Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #106 - Predicting The Next World Heavyweight Champ, Grading John Cena's Retirement Tour, Worst Storyline Of All Time

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Get tickets for Insight LIVE in San Diego & Las Vegas! https://cvvtix.com Welcome to AskCVV #106! On this episode, Chris predicts who the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion will be, and answers questions about why Bron Breakker isn't in contention for the Championship, whether Cody will turn heel, who attacked Jacob Fatu, the best looking Championships of all time, grading the John Cena retirement tour, worst storyline of all time and more!  Quote I'm thinking about: "Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see." - Bob Proctor   Please 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   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   NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! 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 10% 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/insight   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 The Oh, welcome back, my friend, to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet.

Thank you for being a real one and for kicking off your weekend with me here on an Ask CVV episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

Hit a sidewalk slam on that follow button wherever you're listening right now. Apple, Spotify, whatever the podcast app of your listening pleasure is. I want to make sure that you don't miss out on any new interviews every Tuesday and Thursday.

And of course, ask CVV every Friday, but you already knew that because you're a real, real one and you're here right now. And I can't wait to see all of the real, real, real ones at the next Insight Live Friday, November 28th in San Diego to kickoff Survivor Series weekend. Tickets are almost sold out. So if you've been thinking about going, grab those tickets now, CVVTix.com. We haven't even announced the guest yet, and it's almost sold out, which is crazy. So thank you for that. The guest announcement is coming soon, and trust me, you don't want to miss it. We've also got Las Vegas during WrestleMania Week.

We're back at Circa Resort and Casino, Las Vegas on Thursday, April 16th. And I encourage you for both of these shows, grab a CVV-V-IP ticket, which includes an Ask CVV before the show, and it's like a not recorded at all. It's just us in that room. And it's super special for the people that are there. And then a meet and greet after the show. So you can grab those tickets at CVVticks.com. I've also had a ton of questions about microbrallers.

And the answer is yes. I still have very few of the Chase microbrrawlers available and a bunch of the other ones available. So if you want to grab one of those, CVV merch.com and there's autograph versions as well. So you can get a one with a signature or one without a signature or both. It's up to you. You can grab them on there. Welcome to Ask CVV number 106-sided ring. Also, Ask CVV number 101 Wyatt's six. Ask CVV number 106 pack challenge. And Ask C.V. CVV. Yeah, we got one more. Number 10619. If you've got a question for next week, ask CVV number 107.

I can't off the top of my head think of any wrestling references that go with that one. But if you can think of one, let me know. Shoot me an email. CVV at chris fanfleet.com. Send it in on the comments on Spotify or shoot me a message or put it on social media with that hashtag, ask CVV. seven. There's got to be some seven references, right? Yeah, you guys will figure it out. We came up with four, six references. And there's also, like, we could just do six, but then you guys wouldn't get it. Like, we're talking about Xbox character, but would you get it if I just said the 106 edition? No, but don't, of course, I was thinking about it. Let's dive into the first one here. Hassan Faridi on Instagram says,

Who do you see winning the world heavyweight championship? Love from Pakistan. Excellent question. And this has kind of been on all of our minds this week as I guess Seth Rollins injury is legit. Although the cool thing about this, the cool thing about how KFabe has evolved is like, you don't know, right?

Like Seth Rawlins is one of those people that toes the line so well. Does he really hate CM Punk? Do they get along? Are they just like, do they just get along in like a working relationship? The fact that we don't know the answer to that question, I love. But it certainly feels like Seth Rollins is actually injured. He has now vacated the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and a new World Heavyweight Champion will be crowned at Saturday night's main event.

CM Punk versus Jay Uso. I'm a little confused as to how we got there. I just, I don't know how brawn breaker was one of the two people who took out Seth Rollins. Of course, Bronson Reed being the other. How is he not even part of the conversation? I just don't get that. And did we not see how great Brom Breaker looked with that big gold on his shoulder? So good.

