Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #102 - John Cena SQUASHED By Brock Lesnar, Wrestlepalooza Review, Will Edge Return To WWE?, Jey Uso Heel Turn

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Get tickets for Insight LIVE in San Diego & Las Vegas! https://cvvtix.com Welcome to AskCVV #102! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about why John Cena got squashed by Brock Lesnar at Wrestlepalooza, what the best match from All Out was, why there is no build up to AJ Styles vs. John Cena, the possibility of Edge (Adam Copeland) being John Cena's last opponent, whether Jey Uso needs to turn heel, the best and worst cities for WrestleMania and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: “A person who lives in the past will have depression. A person who lives in the future will have anxiety. But the person who lives in the present could experience real happiness.” - Diamond Dallas PagePlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux   SUPERPOWER: Go to https://Superpower.com and use code CVV to get $50 Off your annual Superpower subscription. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 20% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insightFAST GROWING TREES: Get 15% off with code INSIGHT at https://fastgrowingtrees.com   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris. Uh, yes, welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. Happy Friday. Thank you for being a real one and for hanging out with me on an AskCV episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit it DDT on that follow button so you don't miss out on any new interviews every Tuesday and Thursday.

And of course, ask CVV every single Friday. but I don't need to tell you that because you're here right now. What an intro to kick off the show from WW Smackdown ring announcer Mark Nash. I love that episode on Tuesday. And if you haven't listened to it yet, hit play on it at some point this weekend and you will be pleasantly surprised. What a story he has. And of course, like three quarters of the way through the interview, I asked him if he could do an intro for me. And what you heard there at the start of the show was just him saying, Chris, fan, fleet,

and get me all psyched up for this episode. But the full intro is, it's something else. Because before WWE, he was the ring announcer for top rank boxing. And boxing ring announcements are so much different. Like there's just so much more to them. WWE, wrestling in general, is just like weighing in at this amount of weight from, this specific town or city, nickname, person's name. Boxing is like, they'll go through like your whole life story in the intro. So I had him, I had him be like, ladies and gentlemen,

with more than three billion views on YouTube with four Emmy award wins. And then he went down like the whole resume. And then it went into from pickering on. On Ontario Canada. I was already getting goosebumps as he was saying it. Amazing. And I was like, you know, you could like, have a good little side thing going if you did those on Cameo. And then we got into this discussion that he has this amazing project that he heads up in Las Vegas called the space. And they're building out a bigger version of it. So it's basically, in a nutshell, he has built out a place for what happens to all the people who work in the service industry in Las Vegas.

Who serves the people in the service industry? Like, who looks after them after all the tourists go home? And he's made a big focus on mental health awareness for all of those people. So he's building out the space 2.0, and he's looking for support on this. So you can get a Mark Nash custom intro now on Cameo with all of the proceeds going to charity. All of the proceeds are going to go to the space. So go on Cameo, look up Mark Chinook is his real last name, S-H-U-N-O-C-K. So it's Cameo.com slash Mark Chinook.

So you can get an intro just like that one you heard at the start of the episode on Cameo. And you can also find out more info if you're interested by going to the spacelv.com. And what an amazing, amazing initiative that he has there. And just a great guest. So go check out that episode if you haven't checked it out yet. Speaking of Las Vegas, it is now official. We're bringing Insight Live back to Las Vegas for WrestleMania Week. Thursday, April 16th, 2026.

We're kicking off WrestleMania weekend with Insight Live back at Circa, Las Vegas. And I can't wait to see you there. Those tickets are on sale right now at CVVTX.com. CVVTX.com. While you're there, you'll also see. tickets for the show that we're doing in San Diego, Friday, November 28th to kick off Survivor Series weekend. So if you're going to be in Southern California for Survivor Series, I'd love to see you there. If you're in the Las Vegas area or if you're coming into town for WrestleMania 42, join us at

Circa for Insight Live. Last year was a massive show. And next year, I say last year, last WrestleMania was a massive show. Next year is going to be way bigger. It's going to blow this year's out of the water. So CVV-T-I-X.com to grab tickets for that. Welcome, my friend, to ask CVV number 102, the 102 Dalmatians edition. The often forgotten about sequel to 101 Dalmatians. If you've got a question for next week, ask Cvvv.

VV-V-103, leave a comment on Spotify. Shoot me an email, CVV at chrisfanvelte.com, or leave it on social media with that hashtag, AskCVV. We'll kick this one off with a question from Instagram from Metapot, Metipot, who says, Question for, he even nailed it here, for AskC-C-V-1202, the 102-Dalmations edition.

I love that. Please explain the logic of Lesnar going over like I'm five years old because it makes no sense to me at all. Are we likely to waste another Sina farewell match on Lesnar? Thank you for what you do. So I actually think that I was way wrong on this, like way wrong. You heard my predictions last week. I thought for sure Sina was going to get his win back and start to build some momentum so

that if and likely when he loses that last match because I am still of the belief that John Sina is so old school and has so much respect for the business in general that he's going to go out the way that the greats go out. You go out on your back, looking up the lights. You go out putting someone else over. I thought that this was going to be a win to continue to build that momentum so that when he does lose that final match on December 13th, we go, oh man, man, he had so much steam. He went, so much momentum and then he lost this match. I thought that this would also. be more. I thought we were going to get more out of Brock Lesnar and John Sina. This was like essentially just a glorified squash match. Eight minutes and 50 seconds was the official time bell to bell. And what I initially thought was that, okay, they're setting up for another John Sina versus Brock Lesnar match. Like, why else would this match be so short? And then I started thinking about it some more. And as we know, there's only five dates right now. left in the John Cena retirement tour. And we'll get to that in just a minute. But I actually think

that this is it. I don't think we're going to see John Sina versus Brock Lesnar again. And what I think is the purpose of this is I think that this is John Sina's way of saying, my toughest opponent. I just, I could never get one over on Brock Lesnar. Sure, John Sina has two wins over Brock Lesnar, but now he has five losses to him. And one of those wins John Sina has is by DQ. So he only has like one actual win against Brock Lesnar. I think it's John Sina's way of saying like he's just got my number. He's just he's figured out how to beat me.

