Michael Brendli (born March 26, 1983), better known by the ring name Mike Mondo, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently performing on the independent circuit – predominantly for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he is the former one-time NWA National Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his time in WWE as Mike Mondo and Mikey as a member of The Spirit Squad.
After training at the Critical Mass Wrestling School, he debuted in June 2002 and began working for several independent promotions as Mike Mondo, Livewyre, or El Livewyre. His earliest success came in the New York Wrestling Connection promotion, where he won the NYWC Heavyweight Championship on two occasions between 2003 and 2005. In February 2005, he signed a contract with WWE, and was assigned to the OVW developmental territory. There, he formed The Spirit Squad faction with four other wrestlers.
The Spirit Squad debuted on the Raw brand in January 2006, and quickly won the World Tag Team Championship in April. They held the championship for seven months, before losing it in early November. They were taken off television in late 2006. He returned to OVW in 2007, before being moved to the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) territory in September. He competed in FCW until his WWE release in June 2008. He then returned to the independent circuit, and later returned to OVW, where he won both the OVW Television Championship and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in 2009. He went on to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship for the first time in mid-2010 and the second time in early 2011.
Brendli began training at the Critical Mass Pro Wrestling wrestling school during his freshman year of college. He debuted in June 2002, and wrestled on the independent circuit, both in New York and in New Jersey. Brendli first became known as "Livewyre", occasionally competing under a mask as "El Livewyre". Most of his early success was in the New York Wrestling Connection promotion, where he had a nine-month undefeated streak. Competing as "Livewire" Mike Mondo he won the NYWC Heavyweight Championship from "Superstar" Dickie Rodz on June 7, 2003, holding it for approximately two months, until he vacated it. On March 26, 2005, he defeated Joey Matthews to win the NYWC Heavyweight Championship for the second time, and later successfully retained the championship against Mikey Whipwreck. Mondo lost the championship to Matt Striker on April 30, after holding it for just over a month.
Brendli was also competing in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) during this time, making his debut in September 2003. He appeared in several dark matches prior to the television tapings against wrestlers including Tank Toland, Joey Matthews, and Carly Colón.
World Wrestling Entertainment (2005-2008)
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2005–2006)
Brendli signed a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) developmental contract in February 2005, and was assigned to OVW full-time. First he acted as a manager, then became a full-time wrestler and a member of the Bolin Services faction led by Kenny "The King Maker" Bolin. He competed in a tournament for the OVW Television Championship, but lost in the first round to Alexis Laree. Embarrassed by losing to a female wrestler, Mondo issued an open challenge to any woman backstage, and a result, lost to Victoria.
In late summer 2005, Mondo feuded with Brent Albright after attacking Albright during a match with Da Beast and injuring his eye. Albright obtained revenge on Mondo, however, defeating him by submission at the television tapings on September 7. Throughout the end of 2005, Mondo continued to team with various members of Bolin Services, mainly Johnny Jeter and Da Beast. In December 2005, Mondo debuted a character, where he pretended to be a luchadore, and competed under a mask as "El Mondo". He won several dark matches using the El Mondo gimmick, before losing to CM Punk in a televised match.
In late 2005, Mondo joined the Spirit Squad, a faction of five wrestlers using the in-ring personas of male cheerleaders, as Mikey. Brendli has described being in the Spirit Squad as "the most fun" he's had in his career. Mikey and Kenny began appearing in dark matches and at live events using the Spirit Squad gimmick, and on January 2, 2006, Mikey lost to Chavo Guerrero. On January 23, 2006, they had their WWE television debut as a group, appearing on Raw and helping Jonathan Coachman win a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Jerry "The King" Lawler by distracting Lawler and performing cheers for Coachman. They later became a part of the ongoing scripted feud between WWE chairman Mr. McMahon and Shawn Michaels. The heel (villainous) McMahon brought in the Spirit Squad to attack Michaels on numerous occasions, including placing them in multiple handicap matches.
They also wrestled in the tag team division, and on April 3, on Raw, Mikey and Kenny defeated Big Show and Kane to win the World Tag Team Championship, with help from the other Spirit Squad members. After winning the championship, all five members of the Spirit Squad were recognized as the champions under the freebird rule, allowing any combination of them to defend the championship.
In May, McMahon signed another handicap match, with the Spirit Squad facing Michaels. The Spirit Squad instead attacked Michaels before the match had started, and Triple H came out to help them. As a result of feeling disrespected by the Spirit Squad, however, Triple H helped Michaels instead. This led to Triple H and Michaels reforming D-Generation X (DX) and they began a feud with the Spirit Squad. DX played various sophomoric jokes on the Spirit Squad and the McMahons, as well as defeating the Spirit Squad in handicap tag team matches at Vengeance and a clean sweep in an elimination handicap match at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII.
At the same time as their feud with DX and their alignment with McMahon, the Spirit Squad also wrestled other teams in Raw's tag division over their World Tag Team Championship, successfully defending the championship against the teams of Jim Duggan and Eugene, Charlie Haas and Viscera, and Snitsky and Val Venis. They then entered a lengthy feud with The Highlanders, whom they eventually defeated to retain the championship at the Unforgiven pay-per-view in September. The Spirit Squad as a whole later began a losing streak with Johnny, Mikey, and Mitch losing singles matches to Ric Flair on consecutive episodes of Raw. After two consecutive losses to the debuting Cryme Tyme tag team, Kenny attacked Mikey on the October 23 episode of Raw and announced that he was going to defeat Flair. With the help of the other Spirit Squad members, Kenny was successful, despite Flair being accompanied to the ring by his own reinforcements (Dusty Rhodes, Sgt. Slaughter, and Roddy Piper). It was then announced that Flair and a legend, selected by interactive voting, would wrestle the team for the World Tag Team Championship at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view in early November. The fans chose Piper, and he and Flair defeated Kenny and Mikey to win the championship.
The group disbanded on the November 27 episode of Raw, when they were defeated in a five-on-three handicap match by DX and Flair. In a backstage segment later that episode, DX placed all members into a crate stamped "OVW, Louisville, Kentucky", a reference to the developmental territory from which all the Spirit Squad members had come.
Return to developmental territories (2007–2008)
Brendli, under the name Mikey Mondo, appeared at the January 17 OVW taping along with Nick Nemeth and teamed with Mike Kruel in a match against Seth Skyfire, Shawn Spears, and Cody Runnels. The pair teamed up for a while as The Frat Boys, and later The Frat Pack, but they had disbanded by late March 2007. Mondo moved into singles competition, and picked up wins over Steve Lewington, Boris Alexiev, and Colt Cabana, among others. In June 2007, he started a feud with Shawn Spears over the OVW Television Championship, but failed to capture it on several occasions. A one-night reunion with Nemeth followed, before he began dubbing himself "The Professional" Mike Mondo and began feuding with Atlas DaBone.