wrestling / News

Nick Mondo On Nick Gage’s AEW Dynamite Debut, Working With Gage on GCW Countdown

October 8, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Chris Jericho Nick Gage AEW Dynamite Fight For the Fallen Image Credit: AEW

Nick Mondo filmed the countdown special for Nick Gage’s upcoming match with Jon Moxley, and the hardcore legend has shared his reaction to seeing Gage on AEW Dynamite and more. Mondo spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview, and you can check out some highlights below:

On Gage making his AEW debut against Chris Jericho: “One of those things you can never imagine until you see it. It was a bit watered down, but Gage taking that top rope Frankensteiner on glass, that was legit. I just love that moment. I kept watching that over and over. It was just one of those gifts. One of those that you couldn’t even imagine until you see it. I loved that, and it got a lot more eyeballs on him. It helped him with his merchandise and everything I’m sure. I was so happy. When we shot in the prison, that was just two days before he faced Jericho, so I got to kind of chat with him leading up to that. He was calm, and he was cool about it. Saw it as a real opportunity and it was. I don’t know this, but I believe they might be doing a bit more of the hardcore stuff on Rampage, and so maybe you’ll see Gage again. I don’t know, but I believe they’re going to do some more of that. But I think all of us are just so happy to see him get that opportunity.”

On working with Gage on the GCW Countdown special: “Eastern State Penitentiary is a retired prison in Philadelphia, and it’s just visually stunning, but I think Tuesday through Friday you can go there and tour there and it’s cheap. Mondays they leave it closed for people who want to rent it for shoots and whatever, and so I talked them into letting me rent it for one hour, which I think was $500. That’s all we could afford to put into it. They kept warning me ahead of time, ‘You should have somebody come scout because that hour is gonna go quick,’ and I looked up some photos and I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘Oh, that’s cell block 7.’ I said, ‘No, I’m good. I’m good.’ We comfortably got our shots and got out of there. It was funny because I brought Gage in there, and he’s like, ‘Aw man, I’ve always wanted to come here.’

“His girlfriend called him on the phone, and she was like, ‘I’m so jealous. I want to be there with you,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, we’ll come back. You should see it.’ And I just thought it was amusing he liked tagging around there, but it probably doesn’t feel anything like a current prison. It’s just high vaulted ceilings with sky lights. I wanted to shoot during the day because night would be more dramatic, but you’d have to light the place. Good grief, I couldn’t do that in an hour, and that’d be way too expensive, but that was a fantastic location to get.”