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Nick Mondo
Birth name	Matthew T. Burns
Born	(1980-03-28) March 28, 1980 (age 38) Minneapolis, Minnesota[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Nick Mondo[1] Pepperoni Tony [2]
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1,85 m)[1]
Billed weight	202 lb (92 kg)[1]
Trained by	Bodyslammers Gym[1]
Debut	March 1999
Retired	July 26, 2003[1]

Matthew "Matt" T. Burns^[1] (born March 28, 1980) better known by his ring name "Sick" Nick Mondo is a retired American professional wrestler. Burns is best known for his appearances with Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). He was known throughout his career for his willingness to take extremely dangerous bumps, such as being hit with a weed wacker, getting thrown into a table covered with barbed wire, slammed from a distance of 40 feet onto lightubes and concrete and other ultraviolent spots. In 2004, Burns was inducted into CZW's Hall of Fame.^[3]

Professional wrestling career

Early career

During his start out in 1999 in Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling, he would feud to the likes of Eddie Valentine.
His CZW debut was on May 6, 2000 against Trent Acid, at A Living Hell.^[4] At Caged to the End on June 10, 2000, he was involved in a Three Way Dance against Mercury and Ty Street. He fought Justice Pain on June 25, 2000, in a field near the Champs Arena, titled They Said It Couldn't Be Done. A few months later he teamed up with Ric Blade and fought The Backseat Boyz (Trent Acid and Johnny Kashmere), which saw Blade at the end of the match after a Swanton bomb off the Champs Arena wall through two stacked tables with Acid on top and Kashmere on a bottom table. They won the CZW World Tag Team Championships around this time; but eventually split and began a feud with one another after losing the titles to the original H8 Club of Justice Pain and Wifebeater.

The feud would still go on as at Crushing The Competition on February 10, 2001 in Sewell, New Jersey, Blade would team up with Super Crazy to take on Mondo in a Handicap 3-way ladder match.^[5] The feud would end in a "Barbed Wire Ladder Match" as well a huge Swanton bomb an off the Champs Arena wall from Blade on to Mondo through a table. Blade won the match with a Moonsault from the top rope with a ladder he positioned under Mondo, breaking Mondo's nose in the process.^[6]

Iron Man championship run and Tournament of Death

The "Fans Bring The Weapons" tag-team match featured him teaming with Jun Kasai against Justice Pain and Johnny Kashmere (sub for Wifebeater) at Un F'N Believable in April 2001 included plenty of blood which was later dubbed "Un F'N Believable", in reference to the shows name. During the match, Kasai was crucifix bombed over the top rope into lightubes, barbed wire and tables, causing Kasai's elbow bone to pop out of his skin. He continued the match after having his elbow taped up.^[7] Mondo's first title capture was the CZW Iron Man Championship title win against Wifebeater and Mad Man Pondo at Breakaway Brawl in June 2001.^[8] Mondo was involved the extremely violent 6 man tag team match teaming with Zandig, Wifebeater against The Backseat Boyz and Justice Pain at H8 Club Dead? in July 2001, in this match his back was a mess of blood.^[9] Mondo was in a no rope barbed wire match in the pouring rain against Nick Gage at And Justice And For All in August 2001, he was splashed through a table by Gage, and lost the CZW Iron Man Championship.^[10] He failed to recapture the Iron Man championship a Falls Count Anywhere three way versus Adam Flash and Nick Berk at CZW's biggest show ever Cage of Death III in December 15, 2001, losing to Flash.^[11] He has had numerous memorable bouts during this run to capture the CZW World Heavyweight Championship; the first battle with Messiah at This Time it's Personal in February 2002,^[12] taking Justice Pain to his limit and coming within an eyelash of winning the World title at A Higher Level of Pain in April 2002,^[13] and a 64-minute four way classic with Mondo, Messiah, Flash, and Justice Pain at High Stakes, which he won the CZW Iron Man Championship in a double pin.^[14] Mondo fought Messiah in the first found and coming up short against Wifebeater at CZW's first Tournament of Death in a memorable spot where Mondo received a weedwhacker to the stomach.^[15] However, Mondo and Wifebeater would team up to face Necro Butcher and "Mr Insanity" Toby Klein at Ultraviolent Freedom of Expression on September 14, 2002.^[16][17] His partner Blade returned at Beyond The Barrier on October 12, 2002, with Nick Mondo defeating Johnny Kashmere.^[18] At Cage of Death IV on December 13, 2002, he competed in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against The Backseat Boyz with Mondo as his partner but ended up losing. The Backseats won in the end with the Acid Bomb with Blade's head in the ladder.^[19] Mondo failed to capture the CZW Death Match Championship a three way with Zandig and Nate Hatred at Live Again January 2003. Mondo had his swan song a bump that will never be forgotten vs Zandig and victory over Ian Rotten to win CZW's 2nd annual Tournament of Death in July 2003.^[20]

Retirement

Burns retired in 2003 after suffering several injuries during his career, the last of which was a severely punctured back which he suffered during his match against John Zandig at Tournament of Death 2 (which Burns won), a match in which he was already wrestling with three broken bones in his right wrist. There was a rumour that Burns was to return at CZW's Cage Of Death XII, which was false.^[21] In addition to his ring work, Burns has been featured as a playable character in Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood along with Zandig.^[22]

Return (2013)

Burns would make his return to CZW at their Cage of Death XV Internet pay-per-view as he would run down to the ring to help Lucky 13 during his match against Cage of Death match. Afterward, Rory Mondo would then come back out after being eliminated in the match with Lucky 13 to be shocked to see his idol in the ring again.
Mondo would tell Rory that he returned to prevent Rory from mutilating himself in honor of Mondo. He would then tell Rory that he has earned his respect. Rory would then retire.^[23] On the 26th of December 2016, Burns posted a blog post about a potential return to the ring after his film 'The Trade' is released. Burns has said he does not want to do deathmatches, but matches more akin to 90s ECW style wrestling.^[24] Burns would make his in ring return on the 21st of July 2017 for Brian Kendrick's Wrestling Pro Wrestling as Pepperoni Tony, where he would team with Chow Mein Charlie to defeat The Delivery Boys. He would wrestle again for Brian Kendrick's Wrestling Pro Wrestling on the 25th of August 2017, teaming with General Tso Tso to wrestle Rubber Baby Leather Daddy to a no-contest. ^[25]

Filmography

Championships and accomplishments

• 
  Combat Zone Wrestling
  
  • 
    CZW Iron Man Championship (3 times)^[1] (CZW world tag team championship 1 time (with rick blade)
  
  
  • 
    Tournament of Death (II)^[1]
  
  
  • 
    CZW Hall of Fame (2004)
  
  
  • Match of the Year (2002) vs. Wifebeater^[1]
  
  
  • Match of the Year (2003) vs. Justice Pain^[1]
  
  

References

External links

• Match History at Indy Wrestling News


• An interview with Nick Mondo, conducted by Genickbruch.com