The Trade (2017) Movie Script
1
Dude, give me your chair!
Give me your chair!
And this is
what CZW is all about.
This is exactly what CZW is all about.
Bam!
This is gonna be insanity.
Bam, excuse me!
Oh, that's it!
Mondo!
Nick!
Fuck him up, Mondo.
I definitely don't
think wrestling itself
is inherently a bad thing.
I mean it's exciting, it's entertaining,
it's artful, there's some
serious athletics involved.
But wrestling does tend to pull
a dark side out of me
and it tends to push me
toward taking risks, and I'm
not sure exactly why that is.
It's just, I have an
aptitude for surviving
and thriving in a violent environment.
And death match wrestling
is that sort of environment.
You're willingly going in a
ring in front of a live crowd
and injuring yourself.
Drawing blood, breaking bones,
having concussions.
You know all these
things are gonna happen,
yet you still willingly participate.
It's dysfunctional.
I mean, there is a fun factor for sure,
but there's obviously something
not quite right going on.
And Sick Nick Mondo in there
being tortured by these two,
being absolutely tortured.
He's like a Japanese World
War II kamikaze pilot
with no regard for his own body.
And I said very plainly,
I was like, listen man,
every day because of the stunts
that you're remembered for,
CZW gets new fans.
Every day, without question.
If you search crazy stuff
on YouTube, you know,
stuff that we're kind of infamous for,
and you will see that guy.
Somebody could
get seriously hurt.
This is.
I just can't fathom how he does that.
Two stories, all the way down, boom.
Nick Mondo has been thrown
off of this balcony to the floor
some 20, 25 feet through
a table covered in...
That was crazy shit.
Un F'n Believable.
To this day, the stuff
that the man did in the ring
still holds weight and is
still comparable to anything
that has been done.
He has so many fans all around the world
and even in countries like Turkey.
The guy was insane, he was sick.
People still hold onto what he did
because of how revolutionary he was.
He had the biggest balls ever, ever.
The whole atmosphere when
Nick Mondo came to the ring
was just, I would say mind blowing for me.
Absolutely mind blowing for me as a kid.
He could do spots that
nobody's even heard of.
I mean, the first time
I saw the weed whacker.
Oh, my God, I don't know
how he took that much risks.
I mean, getting hit with a weed whacker.
The weed whacker.
I'm closing my eyes.
I'm closing my eyes.
When I saw that, it was, whoa.
As a fan, I would go back
and watch that over and over
and over again and be like, what the fuck?
He's amazing, and he's just that aura.
You know, that superstar
persona supposed to have
that he had, that he presents
himself when he's in the ring,
that's who you believe in.
You know what I mean, that's
somebody you wanna be.
That's who you believe in, he had that.
And I think point-blank,
half the roster is here
because of him.
I cannot believe this,
this guy is some kind of god.
We've seen that
kid get dragged through
light tubes, fall off a
table, fall off of a balcony
and get back on his feet.
The man is superhuman
with the amount of pain
that he can endure.
The only thing that really bothers me
is to dismiss somebody and simply say,
that guy's crazy, or that girl's insane.
If you trace bad
decisions back far enough,
you will find somebody who
originally was well intentioned.
So if you write somebody off
that way, not only are you
missing out on empathy and
compassion, you're also
gonna miss out on some
pretty interesting stories.
Most pursuits begin with a role model.
The desire's already inside of us.
We just need somebody to
show us how it's done.
His name was Wifebeater.
In a world of bodybuilders
clad in underwear,
tanning bed lobsters, fake tough guys,
he was the real thing.
A filthy jeans wearing,
potato chip eating,
weed whacker carrying,
politically incorrect son of a bitch.
When Wifebeater was on the
card, fans knew what to expect.
A legitimate U.S. Marine
who could walk through anything.
Panes of glass.
200 light tubes.
You could not stop this man.
No matter what you put him through.
What you hit him with.
Bam, with that VCR.
Drop him from heights.
Bash his head in.
No matter what, he'd get back up.
He was not human.
But I do wanna mention
that the fans are supplying
the weapons in this contest.
A marching, undead soldier.
And when his music hit,
you better damn well be ready.
No, no!
A man so adept at violence.
So naturally abusive.
Carrying out actions,
had they been anywhere
but a wrestling ring,
would have landed him in prison.
Oh, my God!
Never in my life
have I seen anything like this.
Standing next to Wifebeater
made me feel like a kid
in a Halloween costume.
He was the real monster I
could only pretend to be.
Look at this right there.
One day, as Wifebeater and I
were preparing for a match in the back,
I asked him, what is it that makes you act
the way you do in the ring?
He frowned at me and said,
"You mean cut myself?"
I said, "Yeah."
Wifebeater blinked a
couple times, then said,
"Bad childhood, what about you?"
Surprisingly, I wasn't
ready for my own question.
But what came out was, "Guilt problems."
Wifebeater nodded, satisfied.
And from there, we went out to have
one of the bloodiest
matches ever to take place
on American soil.
This is the finals
of the Tournament of Death.
Sick Nick Mondo and the Wifebeater
with 200 light tubes.
What's in the bucket?
We cannot see from where we
are what is in that bucket.
The kind of guy in CZW
that almost gets there.
Oh!
Forget about it, it's on.
I don't even know why I
even bother analyzing it.
Wifebeater goes face first
into the light tubes.
Who needs baseball to go on
strike when you have CZW?
Who cares about baseball, Erick?
That's what I'm saying.
And barbed wire spring board leg drop.
But tonight they find themselves battling
for the very same thing,
that Zandig Tournament
of Death Championship.
Bam!
This is ultra violence.
Ultra violent entertainment.
You can't get it anywhere
else but here at CZW.
Ooh.
Oh, pouring salt into the wound.
That's just sick.
At Zandig's Tournament of Death, bam!
And where's it gonna end, John?
Where's it gonna end, how's
a match like this gonna end?
Live in Dover, Delaware,
he's got the weed whacker up.
Leave the weed whacker out of this!
Leave the weed whacker out of this!
It's a human being, not a plant.
The weed whacker's.
I'm closing my eyes!
I'm closing my eyes!
My God, oh!
My God, oh!
Excuse me, Chokenstein!
One, two, three!
It's over!
He won the tournament!
That's just about
as bad as things got.
But no.
That's not where this story starts.
Matt was definitely different
than the other kids I grew up with.
I would say the man thing was
he was always coming up with
new ideas of stuff to do.
And leaves basically, they
capture the sun's energy
and they change it into, and they...
If it wasn't for Matt,
we would have lived very
boring lives as teenagers.
Here's round three
of kegger smashing.
What was that?
Matthew had quite a lot
of friends in high school
and he was kind of the leader
of them, which was nice.
He got into a lot of trouble.
But it wasn't bad things that he did,
it was just mischievous things like
you know, spitballs.
And of course there were probably things
I didn't know about.
Oh, shit.
Uh-oh!
It was always interesting
hanging around with Matt.
We had a friend that
would supply us with M-80s
and quarter sticks.
We had a lot of explosives
on hand that we used.
And if we didn't have those,
we would make match head bombs.
Not anything but just for the simple fact
of blowing things up, it was just for fun.
Whoa.