And look, I get that Brom Breaker is for sure a future world champion, a future WWE champion. it's just a matter of time, right? But storyline-wise, if we're just following the logic here, how is he not part of this match? If you want to have CM Punk and Jay Uso in there, I get it. And I assume that CM Punk is going to be the next World Heavyweight Champion. If I'm answering your question, just straight up here, Hassan. I understand that CM Punk is deserving of that.

He needs a championship run that is longer than five minutes, like the one he had at SummerSlam. but even if CM Punk's going to be the next champion, why not make this a three way? Why not make this a fatal four way? Why not make this? You can make this a six-man ladder match. And it would be far more interesting

than what we have here right now. Where's L.A. Knight? Yeah. Well, how is he not part of this conversation? Like, I just don't, all of the people over the last year or so that have been in the main event picture and then have been in the World Heavyweight Championship title picture,

how were they not part of this conversation? And I've been thinking about this and racking my brain all week. And the only thing that I can possibly come up with here is that somehow Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed get involved in this match. Maybe it becomes a no contest or something. I just don't see what the purpose of CM Punk versus Jay Usu would be otherwise. Bronbreaker needs to be part of this conversation. I know that. You know that. Everybody knows that. And I just don't understand what's going on here. So I think CM Punk would be the next champion

unless we get some shenanigans in this match. And I just don't see how we get a clean match out of this otherwise. I just don't know. It just doesn't seem to add up to me. So I'm going to be watching this very carefully. And I'll be patient to see how this plays out. But on the surface, as we're looking at this right now, if we're just looking at the match card right now, the name CM Punk, the name Jay Uso, I don't get it.

We need some other names in there, some other names that would most definitely make sense. That's the way I'm looking at this one. on Facebook we got this one from Matthew John Pissarro. What letter grade would you give to this final year of John Sina? Not just the heel turn, but the matches too. I think his work with Punk, A.J. and even Logan Paul were classic great John work. So I think we've got to look at this in two ways, right?

There's two categories when we're looking at John Sina's final run here. there's the work in the ring and there's the work out of the ring. So let's look at the work in the ring first because in ring alone, just the matches, I don't think John Sina has had this many great matches in one year ever in his career. And I know that's saying a lot. But when you look at the matches he's had this year, John Sina versus Cody at SummerSlam. Incredible. John Cena versus Sammy Zame for the U.S. title.

Amazing. John Cena versus Logan Paul, Clash in Paris. John Cena versus CM Punk, Knight of Champions. And of course, John Cena versus AJ Stiles, absolute classic. All five of those matches that I named are some of John Cena's best matches. And they all happen within a handful of months of each other. Now, if we're to look at his best matches, let's look at his worst matches, too. Let's look at the other end of the spectrum there.

What was the worst match of his farewell tour so far? Because, of course, he's got four dates left. I'm assuming that'll be four more matches, but time will tell on that one. Can we all agree that the worst match of the year for John Sina was the night two main event, WrestleMania 41, when he won the championship, the never seen 17? Is that the worst match of the year? Or was it the Brock Lesnar squash match at Russell Paloza? Although I feel like storyline wise, I think if you were to ask John Sina, he would say that's not a bad match.

It's exactly what he wanted that match to be. He wanted Brock Leson to be just an absolute beast and show that John Sina didn't have the ability to like get one over on him. I don't want to put words in John Sina's mouth. And if I ever have the chance to interview him before this year is done or maybe after this year is done, I would love to ask him, what do you think so that Brock Lezner match? but I know I just included it in this conversation because I saw how much people were hating on that match online. So if those are some of Sina's best matches of the year,

and that's one or two of John Sina's worst matches of the year, and yeah, there were some tag team matches in there that were just fine, right? I think the thing that seems to be lost with everybody is, yes, the heel run didn't make a lot of sense. There were a lot of parts of that that just logically didn't add up. The heel turn itself, that moment at elimination chamber, brilliant. Amazing.

The execution of that specific moment was so good. Everything after that, there were a lot of parts of the out-of-the-ring stuff that just didn't add up there. But the matches that were going on during John Cena's heel run were not bad. And like I think that seems to be the thing that people miss. That's the point that people miss when they're talking about how much they didn't like John Cena's heel run or how much John Cena's heel run sucked. They don't talk about the matches. Like the matches themselves were still really great.