And I think that it really builds up Brock Lesnar, especially in his first match back in over two years in WWE. And it continues to propel Brock Lesnar into whatever's next for him. I'm hoping that we finally get that match with Gunther that was teased about two and a half years ago when it was supposed to be this lead up into the Royal Rumble that year and it never ended up happening and Brock Lesnar disappeared for a while. I think that there's also the possibility and I actually saw some whispers about this online that we'll get Brock Lesnar versus Bronbraker. At some point in time, that would be an incredible WrestleMania match, maybe even next year,

at WrestleMania 42, but I think this is it. I think that this is going to be the last Brock Lesnar versus John Cena match. And it's just a nice way of saying like, I just, I can't figure out how to beat him. And you just move on from there. According to Dave Meltzer on, he said this on Wrestling Observer Radio, Sina actually was not planned to win that match. This is what Meltzer says. He says, up until Saturday,

morning the finish was going to be john sina wins and then it was actually john sina who made the call to lose and dave melzer says there are no plans for a rematch he says quote there are no plans for a rematch i don't want to say it was john's idea but what i was basically told is john is very unselfish and he knows on the way out he wants to make people he wants to make big stars so he felt that was it's his call and that was his call, end quote. So I think that here's the problem with that match. I mean, there's many problems with it. But when you kick off Russell Paloza, which had all of this hype, first ever PLE on ESPN

and everything that went along with that and ESPN broadcasting live on Friday and Saturday and all of the various people, the various talking heads promoting this, and you go in and that's the first match to kick this off. go, oh my goodness. All right, well, if that's how they're going to kick this off, the next four matches, they've got to be great. Like, you've really got to make up for that. And they weren't.

And I saw the, a lot of people made big news out of the fact that ESPN's official rating on their website for Russell Paloosa was a C. And I think that if we're being as objective as possible about Russell Paloosa, that's exactly what it was. the pay-per-view was a C. Obviously, E.O. Sky and Stephanie Vacare stole the show. I say it's obvious because it was obvious. What an amazing match.

What an amazing moment for Stephanie Vacare, wrestling in front of her father who had never seen her wrestle live ever. So that's the first match he's there to witness live. And on top of this, Stephanie told me when she was on the podcast two weeks ago, that was the day before his birthday. So like there's all of these amazing things that come together. And then she wins the WWE Women's World Championship after a banger of a match.

So that for me loved it. Great match there. The mixed tag match, I don't know why they didn't advertise that as a tornado tag match. Because there were all kinds of things happening there that wouldn't normally happen in a traditional tag match. I feel like there were a lot of rules getting bent. there and a lot of like people weren't being tagged in yet they were the active person in the match. And if they had just simply said this is a tornado tag match, I think we all would have gone, oh, okay. So pretty much anything goes. That match, I will continue to say is building for

something more. I think we're going to get Seth Rollins versus CM Punk that comes out of that. I think the next singles match for AJ Lee has got to be Becky Lynch. There's just, they've been building to this. And I think that that's what the point of that match was. was Cody versus Drew McIntyre surprised me. And this is the first time in a while where Cody has won a big match like that, a big championship match like that with the single crossroads. And I'm not saying he didn't hit it more than once in the match. What I'm saying is so often we were seeing Cody would hit the crossroads kick out, hit the crossroad did some other point during the match, kick out. Then he would hit the triple crossroads, one, two, three, get the victory.

I feel like that's a one-off of a match. I don't think that we're going to pick up Drew McIntyre versus Brock Lesnar, again. I don't think that that ends up turning into something else here. I still really think that it's Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes. And that ends up leading to Randy Orton winning the WWE Championship. I had seen a report that there was some initial thoughts here. And I don't know if there's any truth to this because you got to take everything. that you read online with a grain of salt. And like, I cannot emphasize this enough. You can't

treat the rumors that you see online as gospel. But I think there may be a nugget of truth in this report that Randy Orton was going to come out and cost Cody Rhodes the championship, or at least cost him the match in some sort of way, or maybe come out after the match and beat up Cody Rhodes, which would then lead into exactly what I was just talking about, Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes. That didn't happen. So I'm very curious where things end up going from here with that match. And then the tag match, the Usos versus the bronze, I just, it didn't feel like there

was like any real purpose for this match. Like that, it didn't seem to me like that was a match that needed to take place on a PLE. I could think of half a dozen other matches that we could have slid into that spot that would have made sense. And this match, I get it was the reuniting of the Uso brothers, but I feel like this is a match that could have taken place on a weekly television episode and it didn't need to take place on a PLE. But I think just as a whole, like, yeah, there was a lot more bad than there was good with this event. And I have really high hopes for Crown Jewel, and I'm so pumped for

AJ Stiles versus John Sina. I can't wait for the Crown Jewel Championship matches, champion versus champion, and I'm so glad that that has now been confirmed because it sure seemed like for a while that wasn't what they were going to do there. But that, I said I would get back to the John Sina thing. Actually, we'll get to that in a minute. But that leads us all here into this question from Mike Jonas on Spotify, who says, hey, CVVV,

what was your favorite match from All Out? What a weekend. What a Saturday specifically for wrestling. You had All Out, followed by Russell Palozo, like you had eight hours, 10 hours of just straight wrestling. And I loved it. My favorite match from All Out was Hangman Adam Page versus Kyle Fletcher. Kyle Fletcher is the real deal.