Hey, there's Terry.
Hey, Terry.
I've never had friends
quite like the people I grew up with.
We did everything together.
We had time for each other.
We never worried that we were wasting it.
We were free to think about
the things that made us laugh.
That made us happy.
And my friends,
they understood me.
As bizarre as I was,
they got my sense of humor.
And they'd join with me in my ambitions
no matter how strange they were.
All of us grew together.
We learned about life
and we changed, together.
I don't think we took it for granted,
but we did imagine that it
would always be that way.
That the world would
always just be a funny joke
to laugh at.
And that all the stress and sadness
that everybody else dealt with,
student loans, job resumes,
car insurance, home mortgages,
weddings to pay for, kids to feed,
divorce lawyers, debt.
Well, we'd just refuse to participate.
Go wipe your ass now!
Oh, shit!
'Cause who could make us?
But in reality, nobody is exempt.
Eventually, in our youth,
most of us will take a hit
that stays with us for life.
Have you spent time thinking about
what it really meant to be crucified?
Have you ever studied what the
Roman crucifixion was like?
They slapped him and
said, "Tell us the name
"of the person that slapped you."
Put a crown of thorns on his forehead
and push it down until it
bites into his temples.
And they take this whip and they lash
into the person over and over again.
They waited for the blood to dry
into the robe that was on his back,
and then they tore it off.
Placed one foot over the other
and drove a spike through his bones.
Every time you sin,
he feels the pain of that sin on the cross
2,000 years ago.
There's not one person in here, not one,
who would be willing to go
through this kind of torture.
Not one of us has the courage.
Not one of us would be able
to stand in for what he did.
Perseverance is nothing
but stubbornness refined.
So you really need to watch what you say
around stubborn people.
I don't think I was worried about Matt
or concerned about Matt growing up.
But I definitely saw signs of
darkness, you know, his
hair started to get longer,
he started wearing ripped, tattered pants
and spiked collars.
If there was anything dark or odd
or creepy, he was into it.
I worried that he was filling his mind
with things that weren't healthy,
and I wondered how this
would affect him negatively.
But I think every teenager
goes through this.
But after a while, down
the line, the ninja battles
just turned into, they were free for alls.
We were going around
trying to hurt each other
basically to get something good on film.
And it did happen.
Matt, I believe, broke his nose.
He bit through his upper lip.
He also incorporated barbed wire
and some fluorescent lights
were in the ninja battles,
but he was the only one brave enough
to take a hit of lights.
Definitely the major injuries
all happened to Matt.
Matt was the one that was
willing to take it the farthest.
Is there any good scars?
Any battle wounds from this one?
That's right about
the time the humor
started to fade.
And the innocence.
My thoughts and my plans
were increasingly guided by violence
and hostility.
But above all, self harm.
That's when I learned
if you can make people laugh
or keep them entertained,
it's amazing the things
you can get away with.
Burns, just all tore up.
No, it's okay.
I'm just hyperactive.
Oh, shit!
No, really.
I'm fine.
See, I'm a fan of stunt work.
That's my motive.
It's just the performance that I enjoy.
Funny thing is,
I don't remember being happy.
I didn't know what I was feeling.
But somehow I was convinced
that I wanted more.
If only there were a place
where this kind of
behavior was normal.
We had to just sit
him down and say, okay,
you are free to do
whatever you want to do,
but you're also free to pay
the consequences of your actions.
And that took a lot of
tension out of our family
because Matthew was really strong willed.
And we released him into a
phase of life where he was
free to make his own decisions.
And he made decisions that
were costly to him sometimes.
Matt is on his own program,
and I don't think anything I would've said
would've had an effect on him.
Matt is just motivated, and I think
even then he knew what he wanted to do.
I think he already had
probably made some plans
on going to wrestling school.
I knew at the time though,
because it wasn't regulated
to the same extent when I was involved,
I knew it was an atmosphere
where I could explore
some of the hostility
that was in me without
getting charges pressed against me.
When he decided to do
this, I actually drew
a picture of him in a set of hands
and drew a little stick
figure of my son inside them
and just said, "Lord, he's yours now.
"I'm trusting you to take
care of him and protect him."
What you see here is nothing
compared to what you're gonna see.
Tell 'em, Mondo!
This is just the start.
This is the way we choose to live.
Nobody tells us we have to do this stuff.
We are ultra violent.
We are CZW, and there's
no other federation
on the planet like us.
It looks like he's trying to go
for the Assault Driver.
The Assault Driver,
the Assault Driver.
25 feet in the air.
Oh, bam, someone call 911!
Are these men mentally sane?
Mondo going upstairs,
high risk maneuver.
The M. Bison, the M. Bison!
Ouch!
Bam!
CZW, CZW!
Nick Mondo has the
highest threshold of pain.
Remember Un F'n Believable?
John House has him up.
Tomorrow everybody sees
just how sick Nick Mondo can be.
Reversal of the
Irish Whip, Nick Mondo!
Holy fuck!
Shit, holy fuck!
The Iron Man Title.
If you wanna wear the Iron Man Title,
you have to wear scars on your body.
If you wanna carry the Iron Man Title,
you have to carry broken bones.
If you wanna have the Iron Man Title,
you have to have concussions.
I've done every single
one of those things.
Are you kidding me?
You gotta be nuts, you
gotta be kidding me.
Nick Mondo just went to hell.
John, somebody could get hurt.
Holy shit, holy shit!
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit!
Watching him come off the roof
and fall through the tables was one of the
scariest things I've ever seen.
It was probably one of
the most difficult things
I've ever experienced with Matthew.
No one wants to watch their son
do risky things that will injure them
and possibly for the rest of their life.
Around that time, I
really thought this is just
going too far, like he's
going down a bad road
that he's gonna end up
getting killed or maimed
or paralyzed, you know?
And he's so young in his career,
and he's so young in his life.
You know he's on the
ground, people are chanting
holy shit, holy shit.
And suddenly he starts
moving, and I'm like, okay,
he's moving, good, good, good.
Next thing you know, he gets to his feet
and he walks back to the
ring and finishes the match.
Obviously I felt relief, but I felt like
how can he keep doing this to himself?
You can call me a lot of things,
but don't call me a hero.
And do not envy me.
I've never seen a battlefield.
I've never saved anybody.
My scars were planned.
I didn't earn them.
Age 23
and my youth gone.
I'm the prodigal son.
My inheritance, squandered.
My strength,
the best of me, the last of it,
bleeding out in the parking lot
of a bar in Delaware.
And yet, I was still hungry.
I opened my eyes,
and I saw a fire
that could never be quenched.
The only way to escape
is to turn your back
and walk away.
To disappear.
Truthfully,
when I walked away from wrestling,
I eventually had a bit
of an identity crisis.
You come to realize...
I came to realize that maybe I was more
taking on the persona that
I had created in the ring
than my actual persona.
And if you remove something
like that, that's such a
substantial part of your life,
questions start to arise of
do I even like myself?
Am I even comfortable with myself?
I understood how important that was.
And I also understood how important it was
that I not return to wrestling.
Because I was like, I
want to figure this out.
I am a shell, tossed in
the waves of the ocean.
The only thing I want is stillness.