And I will quote Vanilla Sky. One of my favorite Tom Cruise movies when I'm thinking about the John Cena heel run here, the sweet is never as sweet. without the sour. And if we don't get the heel run that we got, we don't get that amazing moment at SummerSlam with the bright colors popping back out and us going, ah, John Sina's back. It's almost like we got another return. Like, it's almost like the John Sina that we knew and loved had gone away for almost half the year. Like, if you look at the numbers, John Sina spent almost exactly half of the heel run or half of this run, this farewell tour as a heel, and then almost exactly half of it

a little more than half of it as a baby face. But without that sour, the sweet doesn't taste as sweet. So like I'm a big believer that like everything happens the way it's supposed to happen. And I feel like if we had just seen John Cena go out and play the greatest hits all year, maybe we wouldn't be feeling the same way right now that we feel about these final four dates for John Cena. So if I were to assign a letter grade to this, I think the match is amazing. I think the stuff we're getting right now,

the character work we're getting right now, is also amazing. Like it's just giving us this massive dose of nostalgia. And like, you were seeing people at Crown Jewel like, like crying. like tears streaming down their face that they got to see John Cena one last time in their city and their country. And like those are the feelings that I, we weren't getting at the beginning of the run because

it's like, ah, there's 36 dates left or there's 28 dates left or whatever happens to be. Like, yeah, it might be my last time seeing John Cena in the city or this state or this country. But yeah, there's still so many other things that could happen during this. And I feel like what we're getting right now is just, to quote Michael Cole, it's vintage John Cena. I love it so much. I think that I would assign this run thus far. I would give it an A minus. I think there were some definite misses with the character work.

And obviously, don't get me started on this. No explanation with Travis Scott and the Rock, but I don't feel like we'll ever have an answer to that. But I digress. other than that, where has John Cena missed? Sure, maybe there's been some opponents you wish that he had had matches with. I don't know if that's really up to John Cena. I actually loved the way that the AJ Styles match was booked. We don't need a buildup to that.

And I don't think we're going to get a buildup for whatever these final four appearances are. I think it's just going to be John Cena going out there and doing what John Cena does. But there hasn't been one appearance of the 32 that we have. seen so far that I've been like, oh, that that sucked or man, I really didn't enjoy that. Like, there's something that's special about knowing that someone is in their final season as an athlete and you're seeing them in your either your home stadium, your home arena, home field, or you're seeing them away like, oh, man, not really a Lakers fan, but Kobe's in town. Kobe's a legend.

Gotta see him play one last time. Not really Yankees fan, but Derek Jeter's retiring. Got to see him play one last time. And I think that that's the great thing about like John Cena's music hits, everybody is on their feet. Everybody's taking photos or taking videos or taking in the moment. And I think that that's been really special.

And I don't know what they have planned for these final four appearances, but I just feel like it's going to be something really special. I think that however this ends is not going to be everybody's cup of tea. And that's the thing about expectations is when you have an expectation and that is set in your mind, anything that falls short of that will be a disappointment for you. And I'm not saying, don't go into this with expectations. That would be ridiculous to say that. But there's a quote that I love so much.

It rings true. And I think about this one frequently. If you trade your expectations for appreciation, you'll never be disappointed. And I'm planning to be there in Washington, D.C., December 13th. I don't know what to expect at all. Obviously, we have no clue who his opponent's going to be. And my goodness, that is less than two months away. But I'm just there to be like, man, almost 25 years, John Cena has given everything.

And I feel like they're going to do something really special with that night in general and whatever that match happens to be that I think may end up having us go, you know what? It was this whole year was great because a big thing in WWE is like send them home happy. And I feel like there's a, there's this idea that like if that match like leaves on a good note, like can you name off the top of your head without looking it up right now? Just like boom, boom, boom, boom. can you name like six of the other matches at WrestleMania 40?