He ticks every. every single box. He has the look. He's wildly athletic and man, can he wrestle? And I think that with this match specifically, he showed that he belongs in the main event scene. We've seen amazing matches from him before. My favorite match of his prior to this was that insane cage match with Will Osprey. But this match showed that like he can just go. And that match was like 40 minutes long. I think some other standouts here is Darby Alps. Allen proved once again that he can push the boundaries, and he is insane. That match with John Moxley was wild. And then we had a surprise victory with Mark Briscoe finally getting one

over on MJF. I would think that that's it for this feud. And now MJF, maybe he moves on from here and figures out how to get his way back into the title picture. I still believe that MJF is going to be the next AW world champion, it's not a matter of, if it happens, it's a matter of when that's going to happen. But if you are looking at which show, if you were to just, like, which show was better? And if you're talking about the in-ring wrestling

that we saw from a show on Saturday night, all out, start to finish, just delivered with every single match. like there were like the in ring the in ring action that we saw it all out was amazing and then to start off the show cope and christian edging christian whatever you want to call them against ftr and then the hometown guys adam copeland and christian cage getting the win in toronto a wonderful moment to kick off the show i loved it so like if you bookend just the main card of all out. That match, then book ended with the main event. Hangman Adam Page

beating Kyle Fletcher. What a show. What an awesome show. This episode is brought to you by fast-growing trees. Fall is planting season. And did you know that many plants and trees actually do better when they're planted this time of year? But you have to know where to start. And that's why I love fastgrowing trees.com. It doesn't matter if you live in the sunny, south, or if the air's getting a little chilly where you are, their plant experts can help you find the perfect fit for your space. They have all the plants that your yard needs, like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. And they're alive and thrive guarantee ensures your plants arrive happy and healthy. I just made an order. They should be arriving any

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Hey, CVV, I love that we're getting AJ style. versus John Sina at Crown Jewel, but why is there no buildup at all? So this is what I was alluding to earlier. John Sina has five dates left. Yeah, just five dates left on the farewell tour. Man, this is all coming together real fast. I feel like we were just talking about, man, 36 for the year, and then it was down to like 30, and we've got five left.

You can count them on one hand. So I'll recap here in case you are unaware. of what those five dates are. October 11th, Crown Jewel Perth, and we obviously know whose opponent is now, AJ Stiles. November 10th, it's John Cena's last appearance in Boston for Monday Night Raw. Then we've got the following Monday, Monday Night Raw on November 17th in New York City at Madison Square Garden, November 29th, Survivor Series in San Diego, and then December 13th, that retirement match. And I think it is worth pointing out that the location for his retirement. entire match has not been officially announced yet.

I know a lot of people are treating it like it is in Washington, D.C., and yes, that has been heavily rumored, but it's important to point out that that has not been officially announced yet by WWE. And I think, as we know, and you can ask New Orleans about WrestleMania next year, nothing is official until it's official. So what I think happened with this AJ Styles match was there was so much talk online. about how is AJ Stiles not had a match yet on the John Sina retirement tour? And it seems pretty clear that John Sina wanted this match to happen.

So John Sina put out a tweet on Tuesday and was basically like, what do you guys think? That ended up getting tons of millions of views and replies and retweets and everything like that. AJ Stiles then quote tweeted it and said like, I'm ready. let's do it. And then John Sina said, look, I'm not the person who picks my opponents, but we need to listen to the audience here. So this match needs to happen. Right after that, Triple H makes it official. It's happening. John Sina versus AJ Stiles at Crown Jewel. And I think that they were really smart with how they put this match together. John Sina does not have dates at this point in the retirement tour to build up matches.

And if we're being completely honest here, we don't need to build up John Sina versus AJ Stiles. We just don't. If you've been watching wrestling long enough, you know that there's a history between them. You already know that AJ Stiles is one of the very best when it comes to the in-ring stuff. This match doesn't need a build-up. And I love that they're giving us this match at a PLE just because it's the right match that needs to happen. And as I look at those remaining dates, so after Crown Jewel, those four dates left, I would be absolutely shocked if John Cena doesn't wrestle on those four dates.

So it's John Cena's last appearance in Boston as an active wrestler. You know he's going to have a match in his hometown. You know it. Then a week later, at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, I would have to think. That arena is magic. I would have to think John Cena has a match there. There's also so much history with John Cena and that building. The one that immediately comes to mind is the Royal Rumble 2008 and that surprise return

when they told us he'd be out for almost a year and it came back after three months. Wild for his music to hit at number 30. So I think he has a match there. I think it goes without saying he's going to have a match at Survivor Series, although, man, I hope that that match is not part of it. of the war games match. Like, I think that that would be such a waste of John Cena's second last match if they just throw him in a five versus five Survivor Series match.

