Nick Mondo

Matthew Burns
Data
Ring name	"Sick" Nick Mondo "Hardcore" Nick Mondo "Slick" Nick Mondo
height	185 cm
Fighting weight	91 kg
birth	03/28/1980 Minneapolis , Minnesota
Trained by	Bodyslammers Gym ( Al Snow )
debut	March 1999
retirement	November 2003

Matthew "Matt" Burns (born March 28, 1980 ) is a retired American wrestler . He was best known under his ring name "Sick" Nick Mondo and mainly competed for the wrestling promotions Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and IWA Mid-South . Due to his numerous injuries, Burns resigned from active wrestling at the end of 2003 and has since devoted himself to his art studies.

Career

Wrestling

Matthew Burns has been a huge wrestling fanatic since childhood. Above all, Terry Brunk 's ring character Sabu had done to him in the 1990s and he decided to become a wrestler himself. Burns joined the high school , and now settled at Al Snow in Cleveland ( Ohio trained as a wrestler). After his wrestling training, he started his career as a so-called highflying wrestler at Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling in 1999 . It was there that Burns also slowly trained his later gimmick, which was then called "Hardcore" Nick Mondo . In 1999 he came into contact with wrestler John Corson, who ran a wrestling school (Combat Zone Wrestling School) in New Jersey under his ring name John Zandig . Matthew Burns then moved in early 2000 to the promotion Combat Zone Wrestling , which was also operated by Corson and called himself "Slick" Nick Mondo . The CZW sent him on a Japan tour at the end of the same year , where he made a name for himself as a death match wrestler with the Big Japan promotion .

From 2001 onwards, Matthew Burns also distinguished himself in the CZW with a very high degree of brutality in his hardcore and ultraviolent matches. When he returned from Japan, he converted his gimmick into that of "Sick" Nick Mondo .

In 2002, Matthew Burns was already at the height of his career: He competed in his hometown in a match against one of his great idols - the Sandman . Matthew Burns had already won several CZW titles and put his body on the line in some almost life-threatening bumps . At the final of the first CZW Tournament of Death , for example, it was trimmed with a grass trimmer . Also, Matthew Burns cut several times during the matches in CZW and IWA on barbed wire or the shards of employed in the match fluorescent tubes the wrists on.

Matthew Burns returned to school between his injuries and during tournament breaks. There he attended a film and video course , among other things , and began to draw again. The video course was the motivation for Burns to decide to do something in the direction of film after his wrestling career. He enrolled in college and began keeping a video diary again.

By the end of 2002 he said he had largely lost his passion for wrestling again. He was reluctant to compete in tournaments. Burns was sent on a tour of Italy , where he was allowed to teach young Italian wrestlers basic wrestling skills during a seminar. He also started drawing again. But during his stay in Italy he was involved in a serious car accident when he was hit by a truck on his rental car and Burns was left with a severe whiplash. He also documented this accident in detail in his video diary.
Then he broke his wrist during the semifinals of the second CZW Tournament of Death due to an unsuccessful action on the top ring rope. Burns continued to play in the tournament. At the end of this tournament, on July 26th, 2003 (which Matthew Burns was also able to win), he and his opponent Zandig fell from the roof of a house and from a height of over 10 meters through several tables that were additionally provided with fluorescent tubes . The serious injuries sustained in this match (including deep cuts on the back) were probably the decisive factor for Matthew Burns in his decision to end his active wrestling career. Burns gave in his documentary Unscarred the following three reasons for his resignation: His participation in the film and video course (and thus his renewed drawing career), the Italian accident and the injuries from the second Tournament of Death.

Matthew Burns unexpectedly reappeared on February 7, 2004 when he was inducted into the CZW Hall of Fame for Combat Zone Wrestling.

Movie

Burns now works as a film director. In December 2003, Unscarred: The Life of Nick Mondo, a documentary about the life of Matthew Burns, was published, which he himself directed.

This documentary consists of interviews with his father, mother, girlfriend and best friend. In addition, Matthew Burns talks about his youth and school days as well as his wrestling career. In addition, private video clips are shown that show him during his youth and wrestling days.

In his second film, Fighting the Still Life , Burns hired then WWE wrestler Ken Anderson as an actor.

Another documentary was released in 2017 with Der Tausch .

particularities

In Burn's documentary Unscarred , his girlfriend Bonnie has a say. She is a trained wrestler and both met in 2002 in the CZW promotion.

successes

• Combat Zone Wrestling

• Member of the Hall of Fame
• 1 × CZW World Tag Team Champion (with Ric Blade)
• 4 × CZW Iron Man Champion
• Winner of the CZW Tournament of Death 2

• Others

• 1 × AWF Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × NCWA Hardcore Champion

Web links

• Matt Burns in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Profile on Neckbruch.com
• Profile on Cagematch.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/n/nick-mondo.html