No, not off the top of your head boom and boom. Yeah, if you start to think about it, you can. But what do you, when I say WrestleMania 40, what do you think of? For most of you, you're saying, oh, yeah, Cody finishing the story. What a beautiful way to end WrestleMania. It was amazing. And I feel like if John Cena's retirement tour ends on that high note, we'll go, yeah, there were some things in the heel run that didn't really work, but I'm glad he took a chance

at it, but man, that thing, and it's strong. An email from Vincent Olivia. Hey, Chris, real, real one here from Chicago. I've been listening to your podcast for three years now. Three years, Vincent, thank you. I finally caught up in all the episodes. So I started going back to the 2019 ones. You've come such a long way, man.

You're telling me, some of those 2019 ones were rough. I do not suggest you go back and watch or listen. to those ones. My question is, do you think we'll see a Cody Rhodes heel turn soon? I know that's a pretty common question, but honestly, I feel like Cody might have been the one who attacked Jacob Fattu on SmackDown. We've seen Cody and Jacob talking backstage,

and then he came out when Nick Aldous confronted Drew. Then he used his belt to hit Drew, which got him disqualified. It just feels out of character for him. We'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Appreciate all you do, your friend, Vince. I think that we will be talking about a Cody Rhodes possible heel turn for a while. And then also maybe like what we saw with John Cena,

if it doesn't meet your expectations and people are going to be all over it and thinking it sucks. I think the reason that Cody hit Drew with the championship belt is because he's just fed up with Drew. And like, I feel like Drew has just been pushing all of his buttons. And Drew has been like, like Drew has been just a true heel with all of this. And I feel like Cody.

he's basically saying like I can't do it the way I usually do it. It's not a match. So if I hit him with a foreign object, I'm not going to get disqualify, but maybe I can send Drew a message. That's how I read that. I could be completely wrong here. I would love to see Cody and Jacob being a feud at some point in time down the line. But as I'm looking at it just surface level here, and this is going to turn into like one of those big things like who attacked Jacob Fah T, too, like, who attacked Jade Cargill? Who ran over Stone Coal with the car? I did it for the rock.

I did it for the people. It seems to me like it'd be solo. But maybe that's too obvious. Maybe it's too obvious that it's solo. But I will tell you this. Whenever Jacob Fah Tu comes back, he's going to be a massive baby face. And whoever did this to him either will turn heel with the revelation, or they will deepen themselves in their heel run with this news.

I don't, I think that if Cody is going to turn heel, it's not like this. I think it's going to be part of some sort of larger storyline, something bigger. Maybe it's Cody losing the championship and then chasing after it and realizing you can't do it as a good guy. I don't know, but when we think about this as just like a, from a business standpoint, and actually talked about this with Jelly Roll yesterday. And I still can't believe that I went to Jelly Roll's house in Nashville to record that episode. We chatted for almost two hours. Just talking about wrestling with my buddy Jelly Roll. Crazy. But I mentioned this with Jelly Roll that it's this idea

of like, if Cody turns heel, who slides into that spot as the face of the company? Who's there showing up early and staying late? Who's there? Who's there? shaking all the hands, kissing all the babies. Like, I think it's all the stuff that you don't see when you're on that quote-unquote champion schedule. You're the face of the company. And that's not just a literal term of like you're the guy on the posters, but like it's everything that goes along with it.

It's signing the stacks of eight by tens. It's being there for like, not just the meet and greets with fans, but like being there for like corporate events and like trying to win over sponsors. There's so many parts of this. And as we sit here right now, I don't think there's somebody else that's as over with him, or as over as him, that would be able to slide into that spot and be the face of the company. Sure, there's other people that are over. Sure, there's other baby faces.

But I don't think that you have someone on that level that Cody's arm right now. Love him or hate him. You cannot disagree with that. You cannot disagree with the fact that Cody is the guy right now. And until there's somebody else that's willing to step in and take on that role, I don't think that Cody's able to turn heel. Because I don't think that they can have someone away from that position. It was John Cena for obviously a very long time. It was Roman Raines for a while.

