Nick Mondo Discusses His Time As A Director In AEW

Nick Mondo made his name on the Deathmatch scene in the early 2000s, but re-established himself more recently as the man behind Jon Moxley’s famous “prison break” video when his WWE contract expired. 

Mondo’s work with Moxley landed him a role as a director in AEW. 

Speaking on the Insiders Edge podcast, Mondo discussed his time behind the camera at AEW.

“We went to AEW and I ended up working for them. I worked for them right up until the pandemic. From the start of their TV show right to the pandemic. It was like the honeymoon period. So much optimism and seeing the responses in every city we’d go to. That was a trip,” he said. “I got tossed in the deep end. I was living in Los Angeles and I flew to Atlanta to check out the team I was going to be working with, just to see if we vibed. I came in and was sitting in the offices and saw they were working on an interview with Riho, but they didn’t speak Japanese. I do and I can edit Japanese — I keep a dictionary with me, I’m not perfectly fluent — I said, ‘Hey, want me to take that on?’ They have a longer process of getting raw footage and chopping it up. They said ‘Yeah, sure’ and I realized there were so many fires to put out and so many projects that they could use all the help they could get. I was supposed to go back to LA, because we decided it was a good fit, to pack up my stuff and move to Atlanta. One of my team members happened to be flying back to shoot stuff with the Young Bucks. Then, Brandi [Rhodes] had an idea for a commercial. It was just one guy going to do all of that stuff and I thought they could use some help. In the midst of packing my stuff, I’m running around corralling people and shooting stuff with the Bucks and Scorpio was in the commercial. It happened very quickly. It was so new and fresh. Oftentimes, we can just pitch stuff and work with wrestlers like, ‘he’s a spot we need to film, we need a 90-second promo.’ A lot of creative energy and the wild west, just getting together with guys and being like, ‘We want to make a nature show.’ Dustin Rhodes and I worked together on an idea with Jurassic Express and had them forging in the wild and Luchsaurus ripping leaves off trees and eating them and Jungle Boy drinking river water. Just stuff we came up with on the fly. I remember Marko Stunt saying, ‘this is my favorite part of wrestling, making videos.’ Darby Allin says the same thing. They have a lot of passion in the ring but a lot of guys just love getting together and making short movies. I had a ton of fun doing that.”

Mondo noted that AEW doesn’t have writers, just the four Executive Vice Presidents (Kenny Omega, THe Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes) and President Tony Khan, which gives the wrestlers more freedom when it comes to creating videos. 

Mondo was recently inducted into the GCW Deathmatch Hall of Fame during Tournament of Survival 6 weekend. 

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