Nick Mondo Talks About The Red Herrings Jon Moxley Included In His NJPW "Time's Up" Video

When Jon Moxley created his New Japan Time's Up video, there were several red herrings throughout the video that were intended to throw people off as to what it was all about.

The filmmaker who created the video, Nick Mondo spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast about that in addition to the timeline between the prison break video and the Time's Up one.

"The prison break video was only two days. It was one partial day when he got into town and we let him sleep in the next day and then began a crazy 15-hour day," said Mondo. "Then it took about two weeks working with post production and to do the titles. I think it was only like three weeks after the first one that we shot the second one."

Moxley had his own ideas for the video and New Japan also had their own ideas. Mondo described what it was like working with NJPW on the project.

"They wanted him to respond to Juice Robinson's open challenge, but I think they wanted a video where he says, 'I'm coming for you' or something like that. But Jon preferred his return to wrestling outside of WWE to be in person rather than a video. It was his request that he be kept a secret. So, that was the compromise," revealed Mondo.

Like many other people, Mondo didn't know about Moxley's AEW debut before it happened, but he popped once it did occur.

"I just wanna make more of these videos and work more with the talent. I just sit back and watch what happens," said Mondo who was also asked if other WWE talents looking to leave have hit him up.

"I'm game and definitely wanna do more of this. I'm at the point where I'm not a huge wrestling fan currently. But what's happening right now is pulling me back in. My interests are more cinematic but I used to be a wrestler so I have a good understanding of how it works. So, I'd love to bring more of this cinematic aesthetic to wrestling.

Mondo was then asked if there was a worry that people would figure out that it was Moxley in the Time's Up video.

"There really was because the second video was released just four days after the first. We thought maybe it would be impossible to hide it. He wanted some red herrings in there with Union Jack the flag, cowboy boots and tequila," said Mondo. "This was just to throw people in different directions and it worked a little bit too easily. The union jack threw people off? some people thought it was a certain Japanese wrestler.

"When it dropped, [fans] were like, 'Oh, we should have known.'"

Nick Mondo is a CZW Hall of Famer and current independent filmmaker. For more information about Mondo you can follow him on Twitter @NickMondoMedia or visit his website NickMondoMedia.com. Mondo's full interview with Wrestling Inc. was included as part of Thursday's episode of our WINCLY podcast, which can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Mondo discusses becoming friends with Moxley, the original pitch from Moxley about the "prison break" video, his desire to keep working with Moxley, NJPW and AEW and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.