I can steady my hand.
But inside, I'm shaking.
I exhale.
Empty my lungs.
But I still taste the pollution.
The residue.
I become a vapor.
A ghost, drifting.
Until I find
even spirits can't hide.
Because eventually the demons will come.
And they never ever forget.
Perseverance is nothing
but stubbornness refined.
So you really, really need to watch
what you say and what you do
around stubborn people.
Pounds,
Little Mondo!
Aw!
You wanna talk about an emotional scene,
an emotional moment for this young man,
just think about all he's worked towards,
all he's ever wanted and dreamed about,
he's here under those bright lights.
It's an opportunity
that's 18 years
in the making for this kid.
Whoa, holy shit, nothing
little about that.
And a spring board, nice move!
Shades of his idol, shades of his idol.
Kodak moment for Little Mondo.
This kid's gonna take that
memory with him wherever he goes.
And of course it made
me kind of smile at first,
and it was fun to see.
But a couple years into
it, he started mimicking
the violent stuff that I had done.
And I started really seeing him take some
serious damage to his body.
And it made me uncomfortable
to the extent that eventually
I told him, like Rory,
please just don't send me these videos.
I don't wanna see 'em.
Look at that table
full of sliced aluminum cans.
This is the new era
of ultra violence.
The most disgusting
match I've seen all year.
Look at these guys, oh my God.
Ripping at his face!
Bulldozer says
I'm gonna break that table
if it kills him.
M. Bison between the, oh, no!
Oh, Little Mondo
says merry mother fucking Christmas!
This is why I attempted to join CZW
is for the ultra-violent tournament style.
I was here since the first
Tournament of Death as a fan
watching, watching my hero Sick Nick Mondo
win this tournament himself.
Now it's my dream to do it myself.
So for once, someone's gonna
try to bury Rory Mondo that's not mean
during one of his matches.
And I forget that he lost.
He lost against Ron Mathis.
Wow, Rory Mondo, where is
Rory finding the energy?
Now looking for this cut throat driver.
Right on his head, right
on the top of his head.
Right into the coffin!
Well he's got five seconds.
This is where he got
me with the double stomp.
Here, and he got me pretty
good in the back, too.
Barbed wire, light tubes, tack strips.
Last but not least,
this is where he got me
with the light tube right in my head.
He stuck one good right in there.
Please don't make me do this.
Please don't make me do this.
Japan is a really good place to hide.
Especially Tokyo.
It's a city of 12 million
people, but ironically,
it's one of the loneliest
places I've ever been.
People generally just keep to themselves.
They mind their own business.
But it's a really good place to go
if you basically just want
to get lost in the noise.
Or if you're trying to forget something.
It's like it's 2002
all over again.
Are we really
asking for 2002 back?
I certainly am.
I said it once, I'll say it again.
Whether I'm in the United States, Japan,
fucking Antarctica wants
to bring out barbed wire,
let's do this shit.
Because I'm not little,
and it's getting violent.
Little Mondo,
fighting for his jugular.
Oh, my God!
Staggering, the man,
oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!
The unsuspecting Rory Mondo
never even saw it coming.
The hopes and dreams of Little Mondo,
following in the footsteps
of Sick Nick Mondo
in Tournament of Death
has just been shattered
along with that glass.
Little Mondo
a bloody mess right now.
His ribs, he wants to
complain about his chest?
I'm fucking hurting Danny
Havoc, but I didn't complain.
You almost died tonight.
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo,
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Oh God, Mondo is in
not a good spot right now.
Mondo climbing up top.
Oh, my God!
Stay awake.
Stay awake.
A bloody mess.
Just a faucet of blood coming out
of that man's head right now.
I'll tell you what, Little Mondo
is doing his hero proud right now.
No, no.
He's right in
the shrapnel, oh, my God!
And the trial of blood left from the body.
No, no, no.
Please don't make me do this.
Please don't make me do this.
Oh, my God.
This fucking shit.
What the fuck?
Don't do this to me, don't do this to me.
It's not the same this time.
It's not gonna be the
same, it can't be the same.
I don't listen to you anymore,
I don't listen to you.
I bring you back, but it's
not gonna be the same.
You listen to me this
time, do you hear me?
Understand?
I can't go back.
I can't go back to that place.
I can't go through this again, I can't.
It's not going to be like
before, please, please, please.
You have to realize, I really
didn't want to come back
when I made the return to CZW.
It was uncomfortable for me.
Being so far removed from wrestling,
you have to understand it was 10 years
since I walked away from the ring.
It's not easy to just
get back in character,
to step in and do that.
But it was something I
actually felt I should do.
Cage of fucking
death, everybody!
So the tables are accounted for.
The panes of glass are accounted for.
Now the serious stuff
is about to happen.
What do you think
about this whole deal?
I can't watch this stuff,
this makes me nervous.
Back here waiting for
your music or whatever,
it's like you gotta get
in the mindset of like
pretty much like you're
walking into your funeral.
There's always a little
bit of butterflies.
You don't want to get hurt.
I don't want any of these
other people to get hurt.
What do you think?
Of the match?
Yeah, are you excited, nervous?
Nervous.
And in passing, I'm like,
was that Sick Nick Mondo?
Because I had no idea.
But I mean the fact that
he's here is just like,
A big deal, right?
Yeah, you know tomorrow
that's all that's gonna be
talked about, oh, Mondo, oh, Mondo.
I was absolutely shocked.
That's a shoot, that is an absolute shoot.
That's not Greg Excellent,
that's Greg Skipper.
I will tell you, that's
a fucking surprise.
Out of the blue.
He heard about the cage and contacted me
about what was going on in the cage match.
He wants to be here just to make sure
I pretty much don't die in this match.
That's the reason why he's actually here.
Beautiful.
Nick, Matt, thank you for coming back.
My man Matt Tremont.
If he ain't pumped up yet,
I'm about to punch him
in the motherfucking face.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time
for your main event
of the evening.
CZW, CZW!
CZW, CZW!
Oh!
Oh, a brain buster on the platform!
Oh, my God.
I think he's eliminated.
And there is a man without
a care in the world.
Oh!
Oh!
Little fight left in
Havoc but not for long.
Oh, my God!
Oh, oh, oh, my God!
Indoor chair-shot record set.
Everyone, fighting through hell right now.
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Oh, my God!
It looks like glass,
thumbtacks, and legos.
Oh, no!
Christ Almighty!
No, no, no, no, no!
Oh, Jesus, he died, the man's dead.
What?
That's Sick Nick Mondo!
Holy shit!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
No way!
There is one hero left.
I have never heard this crowd
so loud as I do right now.
Lucky 13, oh!
It's over.
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
No!
No!
No!
10 years ago, I was out there,
and it was you.
I was watching you!
I came out here to live up
to you, and fucking you left!
You left these people.
He left you!
He left you!
Out here, and now I'm
here, and he left you!
And I get no fucking respect!
No respect!
I know you don't feel
respected by these people.
I know you don't feel
respected by the wrestlers.
I came back here to tell you something.
You've done enough.
You've done enough to earn my respect.
I earned your respect?
That's all I ever wanted.
That's all I ever wanted was
my idol to come back to CZW.