Give us a one-off, one-on-one match with anybody, with anybody he hasn't worked with yet. Give us that. That's what we want at Survivor Series. We don't want to see John Cena in there for like four minutes tagging in, tagging out in a War games match. don't that's not it please please do not give that to us give us a john sino one-on-one match of survivor series and then that takes us to the retirement match on december 13th in the rumored location of washington dc that one has to be a a one-on-one match as well and i think that that might be

another one similar to this a j styles match where don't be surprised if these matches just get announced on social media. And I love quoting my friend Sam Roberts with everything counts. Like that's one of the rules of professional wrestling in this modern day is everything counts. You can call someone out on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. You can come out on a late night show. You can calm out on a red car, but you can call them out on a podcast.

And like it all counts. And there was a point in time 20, 30 years ago, when that wasn't the case. It only counted if it happened on Raw or Smackdown or a pay-per-view. And that's not the case anymore. So, like, I think John Cena and AJ Styles kind of set a precedent here of, like, man, John Cena doesn't have an opponent yet for Crown Jewel. He also doesn't have any dates to set up whatever that match is going to be. What's the match that needs to happen?

And how can we do this? A few tweets later, boom, it's official. and the fans get what they want. And I love that. I absolutely love that. So there doesn't need to be a buildup here. The buildup already happened in 2016, 2017,

2018 when they wrestled each other. And that's it. And they haven't wrestled since. They haven't wrestled since I think it was February of 2018, was their last, on a Smackdown, was their last match together. So,

man, I am pumped. I am pumped about this one. Jason di Domeno underscore on Instagram. Hey, Chris, do you see a potential heel turn for Jay Uso and with a world heavyweight championship? Much love. I feel like they've been teasing this.

I feel like they have been teasing a Jay Uso heel turn here. But then they like walk right up to that line and they go, ah, no, his entrance is so over. Ah, no, he sells so much merch. Ah, no, the kids love him. So I think that it would be great to see it, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. I could be wrong about this, and I would love to be wrong about this. But it just seems to me like if you go to a live show, whether it's Raw or Smackdown or a live event when they have them, PLE and Jay Uso's music hits, it's a different vibe in the

arena. And I've been fortunate to be there for many of them over the last. year or so since Jay Uso has been red hot. And I just don't think you can take that away. Like so much of what Jay Uso has going for him and his character and so much of why he's so over with the audience, especially kids, is that entrance. And I just think that if he becomes a baby face, now he can't have that entrance. He certainly can't have that entrance song anymore.

Can't be saying Yit. So like, and it would be great to see what he can do with that. Like, how could he reinvent himself? What would he do with that? I'd love to see it, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. But along this same vein, you know who needs a heel turn? And you know who would really benefit from it? Is L.A. Knight.

Yeah. I think that he's like, and it writes itself. Obviously, L.A. Knight is amazing when he has a mic in his hand. his promos are just so seamless and like full of energy and full of charisma. But the promos would write themselves. He could talk about how he was, he's been so close so many times. You're told to reach for that brass ring. All he's doing is reaching for it and he's not getting it.

Three money in the bank matches in a row. Three times he doesn't win it. Like I think that there's some real meat on the bone there. And I also feel like he's kind of in this in between spot right now. They're not quite sure where to go with him. And they've pulled the trigger enough that he's in the main event spot. And he's being given these world championship matches. But they haven't finally pulled the trigger to make him the world champion and have him

have a world championship again for the first time since he was world champion and Impact Wrestling. I would love to see an L.A. Knight heel turn. And I don't even think you need to change his music. There's so much of what he does that is a callback. to just an attitude-era superstar. And he doesn't care if you like him or you hate him. He's just going to go out there and talk his talk, walk his walk, and do what he does.

And I think that giving him even more of an edge and having him turn on the audience, it could end up being the best work that L.A. night ends up doing. So sign me up for that one. Joshua underscore Wirtz 2 on Instagram what is your favorite and least favorite city

for a WrestleMania this is a good one okay so I've been to a lot of WrestleMania's I have been to WrestleMania 18 27 29 I hope you're saying what

in between every single one of these what 30 31 32 33, 34, 35. Obviously, nobody went to 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41. I've been to 14 different Russelmanias in many different cities. My favorite, by far, is New Orleans, with a runner-up being Las Vegas. New Orleans is great because everything's so close. It's all walkable, whether it's the arena for Smackdown and Raw, whether it's where WrestleMania actually is, whether it's where Bourbon Street is and all the amazing restaurants in the French Quarter. And there's just a real energy in New Orleans.

And the cool thing about New Orleans is it's a smaller, it's like a medium-sized city. So when you get 100,000 or more wrestling fans in the city, you feel it. Like there are wrestling shirts everywhere. And it's just, it kind of feels like WrestleMania has taken over the town. And it's not just WrestleMania in the weekend of events. It's everything that leads up to it. It's Russell Con and all the indie shows

and all the autograph signings and parties and all of that stuff. And it just feels like it all culminates together in New Orleans. So New Orleans is number one. I had a blast there for WrestleMania 30 and a blast there for WrestleMania 34. Las Vegas is a very, very close second for most of the reasons I was just talking about. Everything is all on the strip.