And now it's Cody Rhodes. And until you have somebody else that's able to slide into that spot, work all of the hours that he's working, fly to all the place, fly to all the places that he's been doing or taking his bus there, whatever the case may be, he's working a lot right now. On top of the fact that he has a new baby, like, so there's so many different parts that are going on right there, I don't think we see a heel turn from Cody, not for a while. And what's the definition of a while? CVVV is a while six months from now, is a while six years from now is a while, 60 years from now. Yeah, that's a while. That's a while for sure. I don't think it happens this calendar year, but that's kind of a cop-out.

We only have like 10 weeks left. But I don't think it happens between now and maybe WrestleMania. And then I guess we start to get into like, what are the WrestleMania matches? And I think that it's a little too early to start looking into that stuff. But Cody He'll turn, inevitable. I think it happens at some point in time, but not yet. This episode is brought to you by Zapier.

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Get started for free by visiting Zappier. Zapier.com slash insight. That's ZAPIER.com slash insight. Alexander Dumas on Instagram says, hey, CVV, real, real one here. And I got a, would you rather a question for you? I can't wait to hear all of the ridiculous, would you rather questions that we're going to start getting because we kicked it off last week. All right. Would you rather once a month when you get out of the shower, or Gunther appears behind you and chops your ass. What?

Or every Friday evening, you have to cook a meal for Charlotte Flair, but she's never satisfied and brutally criticizes you for your cooking skills. Okay, so let's break this down. Gunther is going to be there while I'm showering, only once a month, though, and then is going to chop me from behind. This only happens 12 times a year. Okay.

Or I cook for Charlotte Flair every Friday, so 52 times a year, and she's never satisfied and brutally criticizes you for your cooking skills. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Is Charlotte being nice the rest of the time, but like just making fun of my cooking skills? Because look, I'm not the best chef. Although I do grill up a. a mean filet mignon, medium rare, of course.

But like if she's talking about my cooking skills, I'm just kind of going, yeah, I get it. I'm not a great cook. Although if she's being mean about it, you call that a filet mignon? Oh, you call that a pomfreet? I don't even know what I'm talking about here. Maybe I would start to take offense to that, but I guess I never really see myself as a chef. On the other side of this, I'm getting assaulted while naked, apparently, once a month. Those welts probably take a long time to heal, too.

I'm going to go hang out with Charlotte Flair or cook for Charlotte Flair once a week. Once a week. Is this happening in my house? Her house? Neutral location, restaurant? I don't know. Can I bring friends? Like, if I'm getting criticized the whole time, that's fine.

but like can my friends hang out and like everything's good with them. They have to eat my like cooking that my cooking may be good. Charlotte's just making fun of it because she's like criticizing every little part of it. Oh, you think that's good? Oh, disgusting. I'll go with the Charlotte Flair hangout. Maybe Rick Flair stops by every once in a while. Kevin Smith emailed this one in.

Hey, Chris. I've been a real, real one for a while now. And one of your thoughts on AskCTV number 105. brought up about the, was brought up about the single biggest moment in wrestling. What do you think is the biggest behind the scenes moment in wrestling history that we're aware of? You mentioned that you believe, as many of us do, that Hogan's heel turn and bash to the Beach 96 was the single biggest moment. But what do you believe is the biggest moment in wrestling history behind the scenes that we're aware of? I'm asking, as I've watched a lot of documentaries on this era, and a lot of them seem to lead to believe that Vince McMahon and Hogan had a handshake agreement that he was.

would not go to WCW that he was always a WWE guy. Well, first of all, Kevin Smith, I love your movies. Clarks is fantastic. Can you imagine if it was the actual Kevin Smith, just randomly emailing in? I think the biggest moment behind the scenes has got to be the screw job. And I know that that played out on camera as well, but we still don't really know what happened behind the scenes there. Like, there are various different versions of a similar story, but it's pretty crazy that that happened 28 years ago. And we've got Brett's version. He was clearly lied to. And then we've got like the Earl Hebner version. We've got the Triple H version, Triple H of that time saying, I had no idea. You've got obviously Sean Michaels was in on this with Vince. That's got to be it.