I just want to say,
from the bottom of my heart,
this is my last match ever.
And I just want to thank everybody here.
I just want to thank everybody.
This is my last match,
and there's no other way
I could go out, than with him here.
And that's it,
that's his last match ever.
That's all he wanted,
that's all he did this for.
And he finally got what he wanted.
Yeah, what a scene here.
Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
I mean Rory Mondo felt as though
he had been forgotten about.
But it seems like the
one person the whole time
that never forgot about him
was his idol, Sick Nick Mondo.
Some people wrestle for titles.
Rory Mondo wanted the respect
of the guy that he idolized.
He used to sit front row for the shows
back at the ECW Arena and watch
Sick Nick Mondo destroy himself.
He modeled his entire life.
Not his career, his
entire life after that.
I'm stepping in the ring to try to be
one of the most famous
independent wrestlers of all time.
Few can ever match what
he did in the ring.
He had that it factor.
And I'm trying to replicate that
and not natural at all at
it, so it's really difficult.
I don't feel like I lived
up at all those first
couple years to that
expectation to be like him.
So fast forward to the
Cage of Death moment.
I think at that time
everybody in the entire place
was on their feet, whether
they hated me or not,
because Nick Mondo, one,
was in the building,
and two, it was a very
emotional moment for everybody.
Even my friends who were there freaked out
and they barely knew who he was.
They didn't have that
connection that I did.
And they were like, oh, my God.
Talk about a special moment.
Just not for me retiring.
Everybody, I'm sharing
the ring with the guy
who I wanted to be my entire life.
Are you aware of
the legacy you left behind?
Do you realize kind of like
the magnitude inside CZW
of what your career means
to so many of the guys
that came after you?
You're still considered to this day
one of the icons of death-match,
and it's been 10 years since
you even stepped in a ring.
I saw Sick Nick Mondo
the first time ever
at IWA King of the Death-matches.
Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo!
I remember standing right by the table
and he got thrown off the
balcony, took that big bump.
But I remember taking
pictures as he was coming down
and just going, this is what I'm gonna do.
I thought the dude was
gonna die, personally.
But when he didn't, I was
like, this dude is so much
what I imagine myself in a
couple years being, doing this.
But I tell you, after that night,
I just remember it was the
beginning of a lot of pain.
The beginning of a whole lot of pain.
Physical pain.
Emotional pain.
Wrestling is a journey in pain.
Nothing to be ashamed of, kid.
You're welcome back at our house any time.
Hey J.D. Horror here.
Mondo was a huge influence on my decision
to get into death-match wrestling.
Just his innovation, his creativity.
Hello, I'm 14 years old.
Nick Mondo has positively
influenced my life
by getting me involved
with death-match wrestling.
That's one of the best things
that's ever happened to me.
He was one reason the younger stars
needed to raise that bar.
And the bar's been set by
Sick Nick so many times.
Life or death, he made
sure he gave the fans
what they wanted to see.
I took that in my own personal level.
I'm willing to do whatever it takes.
My God, to the stomach.
Oh, my God, look at the stomach
of Bryant Woods, I hope there's
a camera closeup of that.
Then Cage of Death, Nick Mondo returns.
An epic pause.
And there he is.
How awesome is that?
For him to come back
10-plus years later,
after he's been gone and
stopped in this business,
and to share that moment
on top of the Cage of Death
with him, to have that and hear the crowd
and share that moment with
Nick Mondo is something
I'll always remember and cherish.
He paved the way for guys like
myself and a lot of others
to continue this style
and genre of wrestling
and to keep CZW alive.
He was one of the pioneers,
and as I like to say often,
part of the ultra-violent
foundation that built the company
and paved the way and to give guys like me
to be able to do all this craziness.
So Nick, thank you very much.
If it wasn't for you, there wouldn't be
a Lucky 13, so thanks.
As I was telling
everybody before, Nick Mondo
will always be a special memory for me.
An inspiration to
myself and many others.
Inspiration.
Everything about Sick Nick
Mondo inspired me so much.
Mondo is my inspiration, he's my idol.
He impacted my whole wrestling career.
He inspired me in many ways, such as
wrestling moves, of course.
Assault Driver!
That's it,
we're going to see it.
New champion.
No, oh!
Oh, my God.
Oh!
So that leaves me with this.
With a broken ankle in two places
and needing surgery.
I had an opportunity to
wrestle the ultra-violent
icon Zandig.
Basically it was the Sick Nick Mondo,
Zandig bump of 2003, which is basically
a bump that inspired me to
be as crazy as I am today.
Ruptured tendons.
Surgery.
I was inspired by Nick Mondo,
and I tried to emulate
him and to do stunts
just as crazy as the ones he was doing
back in the United
States and over in Japan,
but I broke my back.
I broke my spine and
had to quit wrestling.
Just like that it was gone.
I just hope that the legend
of Sick Nick Mondo never dies
and it keeps influencing people
the way it's influenced me.
I mean, thank God I found him and CZW
and everything else that followed.
I mean, you were around
for such a short time,
but you made such an impact
on so many people's lives.
Wrestlers, wrestling fans, everyone, man.
Look at you.
What a leader.
With your followers
carrying on your legacy.
Sacrificing, bleeding,
all to become the image that you created.
A reckless, furious, suicidal maniac.
Breeding violence.
That's who you are.
That's all you are.
And you know this.
But no, you wanted this, you wanted it!
You chose this, and you knew the price.
You understood, even as a boy,
the wages of sin is death.
Not flesh wounds, not broken bones, death.
And you stopped short.
Now there's blood on your hands.
There's blood on your hands.
Not just your own.
It's the blood of your
followers, of your disciples.
So stand up like a man and finish the job.
No.
I was confused.
I was misled.
But the message.
The message was never meant to be guilt.
It was a gesture of compassion.
A free gift that could never be repaid.
But it was never meant to be.
The path I chose,
the path that I created, led me to a lost,
isolated battlefield where
nobody is victorious.
But it was my choice.
And it is my choice
to lay my weapons down.
Listen to me.
There is no separation.
You are a part of me,
and I know what that means.
But this time, I decide how it ends.
No, don't do it, don't do it.
It's not worth it.
You were always,
always and will be
what extreme wrestling,
hardcore wrestling,
and ultra-violent
wrestling is meant to be.
I think it's fine if
people want to get involved
in wrestling, even death-match wrestling.
But you need to be sensible
and you need to know
when it's time to step away.
So I hope that's more part of my legacy is
if people are gonna follow
me, I hope that they follow
the decision to leave
at the right time, too.
I've had some people tell
me that I've inspired them
to do what they're doing,
and it's on one hand
flattering and on another
hand kind of disconcerting,
because I understand
what's gonna happen to them
if they mimic what I'm doing.
So I just hope that
people walk the same road
that I did and just know
when it's time to walk away
'cause it's gonna wreck
your life if you don't.
So I hope that's the case.
No longer anchored down
The world's inside me now
My love will see me through
Till I return to you
In time
In time
In time
In time
It gives then takes away
It breathes then breaks away
I'm just a drifting breeze
Sailing never-ending seas
No longer anchored down
The world's inside me now
My love will see me through
Till I return to you
In time
In time
In time
In time
Dude, give me your chair!