It's a five, ten minute Uber ride away. It's not difficult at all to get hotels because every single casino is a resort and there's like a thousand hotel rooms there. Everything is like so easy to get to. Like if you stay on the south side of the strip, you're right next to a Legion Stadium where WrestleMania is, which is right close to T-Mobile Arena

know where Smackdown Raw is. And you could see, there's a ton of different hotels on that side of the strip. You stay at the MGM. You could stay at the Luxor. You could stay at the Excalibur. Any of them. I stayed at Mandelae Bay for the Canelo and Crawford fight, which was at Allegiance Stadium. And I walked there, walked to Allegiance Stadium and walked back.

And then I didn't have to deal with that like mess, that Uber mess that happens outside of Allegiance Stadium. Just, oh, man. when if there's 70,000 people in the, in the stadium and half of them need an Uber or 20,000 of them need an Uber. Yeah, you can just imagine how much of a mess that ends up being. Least favorite. Also, because of the reasons we were talking about and they just don't tick those boxes, New York City. Everything is so spaced apart.

And I also feel like when you've got a city as big. as New York where you've got eight million people and you bring in a hundred thousand, 150,000 people for WrestleMania related things. It just doesn't make that big of an impact on the city. So like you'll be walking down the street during WrestleMania week and the majority of people there don't even know WrestleMania is in town. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. That is just a product of how big New York City is. Same thing happens in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, I think would be a close second for like least favorite city for WrestleMania. SoFi Stadium is amazing.

But just like New York, everything is so spaced out. So I went to WrestleMania 29 and 35 in New York. And 35 specifically, I stayed in Brooklyn because there was NXT and other stuff happening in Brooklyn. Then Russell Con itself was in Manhattan. And then MetLife Stadium, is it even in the same? state. And I know that New Jersey's right there. It's just across the water. I get that. But like, try explaining that to someone who's not from the area or not from the country. Try explaining to them that the New York giants and the New York Jets don't even play in New York.

It's the wildest, silliest thing to try to explain that. And I get it. I understand. I understand that it's a big city. And there are lots of other things going on. This is a New York thing. This is also an L.A. thing. There's plenty of other options on any given weekend, whether it's a WrestleMania weekend or a Super Bowl weekend or whatever it happens to be. But it's just, it's a lot of trying to like figure out the logistics of getting here and then getting there. And then where do I stay and all of that.

And then you want to talk about the Uber crunch getting out of MetLife Stadium. it's not good. And also, the good thing about SOFI, at least, is the weather's pretty nice in April. In California, I mean, heck, the weather's pretty nice here, 12 months of the year.

April in New York City, touch and go. And I remember WrestleMania 35. There was, like, calling for rain in the early part of that day. I remember this specifically. And, in WrestleMania 29, actually. Remember it specifically.

looking, we're like, oh my goodness, we're going to be like, it's going to be 45 degrees in raining when we're at the stadium? Like, oh, man, that's a, that's a cold WrestleMania. That's just not what you equate to the idea of WrestleMania, especially when it's an outdoor show. So that's my two cents here on going to 14 different WrestleMania's, some in repeat cities, some in new cities. I've always had a blast every single time. but I got very excited when it was announced that WrestleMania 42 would be in New Orleans kind of bummed out when they said that it wasn't happening

there. But then like, oh, if it's going to be in Vegas, yeah, okay. Of all the cities that it's going to go to, that's a pretty fun city. Like, they don't call Las Vegas the entertainment capital of the world for no reason. Like, it makes a lot of sense. That's why the Super Bowl was so successful. there. It's also why WrestleMania this year, WrestleMania 41 was so successful. With all of that said, it is about damn time that London gets a WrestleMania. And I will be first in line to get those tickets

when it ends up happening. We know it's not happening in 43. As I pointed out last year, we've also got New Orleans has been promised to WrestleMania and Indianapolis have been promised to WrestleMania. So we don't know the timing on those, but if we're just to like throw this out there and use the information that's in front of us here, we know that WrestleMania 42 is back in Vegas. We know that WrestleMania 43 is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Is 44 in Indy or New Orleans? And it's 45 in the other city where it's not. Is it in New Orleans or Indy? That right now with the information that's in front of us, that seems to be the case.

So do we have to wait then until WrestleMania 46 to be in London? Man, that feels like a long way away. Feels like a long way away. Jay's Noddy Wood on Spotify. That intro from Mark Nash gave me chills. That was wild. I agree. That gave me chills as well.

There's just some, there's just a gravitas that Mark Nash has. with the way that he does these intros. And he's only been in WWE for six months. And he's only getting better every single week. I can't wait to see how good Mark Nash is six months from now and then however many years from now, you know, two, three, four, five more years from now. Love it.

Back to your question here. Do you think there's any chance now that Beth showed up in AEW that the rated R superstar shows up in WW? Do you think that Tony Kahn being a fan of wrestling would allow that moment to be possible if Cope is still under contract. The answer to this, Jay, is absolutely not. And I don't think this is a Tony Con thing. I don't think this is an A.W thing.

This is a wrestling thing. I think that unless something major changes, if someone is under contract with WWE, they will not be making an appearance in AEW. And vice versa. If someone is under contract with AEW, they will not be making an appearance in WWE. It is as simple as that.

The caveat here is we don't know when Adam Copeland's contract is up in AEW. That is not public information. When he was a guest of my show last May, May 9th, 2024, it's episode number 600. If you want to go check it out, I can't recommend it enough. He told me he had about a year and a half left in his contract. That was at that point in time. And that was also before his ankle injury that happened later that year. year. Maybe he's resigned in that point in time since then. I don't know. But if he has,

that has not been public information. Also, will he have injury time added onto his contract? That seems likely. That is a pretty common thing with just wrestling in general, not just an AEW thing, but WWETNA. That's just a common thing in wrestling in general. But if we're to assume that he signed a two-year deal because he debuted an AEW on a KUKNA, that's a couple of October 1st, 2023. I would imagine he'd probably signed the paperwork for that. It's maybe a few days before. So let's just say, let's say it's one day before, the end of September, September 30th. Again, we're just spitball in here. We're just talking out loud here. We're just looking at the information that we have and seeing what we can make of this.