like they didn't trust Brett enough to be able to drop the championship and not show up on Monday night nitro with the WWF at that time championship. So like they needed to make sure that he lost the title. So like I think that's got to be it. And then if we talk just in terms of storyline, and I mentioned this a little bit last week, but if not for the screw job, then Vince McMahon doesn't become the Mr. McMahon character. All of the fallout from that, which they, ends up leading to one of the greatest feuds ever, which is Stone Cold versus Mr. McMahon. And then the corporation after that,

like there's so many things that happened because that one butterfly flapped its wings, another great movie, the butterfly effect. So I think it's got to be that. And then if you ask the question of like, what happens if we don't get the Montreal screw job, I think a lot of things don't happen. I think the WWE still goes on and finds a way to like win the Monday Night Wars and that whole thing, but like it looks a lot different.

And I think it's because of the decisions that were made behind the scenes at Survivor Series 1997, the Montreal screw job. All of those things ended up happening as a result of that. So yeah, maybe Hogan and McMahon had a handshake agreement that he would never go to WCW, but money talks. And that's really the main reason that's the main reason Brett Hart had to go. Or at least that's what Vince McMahon told him. Hogan was getting paid a ton of money in WCW, got to bring his friends in there, which probably was the demise of WCW. It was a lot of them just kind of booking themselves over.

But I think that it's got to be the Montreal screw job. Swanitude. This is Sam Swan on Instagram. He says, hey, CVV, real, real one here. from Waterloo, Ontario. That is my college town. Wilford Laurier University. I love it.

Sonti and I went into great detail about how much we love Waterloo. He still lives there. How excited are you for the Toronto Blue Jays making it to the World Series? Are you going to try to catch a game at Dodger Stadium? All the best to you and your family.

I am so excited for the Toronto Blue Jays to be in the World Series for the first time in 32 years. They won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, and they haven't been back since. And it's funny, I was watching Game 7. And I'll keep this brief for anybody who's listening

and it's not a Blue Jays fan or not a baseball fan. But I was watching Game 7, and it brought back just a flood of emotions. I remembered being 10 and watching the ALCS and then watching the World Series in 93, it was against the Phillies. 92, it was against the Braves. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

And I say that all the time, and it's true. And I was watching it, and Rachel had already gone off to bed. And I was watching it. I just had this, like, flood of emotions. Like, I felt like I was 10 again watching that. And I was so crazy about baseball at that age. I was playing rep baseball. I was doing nothing but talking baseball with my friends and like throwing a baseball whenever the weather was good, playing baseball at the park.

Like it brought back that flood of emotions of being that kid, nine years old when they won in 92, 10 years old when the Blue Jays won in 93. Of course, Joe Carter's incredible walkoff home run in 93. Touch them all, Joe. You'll never hit a bigger home run in your career. Love it. And that's how I feel now. Like, I'm so excited for this. They're playing game 3, 4, and 5 at Dodgers Stadium, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Monday is Monday Night Raw in Anaheim. It's at the exact same time. The baseball game, the World Series starts at 508. Monday Night Raw, of course, here on the West Coast starts at 5 o'clock. So I would assume that I will see you there at Monday Night Raw on Monday. So I would love to go to a game, but I don't know if we can find a babysitter. I don't know. I don't know if grandma is able to watch the kids for another day.

So I'll just say, go, Jay's go. And I hope to be there. So if you're going to be at Monday Night Raw on Monday at the Honda Center and Anaheim, I hope to see you there. If you happen to be at the Dodgers, the Dodgers Blue Jays World Series game, I hope to see you there. And I hope I can find. some tickets. Stubhubhub, of course, right? That code CVV at Stubb, that has been coming in

clutch. Charles on Spotify says, what do you make of AJ Stiles and Dragon Lee being the tag team champions? Well, you know, Charles, if you put their names together, AJ Stiles, Dragon Lee, you know what you get, right? You get the name of their tag team, Dragon Styles. Dragon Styles. You get the name of their tag team. Dragon Stiles. No, I'm kidding. I've seen the joke everywhere. Their tag team's AJ Lee. So good. I'm very interested to see what the payoff is here. And if you remember when AJ was on the show earlier this year, he told me that he has a plan in mind for his retirement. He said he's been thinking about a lot lately. He told me that he doesn't want to wrestle past 50. He's 48 right now. He announced in Perth, actually, he announced that he's going to retire next year.