Give me your chair!
And this is
what CZW is all about.
This is exactly what CZW is all about.
Bam!
This is gonna be insanity.
Bam, excuse me!
Oh, that's it!
Mondo!
Nick!
Fuck him up, Mondo.
I definitely don't
think wrestling itself
is inherently a bad thing.
I mean it's exciting, it's entertaining,
it's artful, there's some
serious athletics involved.
But wrestling does tend to pull
a dark side out of me
and it tends to push me
toward taking risks, and I'm
not sure exactly why that is.
It's just, I have an
aptitude for surviving
and thriving in a violent environment.
And death match wrestling
is that sort of environment.
You're willingly going in a
ring in front of a live crowd
and injuring yourself.
Drawing blood, breaking bones,
having concussions.
You know all these
things are gonna happen,
yet you still willingly participate.
It's dysfunctional.
I mean, there is a fun factor for sure,
but there's obviously something
not quite right going on.
And Sick Nick Mondo in there
being tortured by these two,
being absolutely tortured.
He's like a Japanese World
War II kamikaze pilot
with no regard for his own body.
And I said very plainly,
I was like, listen man,
every day because of the stunts
that you're remembered for,
CZW gets new fans.
Every day, without question.
If you search crazy stuff
on YouTube, you know,
stuff that we're kind of infamous for,
and you will see that guy.
Somebody could
get seriously hurt.
This is.
I just can't fathom how he does that.
Two stories, all the way down, boom.
Nick Mondo has been thrown
off of this balcony to the floor
some 20, 25 feet through
a table covered in...
That was crazy shit.
Un F'n Believable.
To this day, the stuff
that the man did in the ring
still holds weight and is
still comparable to anything
that has been done.
He has so many fans all around the world
and even in countries like Turkey.
The guy was insane, he was sick.
People still hold onto what he did
because of how revolutionary he was.
He had the biggest balls ever, ever.
The whole atmosphere when
Nick Mondo came to the ring
was just, I would say mind blowing for me.
Absolutely mind blowing for me as a kid.
He could do spots that
nobody's even heard of.
I mean, the first time
I saw the weed whacker.
Oh, my God, I don't know
how he took that much risks.
I mean, getting hit with a weed whacker.
The weed whacker.
I'm closing my eyes.
I'm closing my eyes.
When I saw that, it was, whoa.
As a fan, I would go back
and watch that over and over
and over again and be like, what the fuck?
He's amazing, and he's just that aura.
You know, that superstar
persona supposed to have
that he had, that he presents
himself when he's in the ring,
that's who you believe in.
You know what I mean, that's
somebody you wanna be.
That's who you believe in, he had that.
And I think point-blank,
half the roster is here
because of him.
I cannot believe this,
this guy is some kind of god.
We've seen that
kid get dragged through
light tubes, fall off a
table, fall off of a balcony
and get back on his feet.
The man is superhuman
with the amount of pain
that he can endure.
The only thing that really bothers me
is to dismiss somebody and simply say,
that guy's crazy, or that girl's insane.
If you trace bad
decisions back far enough,
you will find somebody who
originally was well intentioned.
So if you write somebody off
that way, not only are you
missing out on empathy and
compassion, you're also
gonna miss out on some
pretty interesting stories.
Most pursuits begin with a role model.
The desire's already inside of us.
We just need somebody to
show us how it's done.
His name was Wifebeater.
In a world of bodybuilders
clad in underwear,
tanning bed lobsters, fake tough guys,
he was the real thing.
A filthy jeans wearing,
potato chip eating,
weed whacker carrying,
politically incorrect son of a bitch.
When Wifebeater was on the
card, fans knew what to expect.
A legitimate U.S. Marine
who could walk through anything.
Panes of glass.
200 light tubes.
You could not stop this man.
No matter what you put him through.
What you hit him with.
Bam, with that VCR.
Drop him from heights.
Bash his head in.
No matter what, he'd get back up.
He was not human.
But I do wanna mention
that the fans are supplying
the weapons in this contest.
A marching, undead soldier.
And when his music hit,
you better damn well be ready.
No, no!
A man so adept at violence.
So naturally abusive.
Carrying out actions,
had they been anywhere
but a wrestling ring,
would have landed him in prison.
Oh, my God!
Never in my life
have I seen anything like this.
Standing next to Wifebeater
made me feel like a kid
in a Halloween costume.
He was the real monster I
could only pretend to be.
Look at this right there.
One day, as Wifebeater and I
were preparing for a match in the back,
I asked him, what is it that makes you act
the way you do in the ring?
He frowned at me and said,
"You mean cut myself?"
I said, "Yeah."
Wifebeater blinked a
couple times, then said,
"Bad childhood, what about you?"
Surprisingly, I wasn't
ready for my own question.
But what came out was, "Guilt problems."
Wifebeater nodded, satisfied.
And from there, we went out to have
one of the bloodiest
matches ever to take place
on American soil.
This is the finals
of the Tournament of Death.
Sick Nick Mondo and the Wifebeater
with 200 light tubes.
What's in the bucket?
We cannot see from where we
are what is in that bucket.
The kind of guy in CZW
that almost gets there.
Oh!
Forget about it, it's on.
I don't even know why I
even bother analyzing it.
Wifebeater goes face first
into the light tubes.
Who needs baseball to go on
strike when you have CZW?
Who cares about baseball, Erick?
That's what I'm saying.
And barbed wire spring board leg drop.
But tonight they find themselves battling
for the very same thing,
that Zandig Tournament
of Death Championship.
Bam!
This is ultra violence.
Ultra violent entertainment.
You can't get it anywhere
else but here at CZW.
Ooh.
Oh, pouring salt into the wound.
That's just sick.
At Zandig's Tournament of Death, bam!
And where's it gonna end, John?
Where's it gonna end, how's
a match like this gonna end?
Live in Dover, Delaware,
he's got the weed whacker up.
Leave the weed whacker out of this!
Leave the weed whacker out of this!
It's a human being, not a plant.
The weed whacker's.
I'm closing my eyes!
I'm closing my eyes!
My God, oh!
My God, oh!
Excuse me, Chokenstein!
One, two, three!
It's over!
He won the tournament!
That's just about
as bad as things got.
But no.
That's not where this story starts.
Matt was definitely different
than the other kids I grew up with.
I would say the man thing was
he was always coming up with
new ideas of stuff to do.
And leaves basically, they
capture the sun's energy
and they change it into, and they...
If it wasn't for Matt,
we would have lived very
boring lives as teenagers.
Here's round three
of kegger smashing.
What was that?
Matthew had quite a lot
of friends in high school
and he was kind of the leader
of them, which was nice.
He got into a lot of trouble.
But it wasn't bad things that he did,
it was just mischievous things like
you know, spitballs.
And of course there were probably things
I didn't know about.
Oh, shit.
Uh-oh!
It was always interesting
hanging around with Matt.
We had a friend that
would supply us with M-80s
and quarter sticks.
We had a lot of explosives
on hand that we used.
And if we didn't have those,
we would make match head bombs.
Not anything but just for the simple fact
of blowing things up, it was just for fun.
Whoa.
Hey, there's Terry.
Hey, Terry.