There is a possibility here that if there's no injury time added on, that yeah, maybe his contract does come to an end in the next few weeks, months? Like, there is perhaps a possibility that he is John Cena's final opponent or one of his final opponents. And again, if there's no time to build up for these last matches, I think the one in Boston for Raw makes sense, put John Seine out there, someone's music can hit. Boom, you can have a match like he did with Sammy Zane. Like, there was no need for a buildup for that match with Sammy Zane.

Like, there was no need for a buildup for that match with Sammy Zay. was all right in front of us. It all made sense. And I think that the Boston match can happen like that, the New York match at Madison Square Garden can happen like that. Survivor Series, you'll need some sort of buildup or at least a little bit of like let us know in advance who it's going to be. And then they're, I think, definitely going to have to do that for his final match. But I could see a situation in his final match where it's just John Cena goes out there. and it's a mystery opponent. Everyone is already going to tune in because it's John Cena's final match.

But now how many more people? How many more lapsed fans or just casual fans or people who watch wrestling once or twice a year? How many more of those people are going to tune in because not only is it John Cena's last match, but now it's John Cena's last match against a mystery opponent? Man, I'm in. I'm all in for that. But I don't think that there is any world where WWE and AEW are trading talent. I don't think that is the case at all.

I also don't know if it has been made official if Beth Copeland has signed a contract with AEW or if that was just a one-off thing for All Out because it was in Adam Copeland's hometown. I think there's a lot of question marks there. but I would love to see Edge in WWE if it makes sense. It would be amazing. Heather Lund on Instagram says, Hey, Chris, real, real one here. And I have a question for Ask CVV number 102.

What do you think of Cope's tribute to John Sina in his match? And do you think that we'll see more of this in the future? I love the callback because John Sina did the tribut tribute to edge. He did the edge spear in the corner, waving his arm to get up. Then he did the spear. And then at all out, we saw Adam Copeland do the, you can't see me followed by a very well done, five knuckle shuffle, might I add. And then it's just kind of cool that there was like this show of respect, not just between the two individuals, but then there was a little bit of a Cina chant in AEW, which was cool if it's just like a nod of like even if you're strictly an AEW fan and you don't watch WWE,

you're paying respect to what John Cena has done and then Adam Copeland paying respect to Cina with that move. And it's just what a time to be a wrestling fan. Because when you think about this, on the exact same day, you have Adam Copeland and AEW doing the five knuckle shuffle and that you can't see me. just a few hours later, you have John Sina at Russell Paloza in WWE doing the exact same move. And it's just pretty cool. I saw this on Instagram, like the side by side of like, it was Edge, Adam Copeland, I will forever call him Edge. But pretty cool to see Adam Copeland side by side in this split screen with John Sina doing the same move in two different companies, just hours apart.

And I think we've been seeing a lot of these types of things. attributes from John Sina over the last few matches for sure. I actually think that John Sina doing the Stiles clash at Clash in Paris against Logan Paul. I think that was kind of John Sina's way of saying, like, if I'm not going to get an AJ Stiles match, I'm at least going to give you AJ Stiles move here. And if AJ Stiles isn't going to be on Clash in Paris, I will give you the next best thing is doing his move for you. And I feel like that's got to play at least a small part in why we have this match now at Crown Jewel, John Cena versus AJ Stiles. But I think that we're going to continue to see more and more of this. And I think that that entire John Cena versus Logan Paul match at

Clash and Paris was just a whole bunch of this. It was both guys in there paying tribute to so many of the greats. And that was a, it's just a way of like, saying thank you, I think, to the audience, too. It's a way of saying, like, you've been watching long enough. You know what we're doing when we do a swan tom bomb or you know what we're doing when we do a Code Red or whatever the move happens to be. Like, really, like, I love that. And I also love that in pro wrestling, there are certain moves that are used by everyone.

And there are certain moves that are so definitively. used by just one person. And it's cool that when you see those moves, like, sure, there's lots of people or there's a handful of people that do a swan tom bomb. But every time you see a swan tom bomb, who do you think of? Of course. Yeah. You think of Jeff Hardy. And I think that like, when John Cena does an end of days, who do you think of? You think of Baron Corbyn. And I just love those callbacks. And I love the, that's just a way of like saying to the audience, like, yeah. We appreciate you. So yeah, I think we'll see some more of that for sure.