He told me that he has this plan for his retirement. And if it plays out the way that he wants it to play out, we'll definitely know. I don't think that we're seeing that yet, but I had an idea. Why would AJ Styles and Dragon League win the tag team championships out of nowhere? Like, no buildup to this. They don't even really have much of a history together. they're just kind of thrown together and they win the tag team championships. Why?

What's the purpose here? And I think that that hopefully will play out over the next few weeks. But what if the plan here is for AJ Stiles to win every championship in his final year? What if he goes on from this? He's already had that feud with Dominic. We're well aware of that. What if he goes on from here and wins? the Intercontinental Championship.

So now he's the tag champ and the Intercontinental Champion. What if after that he has a banger of a match with Ilyan Draganov? And it becomes the United States champion. And I don't know if he would get into, I would love to see him get another title run as the WWE champion and he's certainly deserving of that. And heck, if we're talking about the World Heavyweight Championship and throwing someone in there who's deserving or throwing someone in there that like, you know, is going to have a great match.

sign me up for AJ Styles versus literally anybody. I would love to see that. But maybe, maybe it's for AJ Styles to become like a belt collector. I don't know. I'm just throwing this out there. I can't put the pieces together otherwise as to why he would win this tag team championship out of nowhere. So this tag team run with the world tag team championships,

I'll be watching this real closely. because I don't think that AJ Stiles planned for his last year is to be a tag team wrestler. I don't think so at all. There is a much grander picture here. And I think we'll start to see how this plays out over the next few weeks, I would think. An email from Brett Zuckerman. Let me talk to you. Do you think we will ever see WWE go back to the traditional Survivor Series elimination match?

I am not suggesting WWE replace the war game matches, but rather WWE fill the rest of the card with one or more elimination matches. I think this year would be a great opportunity to bring it back. Given current storylines, the obvious choice would be Wyatt 6 versus MFTs. What are some other Survivor Series elimination matches that you would like to see? Take care and keep up the great work. Brett, P.S., get to City Field with your dad. You will not regret it. I think City Field is where we're going to be next year.

that's the plan. Although with SummerSlam in Minneapolis, I mentioned before we went to the Metro Dome and it was awful. I think even though we've been to the city and we've seen the Twins play live, I think we need to do Target Field. Maybe that's when we

maybe we go to the, redo the list with like the stadiums that have been like, that are new. But we'll get to City Field. I am not, this may be a hot take and maybe an unpopular take, but I'm not really a fan of the War Games matches. I much prefer the traditional Survivor Series elimination match. I mean, it is quite literally called Survivor Series. And there is no part of what we see in the War Games matches that is, that leads up to that. I want a sole survivor at the end. And I would love an explanation as to why we have the

war game matches every year now, unless it's just to have someone, hopefully William Regal, but someone out there saying, war games, war games! But I would love, love to have traditional Survivor series matches back, please. We've had war game matches since 2022. And I feel the same way about war games that I felt about the Hell and a Cell PLE.L. And the problem with the Hell and a Cell PLE was like we were getting a hell and a cell match just because it was that time a year again. It's hell and a cell season again. And like I feel like hell and a cell should be like an absolute last resort. Man, they've had so many normal matches together.

They even had a last man standing match together. How can they finally end this feud? There must be only one way we can finally put the nail on the coffin and end this feud. Hell in a cell. And that's how I've always felt about it. And I've never loved the idea of like, well, it's hell on a cell season. So let's take these two guys who are having a feud for the last six weeks and put them in hell in a cell for absolutely no reason other than the pay-per-view is called hell in a cell. I want it to mean something. And I feel the same way about war games. Because when war games comes around, like you can almost make like a bingo card. Like, oh, well, this person's going to do something

from the top of the cage and this person's going to do something to the outside. There's just so many cliches, so many tropes. And I feel like if we're going to do war games, it needs to mean something. We'd much rather have a Survivor Series match

because it's Survivor Series season. And the same way that we get a Royal Rumble match because it's Royal Rumble season and the match makes sense. I don't love the idea of just like, it's November, it's Survivor Series war games, so everybody goes, out there and has a war games match and see what happens.