I've never had friends
quite like the people I grew up with.
We did everything together.
We had time for each other.
We never worried that we were wasting it.
We were free to think about
the things that made us laugh.
That made us happy.
And my friends,
they understood me.
As bizarre as I was,
they got my sense of humor.
And they'd join with me in my ambitions
no matter how strange they were.
All of us grew together.
We learned about life
and we changed, together.
I don't think we took it for granted,
but we did imagine that it
would always be that way.
That the world would
always just be a funny joke
to laugh at.
And that all the stress and sadness
that everybody else dealt with,
student loans, job resumes,
car insurance, home mortgages,
weddings to pay for, kids to feed,
divorce lawyers, debt.
Well, we'd just refuse to participate.
Go wipe your ass now!
Oh, shit!
'Cause who could make us?
But in reality, nobody is exempt.
Eventually, in our youth,
most of us will take a hit
that stays with us for life.
Have you spent time thinking about
what it really meant to be crucified?
Have you ever studied what the
Roman crucifixion was like?
They slapped him and
said, "Tell us the name
"of the person that slapped you."
Put a crown of thorns on his forehead
and push it down until it
bites into his temples.
And they take this whip and they lash
into the person over and over again.
They waited for the blood to dry
into the robe that was on his back,
and then they tore it off.
Placed one foot over the other
and drove a spike through his bones.
Every time you sin,
he feels the pain of that sin on the cross
2,000 years ago.
There's not one person in here, not one,
who would be willing to go
through this kind of torture.
Not one of us has the courage.
Not one of us would be able
to stand in for what he did.
Perseverance is nothing
but stubbornness refined.
So you really need to watch what you say
around stubborn people.
I don't think I was worried about Matt
or concerned about Matt growing up.
But I definitely saw signs of
darkness, you know, his
hair started to get longer,
he started wearing ripped, tattered pants
and spiked collars.
If there was anything dark or odd
or creepy, he was into it.
I worried that he was filling his mind
with things that weren't healthy,
and I wondered how this
would affect him negatively.
But I think every teenager
goes through this.
But after a while, down
the line, the ninja battles
just turned into, they were free for alls.
We were going around
trying to hurt each other
basically to get something good on film.
And it did happen.
Matt, I believe, broke his nose.
He bit through his upper lip.
He also incorporated barbed wire
and some fluorescent lights
were in the ninja battles,
but he was the only one brave enough
to take a hit of lights.
Definitely the major injuries
all happened to Matt.
Matt was the one that was
willing to take it the farthest.
Is there any good scars?
Any battle wounds from this one?
That's right about
the time the humor
started to fade.
And the innocence.
My thoughts and my plans
were increasingly guided by violence
and hostility.
But above all, self harm.
That's when I learned
if you can make people laugh
or keep them entertained,
it's amazing the things
you can get away with.
Burns, just all tore up.
No, it's okay.
I'm just hyperactive.
Oh, shit!
No, really.
I'm fine.
See, I'm a fan of stunt work.
That's my motive.
It's just the performance that I enjoy.
Funny thing is,
I don't remember being happy.
I didn't know what I was feeling.
But somehow I was convinced
that I wanted more.
If only there were a place
where this kind of
behavior was normal.
We had to just sit
him down and say, okay,
you are free to do
whatever you want to do,
but you're also free to pay
the consequences of your actions.
And that took a lot of
tension out of our family
because Matthew was really strong willed.
And we released him into a
phase of life where he was
free to make his own decisions.
And he made decisions that
were costly to him sometimes.
Matt is on his own program,
and I don't think anything I would've said
would've had an effect on him.
Matt is just motivated, and I think
even then he knew what he wanted to do.
I think he already had
probably made some plans
on going to wrestling school.
I knew at the time though,
because it wasn't regulated
to the same extent when I was involved,
I knew it was an atmosphere
where I could explore
some of the hostility
that was in me without
getting charges pressed against me.
When he decided to do
this, I actually drew
a picture of him in a set of hands
and drew a little stick
figure of my son inside them
and just said, "Lord, he's yours now.
"I'm trusting you to take
care of him and protect him."
What you see here is nothing
compared to what you're gonna see.
Tell 'em, Mondo!
This is just the start.
This is the way we choose to live.
Nobody tells us we have to do this stuff.
We are ultra violent.
We are CZW, and there's
no other federation
on the planet like us.
It looks like he's trying to go
for the Assault Driver.
The Assault Driver,
the Assault Driver.
25 feet in the air.
Oh, bam, someone call 911!
Are these men mentally sane?
Mondo going upstairs,
high risk maneuver.
The M. Bison, the M. Bison!
Ouch!
Bam!
CZW, CZW!
Nick Mondo has the
highest threshold of pain.
Remember Un F'n Believable?
John House has him up.
Tomorrow everybody sees
just how sick Nick Mondo can be.
Reversal of the
Irish Whip, Nick Mondo!
Holy fuck!
Shit, holy fuck!
The Iron Man Title.
If you wanna wear the Iron Man Title,
you have to wear scars on your body.
If you wanna carry the Iron Man Title,
you have to carry broken bones.
If you wanna have the Iron Man Title,
you have to have concussions.
I've done every single
one of those things.
Are you kidding me?
You gotta be nuts, you
gotta be kidding me.
Nick Mondo just went to hell.
John, somebody could get hurt.
Holy shit, holy shit!
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,
holy shit!
Watching him come off the roof
and fall through the tables was one of the
scariest things I've ever seen.
It was probably one of
the most difficult things
I've ever experienced with Matthew.
No one wants to watch their son
do risky things that will injure them
and possibly for the rest of their life.
Around that time, I
really thought this is just
going too far, like he's
going down a bad road
that he's gonna end up
getting killed or maimed
or paralyzed, you know?
And he's so young in his career,
and he's so young in his life.
You know he's on the
ground, people are chanting
holy shit, holy shit.
And suddenly he starts
moving, and I'm like, okay,
he's moving, good, good, good.
Next thing you know, he gets to his feet
and he walks back to the
ring and finishes the match.
Obviously I felt relief, but I felt like
how can he keep doing this to himself?
You can call me a lot of things,
but don't call me a hero.
And do not envy me.
I've never seen a battlefield.
I've never saved anybody.
My scars were planned.
I didn't earn them.
Age 23
and my youth gone.
I'm the prodigal son.
My inheritance, squandered.
My strength,
the best of me, the last of it,
bleeding out in the parking lot
of a bar in Delaware.
And yet, I was still hungry.
I opened my eyes,
and I saw a fire
that could never be quenched.
The only way to escape
is to turn your back
and walk away.
To disappear.
Truthfully,
when I walked away from wrestling,
I eventually had a bit
of an identity crisis.
You come to realize...
I came to realize that maybe I was more
taking on the persona that
I had created in the ring
than my actual persona.
And if you remove something
like that, that's such a
substantial part of your life,
questions start to arise of
do I even like myself?
Am I even comfortable with myself?
I understood how important that was.
And I also understood how important it was
that I not return to wrestling.
Because I was like, I
want to figure this out.
I am a shell, tossed in
the waves of the ocean.
The only thing I want is stillness.
I can steady my hand.
But inside, I'm shaking.
