemitic abuse, that it adds a lot of benefit of the doubt, too.)
January 21, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Basically:

Re: Wentz, Kim flip-flopped enough on if he got violent that she couldn't be taken at face value anymore. With the Hitler mustache photo, the larger context (he was a teenager being manipulated by a famously abusive/cult leader-like trainer for blackmail purposes) earned him a mulligan.
January 21, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Technically speaking The Briscoes only managed to maintain a big money wrestling career post-Sinclair because Tony Khan felt they were worth signing at full price just to use for ROH. Which is clearly not the case for Trey Miguel.
January 21, 2026 at 6:41 PM
The part I don't get is how WBD is distinguishing between the people they're willing to forgive or recognize as rehabilitated or not.

Briscoes situation is well documented.

Scorpio Sky gets cleared because...what, length of time and how extensively he's discussed his own self-improvement process?
January 21, 2026 at 6:39 PM