Joshua Bruns (born March 5, 1993) is an American
professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Josh Briggs. He is currently signed to
WWE where he performs on the
NXTbrand. In WWE, he is a one-time
NXT UK Tag Team Champion with
Brooks Jensen, and he and Jensen are recognized as the final holders of the championship. He previously appeared for
Evolve, where he was the final
Evolve Champion.
On August 31, 2020, it was reported that Briggs had signed a contract with
WWE, following the company's purchase of
Evolve in July.[3] On October 7, WWE announced that he had reported for training at the
Performance Center, alongside five other professional wrestlers from Evolve.[4] On July 6, 2021, Briggs was announced to be a part of the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament. On the July 27 episode of NXT, Briggs was defeated by
Carmelo Hayes in the first round.[5] On the NXT 2.0 premiere on September 14, Briggs formed a tag team with the debuting
Brooks Jensen and faced
Imperium (
Fabian Aichner and
Marcel Barthel) in a losing effort, establishing themselves as
faces.[6] On the January 18, 2022 episode of NXT, Briggs and Jensen competed in the
Dusty Rhodes Men's Tag Team Classic, but were eliminated by eventual winners the
Creed Brothers (Brutus and Julius) in the first round.[7] On the April 12 episode of NXT, they took part in a five-team
gauntlet match for the vacant
NXT Tag Team Championship, but failed to win.[8] On the June 22 episode of NXT UK, Briggs and Jensen defeated
Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz,
Mark Andrews and
Wild Boar, and Die Familie (
Teoman and Rohan Raja) in a
Fatal 4-Way elimination match to win the vacant
NXT UK Tag Team Championship, making them the first and only non-European tag team to win the titles.
On the December 27, 2023 episode of NXT, Briggs, Jensen and Henley agree to go their separate ways splitting up the team.[9] On the January 16, 2024 episode of NXT, Briggs received an endorsement from
John "Bradshaw" Layfield in a backstage segment.[10] The following week, Briggs took on
Trick Williams in a losing effort. After the match, Briggs attacked Trick with a clothesline, thus turning
heel for the first time in his WWE career.[11] On the February 6 episode of NXT, Briggs seemingly consoled his former partner Brooks Jensen about having to work alone, only to then badmouth him and tell him to grow up, thus cementing his heel turn. On the February 20 episode of NXT, Briggs defeated Jensen in a singles match and consoled him after by saying "I did this for you, I love you man", turning back into a face once again. At
NXT Roadblock, Briggs would try to talk Jensen out of taking a match with
Oba Femi but Jensen was persistent on facing Femi and would be ultimately defeated the following week with Briggs watching at ringside.[12][13][14][15]