I exhale.
Empty my lungs.
But I still taste the pollution.
The residue.
I become a vapor.
A ghost, drifting.
Until I find
even spirits can't hide.
Because eventually the demons will come.
And they never ever forget.
Perseverance is nothing
but stubbornness refined.
So you really, really need to watch
what you say and what you do
around stubborn people.
Pounds,
Little Mondo!
Aw!
You wanna talk about an emotional scene,
an emotional moment for this young man,
just think about all he's worked towards,
all he's ever wanted and dreamed about,
he's here under those bright lights.
It's an opportunity
that's 18 years
in the making for this kid.
Whoa, holy shit, nothing
little about that.
And a spring board, nice move!
Shades of his idol, shades of his idol.
Kodak moment for Little Mondo.
This kid's gonna take that
memory with him wherever he goes.
And of course it made
me kind of smile at first,
and it was fun to see.
But a couple years into
it, he started mimicking
the violent stuff that I had done.
And I started really seeing him take some
serious damage to his body.
And it made me uncomfortable
to the extent that eventually
I told him, like Rory,
please just don't send me these videos.
I don't wanna see 'em.
Look at that table
full of sliced aluminum cans.
This is the new era
of ultra violence.
The most disgusting
match I've seen all year.
Look at these guys, oh my God.
Ripping at his face!
Bulldozer says
I'm gonna break that table
if it kills him.
M. Bison between the, oh, no!
Oh, Little Mondo
says merry mother fucking Christmas!
This is why I attempted to join CZW
is for the ultra-violent tournament style.
I was here since the first
Tournament of Death as a fan
watching, watching my hero Sick Nick Mondo
win this tournament himself.
Now it's my dream to do it myself.
So for once, someone's gonna
try to bury Rory Mondo that's not mean
during one of his matches.
And I forget that he lost.
He lost against Ron Mathis.
Wow, Rory Mondo, where is
Rory finding the energy?
Now looking for this cut throat driver.
Right on his head, right
on the top of his head.
Right into the coffin!
Well he's got five seconds.
This is where he got
me with the double stomp.
Here, and he got me pretty
good in the back, too.
Barbed wire, light tubes, tack strips.
Last but not least,
this is where he got me
with the light tube right in my head.
He stuck one good right in there.
Please don't make me do this.
Please don't make me do this.
Japan is a really good place to hide.
Especially Tokyo.
It's a city of 12 million
people, but ironically,
it's one of the loneliest
places I've ever been.
People generally just keep to themselves.
They mind their own business.
But it's a really good place to go
if you basically just want
to get lost in the noise.
Or if you're trying to forget something.
It's like it's 2002
all over again.
Are we really
asking for 2002 back?
I certainly am.
I said it once, I'll say it again.
Whether I'm in the United States, Japan,
fucking Antarctica wants
to bring out barbed wire,
let's do this shit.
Because I'm not little,
and it's getting violent.
Little Mondo,
fighting for his jugular.
Oh, my God!
Staggering, the man,
oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!
The unsuspecting Rory Mondo
never even saw it coming.
The hopes and dreams of Little Mondo,
following in the footsteps
of Sick Nick Mondo
in Tournament of Death
has just been shattered
along with that glass.
Little Mondo
a bloody mess right now.
His ribs, he wants to
complain about his chest?
I'm fucking hurting Danny
Havoc, but I didn't complain.
You almost died tonight.
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo,
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Oh God, Mondo is in
not a good spot right now.
Mondo climbing up top.
Oh, my God!
Stay awake.
Stay awake.
A bloody mess.
Just a faucet of blood coming out
of that man's head right now.
I'll tell you what, Little Mondo
is doing his hero proud right now.
No, no.
He's right in
the shrapnel, oh, my God!
And the trial of blood left from the body.
No, no, no.
Please don't make me do this.
Please don't make me do this.
Oh, my God.
This fucking shit.
What the fuck?
Don't do this to me, don't do this to me.
It's not the same this time.
It's not gonna be the
same, it can't be the same.
I don't listen to you anymore,
I don't listen to you.
I bring you back, but it's
not gonna be the same.
You listen to me this
time, do you hear me?
Understand?
I can't go back.
I can't go back to that place.
I can't go through this again, I can't.
It's not going to be like
before, please, please, please.
You have to realize, I really
didn't want to come back
when I made the return to CZW.
It was uncomfortable for me.
Being so far removed from wrestling,
you have to understand it was 10 years
since I walked away from the ring.
It's not easy to just
get back in character,
to step in and do that.
But it was something I
actually felt I should do.
Cage of fucking
death, everybody!
So the tables are accounted for.
The panes of glass are accounted for.
Now the serious stuff
is about to happen.
What do you think
about this whole deal?
I can't watch this stuff,
this makes me nervous.
Back here waiting for
your music or whatever,
it's like you gotta get
in the mindset of like
pretty much like you're
walking into your funeral.
There's always a little
bit of butterflies.
You don't want to get hurt.
I don't want any of these
other people to get hurt.
What do you think?
Of the match?
Yeah, are you excited, nervous?
Nervous.
And in passing, I'm like,
was that Sick Nick Mondo?
Because I had no idea.
But I mean the fact that
he's here is just like,
A big deal, right?
Yeah, you know tomorrow
that's all that's gonna be
talked about, oh, Mondo, oh, Mondo.
I was absolutely shocked.
That's a shoot, that is an absolute shoot.
That's not Greg Excellent,
that's Greg Skipper.
I will tell you, that's
a fucking surprise.
Out of the blue.
He heard about the cage and contacted me
about what was going on in the cage match.
He wants to be here just to make sure
I pretty much don't die in this match.
That's the reason why he's actually here.
Beautiful.
Nick, Matt, thank you for coming back.
My man Matt Tremont.
If he ain't pumped up yet,
I'm about to punch him
in the motherfucking face.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time
for your main event
of the evening.
CZW, CZW!
CZW, CZW!
Oh!
Oh, a brain buster on the platform!
Oh, my God.
I think he's eliminated.
And there is a man without
a care in the world.
Oh!
Oh!
Little fight left in
Havoc but not for long.
Oh, my God!
Oh, oh, oh, my God!
Indoor chair-shot record set.
Everyone, fighting through hell right now.
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Pull the string!
Oh, my God!
It looks like glass,
thumbtacks, and legos.
Oh, no!
Christ Almighty!
No, no, no, no, no!
Oh, Jesus, he died, the man's dead.
What?
That's Sick Nick Mondo!
Holy shit!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
No way!
There is one hero left.
I have never heard this crowd
so loud as I do right now.
Lucky 13, oh!
It's over.
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
No!
No!
No!
10 years ago, I was out there,
and it was you.
I was watching you!
I came out here to live up
to you, and fucking you left!
You left these people.
He left you!
He left you!
Out here, and now I'm
here, and he left you!
And I get no fucking respect!
No respect!
I know you don't feel
respected by these people.
I know you don't feel
respected by the wrestlers.
I came back here to tell you something.
You've done enough.
You've done enough to earn my respect.
I earned your respect?
That's all I ever wanted.
That's all I ever wanted was
my idol to come back to CZW.
I just want to say,
from the bottom of my heart,
this is my last match ever.