Pedro Olivier on Facebook says, Hey, CVV, I hope you're good. Real, real one here directly from Portugal. Hope you visit sometimes so I can become a real, real, real one. But for now, let's play a game of what if. Which superstar from 2025 do you think would thrive in the 80s and 90s and vice versa? I think Gunther would absolutely do. dominate in those eras, and I think Owen Hart could be a world champion in 2025. Keep up the good

work. Well, thank you, Pedro. I agree with you on both of those. I think that Owen Hart could be a world champion in any era. Like, seriously, that guy is so, so talented. Macho man Randy Savage in 2025 would be unbelievable. And that's a gimmick that works in really any era. And the cool thing about macho is he can get over as a baby face, he can get over as a heel. And then the in-ring work, it speaks for itself. Brett Hart is another one, like, because his wrestling is just so, so crisp, it's something that would just transcend the era. It would transcend whatever year that we're in because he's just so good, and it doesn't matter who his opponent is, you know it's going to be an amazing match. Going, and these are not, these are not the only people, but those are two

answers for you. Going the other way, I think that Seth Rollins would definitely work in the 80s and 90s. And again, it's just work right there. But he just has this character that's just like larger than life. Like that laugh. That laugh feels like something that would work so well in the 90s. And so there's another guy. It doesn't matter who you put him in there with. You know, they're just going to blow the doors off. It's going to be an amazing match. Gunther's another great answer. Like there's so much about what Gunther does. that is just a callback to that era. Like, kind of feels like he's been plucked from that era and just, like, put into this

timeline now. And I think I was talking about him earlier, but I think L.A. Knight, yeah, I didn't even do it the right way. L.A. Knight. Yeah. He's another example of that. Like, he feels like an attitude era wrestler in 2025, which I think that if you just break that down, then if he works now, why wouldn't he?

work if you dropped him right into 1998. But really interesting question. And I love playing these games. And then I also love when people are like, well, what about so and so? Yes, that's probably whatever name is in your head right now, would this person work in that era? Yes, I'm sure you're right. But those are just a few for me. American judo on Spotify says, speaking of HBK, have you ever tried to get Brett on?

and I apologize if I missed it. I have been trying to get Brett Hart on the show for a long time. And coincidentally, I did not plan this at all. I'm actually wearing a Brett Hart t-shirt right now. I'm wearing a pink hitman wrestling t-shirt from Roots of Fight. I love this shirt. I love all the Roots of Fight stuff. They're so comfortable as well.

But yes, I've been trying for a long time. And there has been many places where I've been in the same city as him. there's been many times I've been at the same conventions as him. He just doesn't do a lot of interviews. And I think it just comes down to like, what more could he say that he hasn't said already? Like, I feel like he's covered pretty much everything. But with that said, he hasn't done an interview with Chris Van Fleet yet. So I would hope that along the same lines as the Sean Michael's interview, that there's some things with Brad Hart that we could touch on that he's, never talked about before or some moments or just mindset things that we can get to that have never

been covered before. I'd like to think that that's what these conversations have the ability to do. They have the ability to draw out stories and draw out moments that maybe we haven't ever covered before. So I'm still hoping for it. Fingers crossed, I have been, I have been frantically texting his manager, not frantically, but I've I've texted his manager probably once a month for the last 24 months. I've also done the same with Sting. Sorry, Gilbert. I have been annoying him every three to five weeks with, hey, I'd still love to do that interview with Sting. Hey, any chance I could fly to Calgary and sit down with Brett Hart at his restaurant to help promote his restaurant

and then also talk about his incredible career. I'm trying. I will have his niece back on the show. Natty has her new book coming out of the end of October, last heart beating, which I've already pre-ordered, and you should as well. I think that you think you know, Natty, I think this book is going to surprise a lot of people.

So she's going to be on the show in the next few weeks. Maybe I just start to get her to annoy her uncle. Hey, Uncle Brett. should do my friend Chris's show. That'd be really, really cool. And a lot of people would really like to see that, you know, one Canadian talking to another Canadian. Julian underscore Walther on Instagram.

Hey, CVV, you got asked a few weeks ago about your favorite match outside of America. And I was very con about your answer being Hogan versus Rock because it took place in Canada, which for me is part of America. So my question is what is your favorite WWE slash AEW match outside of USA slash Canada?

Greetings from Germany. Well, Julian, I appreciate the question, but I can tell you there is not a single Canadian who would want to be called American. The question that I answered a few weeks ago is, what is your favorite wrestling match that took place outside of America? I went easy. WrestleMania 18.

Rock versus Hogan. The question was not, what's your favorite match that took place outside of the continent of North America? When people say, when people talk about America,

they're not referring to Canada and Mexico and the 21 other countries in North America, or even for, they're not referring to South America for that point. They're referring to the United States of America.

So I think it's just, that needs to be said in the most clear way possible that Canadians are not Americans. We are, we live in the continent of North America. So yes, we are North Americans, but we are not Americans. So Iraq versus Hogan very clearly took place outside of America, took place outside of the United States of America. But I will answer your question here. What's the best? match to take place outside of North America? Sure. Let's go. Let's follow this down. For me, and this is just my answer. It's SummerSlam 1992, Brett Hart versus British Bulldog.

I think that this is, it's easily the most famous UK match ever. I mean, in front of 80,000 fans, Wembley Stadium, London. But I think it's just, in my opinion, with that crowd, and then those two guys at that point in their career, that's the match for me. And that match still, 20 or 33 years later, is still so rewatchable. In fact, I want to rewatch that match this weekend because it's just so good.

The storytelling, the in-ring work, amazing. A close second and on the complete other end of the spectrum and certainly a more modern match is Omega versus Okada, Russell Kingdom 11. So that'd be January 4th, 2017. What a match. What a legend. What a legendary match.

And they had so many, Omega and Okada had so many great matches together. But of their matches, that one is my favorite. So, Russell Kingdom 11, Tokyo Dome. What a match. What? Favorite match outside of America? will always be for me.

