Exclusive Insight Into A Possible Season Two Of Starz’s Heels
Matt Burns, a.k.a. Nick Mondo, was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Mondo is a GCW Deathmatch Hall of Famer, a filmmaker and an actor and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Mondo what projects he's working on at the moment.
"I'm also dabbling in stunt work, which is very interesting to me. Do you know the show Heels? I was there for the whole first season working on the stunt team," Mondo said. "You'll spot me a few times in the show. They actually let me wear my gimmick, my Nick Mondo gimmick, on the show. I think there's going to be a season two. I haven't gotten the confirmation, but I'm hearing some rumblings, and so I'm very eager to get back in there."
Mondo spoke more on his stunt work experience, revealing what it was like to work on Heels.
"I earned my SAG membership when I was living in Los Angeles, and then I moved to Atlanta two years ago," Mondo noted. "I was just starting to get my stunt gigs in LA. The last Gears of War game, it was brutal. We did all of the action, all of the stunts, everything within two days, explosions, reactions to explosions and all the death scenes. It was not my first big stunt gig, but it was a really good time on the show. They built that whole arena.
"It looks like a warehouse, where they run the shows. That's all inside of a soundstage at Tyler Perry Studios. So you walk into the soundstage and then there's another shell inside of that. They just constructed that whole area. It's just like a fake wrestling arena. They built the whole thing in there, and you've got the office where the promoter sits and works through.
"Stephen Amell and Mary McCormack, they work in the office there, and you've got the locker room and sort of the gym area, it's all in there. I love seeing this stuff. I believe they're going to get into more deathmatches in season two, and I've already thrown my name in the hat. Guys give me some of that stuff, to see how they would pull that off with Hollywood effects would be so exciting just to see how they handle barbed wire and glass and blood and all that. And so I really want to take part in that if that happens."
Hausman recalled Chavo Guerrero talking about how grueling shooting wrestling matches for TV can be since you have to film so many bumps.
"It's funny because it's so much easier, but at the same time, it is a bit harder," Mondo admitted. "Easier because it's like, okay, we're going to film the battle royal, and you're thinking, okay, what are the spots going to be, but it's more like 20 second shots. The camera's tracking across, and in that 20 seconds, I'm getting choked. I'm getting choked, and then I get tossed out of the ring. 'That was the battle royal.' Oh, really?
"Stevie Richards was there. I got to sit down and chat with him for the first time. I really like that guy, and we were in the back and he was kind of wincing. And somebody's like, 'You okay,' and he's like, 'Yeah, I'm just trying to eat this headache away. He kept eating.' I don't know if that's a tactic for getting rid of a headache. He's like, 'What happened?' And he said, 'Oh, it's just going hot, cold, hot, cold.' Basically, cold, like you're not warmed. 'Alright, action!' And there was a shot where this big, muscular guy powers everybody back, and Stevie had to just jump and take a big back bump, and your head usually bounces a little bit when you take those.
"If you're not warm, if we're just waiting and waiting, then 'okay, actually,' and then you do it, that can be a little bit rough when you're not warmed up. But at the same time, it's usually just one quick bump, and you're done, as opposed to you wrestle a full match and you're an actor and you're a stunt man who's doing his own stunts, and we're talking 30 to 50 stunts that you're executing in real time. I feel like stunt work is actually quite a bit easier than wrestling on your body."
You can follow Mondo on Twitter @NickMondoMedia
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