And I just want to thank everybody here.
I just want to thank everybody.
This is my last match,
and there's no other way
I could go out, than with him here.
And that's it,
that's his last match ever.
That's all he wanted,
that's all he did this for.
And he finally got what he wanted.
Yeah, what a scene here.
Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo, Mondo!
I mean Rory Mondo felt as though
he had been forgotten about.
But it seems like the
one person the whole time
that never forgot about him
was his idol, Sick Nick Mondo.
Some people wrestle for titles.
Rory Mondo wanted the respect
of the guy that he idolized.
He used to sit front row for the shows
back at the ECW Arena and watch
Sick Nick Mondo destroy himself.
He modeled his entire life.
Not his career, his
entire life after that.
I'm stepping in the ring to try to be
one of the most famous
independent wrestlers of all time.
Few can ever match what
he did in the ring.
He had that it factor.
And I'm trying to replicate that
and not natural at all at
it, so it's really difficult.
I don't feel like I lived
up at all those first
couple years to that
expectation to be like him.
So fast forward to the
Cage of Death moment.
I think at that time
everybody in the entire place
was on their feet, whether
they hated me or not,
because Nick Mondo, one,
was in the building,
and two, it was a very
emotional moment for everybody.
Even my friends who were there freaked out
and they barely knew who he was.
They didn't have that
connection that I did.
And they were like, oh, my God.
Talk about a special moment.
Just not for me retiring.
Everybody, I'm sharing
the ring with the guy
who I wanted to be my entire life.
Are you aware of
the legacy you left behind?
Do you realize kind of like
the magnitude inside CZW
of what your career means
to so many of the guys
that came after you?
You're still considered to this day
one of the icons of death-match,
and it's been 10 years since
you even stepped in a ring.
I saw Sick Nick Mondo
the first time ever
at IWA King of the Death-matches.
Mondo, Mondo!
Mondo!
I remember standing right by the table
and he got thrown off the
balcony, took that big bump.
But I remember taking
pictures as he was coming down
and just going, this is what I'm gonna do.
I thought the dude was
gonna die, personally.
But when he didn't, I was
like, this dude is so much
what I imagine myself in a
couple years being, doing this.
But I tell you, after that night,
I just remember it was the
beginning of a lot of pain.
The beginning of a whole lot of pain.
Physical pain.
Emotional pain.
Wrestling is a journey in pain.
Nothing to be ashamed of, kid.
You're welcome back at our house any time.
Hey J.D. Horror here.
Mondo was a huge influence on my decision
to get into death-match wrestling.
Just his innovation, his creativity.
Hello, I'm 14 years old.
Nick Mondo has positively
influenced my life
by getting me involved
with death-match wrestling.
That's one of the best things
that's ever happened to me.
He was one reason the younger stars
needed to raise that bar.
And the bar's been set by
Sick Nick so many times.
Life or death, he made
sure he gave the fans
what they wanted to see.
I took that in my own personal level.
I'm willing to do whatever it takes.
My God, to the stomach.
Oh, my God, look at the stomach
of Bryant Woods, I hope there's
a camera closeup of that.
Then Cage of Death, Nick Mondo returns.
An epic pause.
And there he is.
How awesome is that?
For him to come back
10-plus years later,
after he's been gone and
stopped in this business,
and to share that moment
on top of the Cage of Death
with him, to have that and hear the crowd
and share that moment with
Nick Mondo is something
I'll always remember and cherish.
He paved the way for guys like
myself and a lot of others
to continue this style
and genre of wrestling
and to keep CZW alive.
He was one of the pioneers,
and as I like to say often,
part of the ultra-violent
foundation that built the company
and paved the way and to give guys like me
to be able to do all this craziness.
So Nick, thank you very much.
If it wasn't for you, there wouldn't be
a Lucky 13, so thanks.
As I was telling
everybody before, Nick Mondo
will always be a special memory for me.
An inspiration to
myself and many others.
Inspiration.
Everything about Sick Nick
Mondo inspired me so much.
Mondo is my inspiration, he's my idol.
He impacted my whole wrestling career.
He inspired me in many ways, such as
wrestling moves, of course.
Assault Driver!
That's it,
we're going to see it.
New champion.
No, oh!
Oh, my God.
Oh!
So that leaves me with this.
With a broken ankle in two places
and needing surgery.
I had an opportunity to
wrestle the ultra-violent
icon Zandig.
Basically it was the Sick Nick Mondo,
Zandig bump of 2003, which is basically
a bump that inspired me to
be as crazy as I am today.
Ruptured tendons.
Surgery.
I was inspired by Nick Mondo,
and I tried to emulate
him and to do stunts
just as crazy as the ones he was doing
back in the United
States and over in Japan,
but I broke my back.
I broke my spine and
had to quit wrestling.
Just like that it was gone.
I just hope that the legend
of Sick Nick Mondo never dies
and it keeps influencing people
the way it's influenced me.
I mean, thank God I found him and CZW
and everything else that followed.
I mean, you were around
for such a short time,
but you made such an impact
on so many people's lives.
Wrestlers, wrestling fans, everyone, man.
Look at you.
What a leader.
With your followers
carrying on your legacy.
Sacrificing, bleeding,
all to become the image that you created.
A reckless, furious, suicidal maniac.
Breeding violence.
That's who you are.
That's all you are.
And you know this.
But no, you wanted this, you wanted it!
You chose this, and you knew the price.
You understood, even as a boy,
the wages of sin is death.
Not flesh wounds, not broken bones, death.
And you stopped short.
Now there's blood on your hands.
There's blood on your hands.
Not just your own.
It's the blood of your
followers, of your disciples.
So stand up like a man and finish the job.
No.
I was confused.
I was misled.
But the message.
The message was never meant to be guilt.
It was a gesture of compassion.
A free gift that could never be repaid.
But it was never meant to be.
The path I chose,
the path that I created, led me to a lost,
isolated battlefield where
nobody is victorious.
But it was my choice.
And it is my choice
to lay my weapons down.
Listen to me.
There is no separation.
You are a part of me,
and I know what that means.
But this time, I decide how it ends.
No, don't do it, don't do it.
It's not worth it.
You were always,
always and will be
what extreme wrestling,
hardcore wrestling,
and ultra-violent
wrestling is meant to be.
I think it's fine if
people want to get involved
in wrestling, even death-match wrestling.
But you need to be sensible
and you need to know
when it's time to step away.
So I hope that's more part of my legacy is
if people are gonna follow
me, I hope that they follow
the decision to leave
at the right time, too.
I've had some people tell
me that I've inspired them
to do what they're doing,
and it's on one hand
flattering and on another
hand kind of disconcerting,
because I understand
what's gonna happen to them
if they mimic what I'm doing.
So I just hope that
people walk the same road
that I did and just know
when it's time to walk away
'cause it's gonna wreck
your life if you don't.
So I hope that's the case.
No longer anchored down
The world's inside me now
My love will see me through
Till I return to you
In time
In time
In time
In time
It gives then takes away
It breathes then breaks away
I'm just a drifting breeze
Sailing never-ending seas
No longer anchored down
The world's inside me now
My love will see me through
Till I return to you
In time
In time
In time
In time