Rock versus Hogan. Sam Acquisto emailed this one and said, Hey, CVV, your show has been the keystone in my journey of getting back into wrestling, as well as getting my wife and daughter fully in love with it. Man, I love that. I was thinking about these iconic sounds that let you know a certain superstar

was making an appearance. We all know about Stone Cold's glass shatter or HBK's moans leading into sexy boy. I don't know. It moans, or is it more just like high-pitched singing? I guess they're kind of moans. But what are some underrated sounds that you love that get you immediately on board

with what's about to go down? I love the show. I'm grateful for my family, my career, and my four dogs. It's, I love the Jim Johnston era of entrance themes. And I get that his era was a long time because he was with WWE for whatever was, like 29 years or something.

but his themes like not only were they catchy and meaningful, but you instantly knew who was coming out, whether they were at the top of the card, at the bottom of the card, or somewhere in between. He had this ability to like find a theme song and create a theme song that was so perfect for that person and whatever their gimmick was at that point in time.

Some with you, there's some obvious ones, right? There's the glass shattering, there's the gong, of The Undertaker, there's HBK's moans, as you put it. But how about the car crash for McFoly? You instantly know he's coming out. And also on the Titan Tron, there was the car actually crashing. I miss Titan Trons so much. I've talked about this before, but we don't have Titan Trons anymore.

We just have the person's name. And that's it. The only person who has an old-school Titan-Tron right now is Logan Paul. And I would love to hear the reason behind that. If he's talked about this, please send me the clip or send me the quote. I would love to know how he got an actual Titan Tron and everyone else just gets their name. But it's such a cool throwback to that era of attitude era wrestling in the late 90s. I mean, there were titans after that as well. But that for me is like when they started and like when they were like really meaningful. I miss Titan Trons. But back to like the sound to like let you know

who's coming out, big show? Where? You instantly know who it is. Two notes. How about, are you ready? Boom. DX is coming out. The opening saxophone

for Valvinus? That was not a saxophone at all, but you get the point. How about this one? It's not even music. It's just a phrase. Test. This is a test.

Boom. Test is coming out. there is so, and we could, we could talk about this for another hour. Jim Johnston is, like, there was no one even close to the league that Jim Johnston was in. So good at creating theme songs and go back, he was a guest on the show four-ish years ago. And he talked about it sometimes he had like a few hours to put together some of these themes. And then they go on to be some of the most iconic themes of all time. So, yeah, those are some like off the top of my head right now,

but that is something that's like sorely being missed right now in WWE. And AEW, for that matter, there's not enough theme songs where you instantly know within one or two notes, boom, that's who's coming out, car crash, Mick Foley, saxophone Valvinus, the moans, HBK or the if you, you know exactly who's coming out. The Rock's coming out. I love that type of stuff. And there's not enough of that right now. There are some theme songs in modern day wrestling where the music tells you who's coming out.

And like there are some great examples. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's none. Like when you hear the wrestling has more than one. Okay, it's Cody Rhodes. I get it. That's cool. There are a few of them.

For sure, Roman Raines has a banger of a theme song from start to finish. But it used to be everybody. It used to be everybody. This one's from Instagram. I am Vatsalya, a chant.

I am Vatsalia Chan. I sure hope that's how I'm saying. They're all grouped together. That's just a whole bunch of characters. When is CVV versus Sonti's app coming? The episode with Santi is on Tuesday. That is my next episode. I know how pumped you guys are that Sonti's on the show.

I'm just as pumped. And there's so many things we have in common. And as the episode was going on, we were like, we were starting to realize that like, are we the same person? Not only are we both from southern Ontario. Not only do we both have dark hair, do we both love wrestling, but we also went to the same university. We both went to Wilford Lauria University and then we talked a lot about like,

it's life around Waterloo. He posted the photo that we took inside the studio and tagged me as a collaborator on our Instagram. This tells you how excited you guys are about this episode. It has 831,000 views, just a photo. And it has 61,000. thousand likes. So I kind of feel like when we posted that photo, we should have just dropped the episode right away. But the episode is going to be our next episode on Tuesday. So I can't wait for you guys to hear that one.

And I will see you then for that. Along the same topic here, Russell Heroes, also on Instagram says, how long is the Mr. Santysap interview? The interview with Mr. Santysap is like an hour 20? Like, it's long. And there's still so many things we didn't get to. So I will promise you this. This is part one of many.

I feel like Sonti could come on the show like once every few months and we wouldn't run out of things to talk about. So I'm pumped for Tuesday's episode. If you're not already following the show, hit a DDT on that follow button so you don't miss out on that episode with Sonti. And so you don't miss out on any of the other episodes that we have coming up. How good was Charles Robinson on Thursday? I have been, I've been bugging Charles to do an interview for like two years.

I think he said like two years. And we finally made it happen in Indianapolis for Russell Paloza. I love it. And Charles is another person where it's like, man, there's so many other things we could talk about. So we can get him back on the show at some point next year. That is the final question for this. Ask CVV number one. to the 102 Dalmatians edition.

I just laugh because if you've seen 102 Dalmatians, it's not so good. It is not so good. But if you have a question for next week, leave a comment on Spotify with your question. Send it in on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV or shoot me an email. CVV at chris vanfleet.com. Diamond Dallas page shared this great quote on Instagram this week, and I want to share it with you here.

The person who lives in the past will have depression. A person who lives in the future will have anxiety. But the person who lives, but the person who could, who can live in the present could experience real happiness. Be great and be grateful, my friend. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more. Insight. Jim Rome takes on sports.

Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.