Just there's been some cool moments, sure. But I much prefer the traditional Survivor Series match, Brett. I'm with you. Tyler Derso on Spotify says, do you think we can get an interview with Maxine Dupree? I would love to hear her story from getting booed and heckled at a live event to having her two-star making performance. on Raw with Becky. I love the show from a hashtag, real, real one. Well, Tyler, not only do I

think we can get an interview with Maxine Dupree. We will be getting an interview with Maxine Dupree because I already filmed it. I filmed it like a week or two ago and it will be airing not next week, but the week after. We have an amazing interview with Mickey James that drops on Tuesday. and then the Maxine interview will be the week after that, but I'm with you. You can tell Maxine has been putting in the work. You can tell that she's just been a sponge, just taking in all of the information that she's been given. And like the progress she's made from like this time last year to now is massive.

Go back and listen to the interview. She was on the show before, but like early on in her career. But go back and listen to that interview from, I guess about. a year and a half ago. Yeah, about a year and a half ago. And the way that she like systematically breaks things down, like the story she tells about how she got her WWE tryout and then how she like found someone who had done a tryout before and was like, tell me everything I need to know. And like systematically broke down like, okay, what, what can I do to stack the odds in my favor and to really impress them and get a job? And like she did all of the things. Like she put her research in

whereas I feel like so many people show up to be at a job interview, an audition, a try out, whatever it is, and just like, well, let's just go out there and like, give it my best and see what happens. She, like, did the research to, like, figure out what to do, and I guess more importantly, what not to do. And she's been taking that same mindset, she has this incredible growth mindset. She's been taking that same mindset and applying it to her matches. And I love that so much.

So, yes, you will be seeing an interview with Mac, Dupree, another interview with Maxine Dupree in the next few weeks here. Julian Bond sent in this email and said, Hi there, CVV. Happy to keep the Mount Rushmore train going for you with this question. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the Mount Rushmore segment. I love this. Keep the Mount Rushmore questions coming.

I think it's become so funny that AskCV has just become the Mount Rushmore. Rushmore show. Julian's Mount Rushmore is, what is your Mount Rushmore of wrestling belts slash titles? I've always been a huge fan of the classic white and gold intercontinental title myself. And I also think the OG TNA X Division Belt is super underrated.

Ooh, I agree. I want the big X in the middle. Thanks, Julian from Michigan. Well, I'm going to agree with you. Classic white and gold intercontinental title for sure. that is, I think, the best mid-card title ever. Love that look. And it was around for a while, too.

Like, that's a title that we had, not just the white strap, but like that design of the belt, we had for, yeah, quite some times. So because you said it, I'm just going to kick it off. This is in no particular order, of course. I'll kick it off with the white WWF intercontinental championship. That was 85 to,

to 97 was that design. Obviously not the white belt the whole time, but think of people like that were holding that design of the belt, Stone Cold, Sean Michaels, Razor, Brad Hart, love it. The title that has to be on everybody's Mount Rushmore of title belts

is for sure the winged eagle. Like such a classic, such a timeless design. That's actually the first toy belt that I ever own. I bought it from a, from like Spencer I was like, I didn't even know they sold toy belts.

This is crazy. But when you think about that title, you think about Randy Savage, Yoko Zuna, Brett the Hitman Hart, Sean Michaels, Diesel, Stone Cold.

I love that classic shot of Undertaker holding that title. Everybody's Mount Rushmore of title belts, in my opinion, needs to have the winged eagle on it. I mean, come on. How could you not?

And then if we're talking about, like, just designs that we love and it's a Mount Rushmore so I can make this list whatever I want it to be. But a title that just evokes prestige when you look at it. To me, it's the big goal. And the crazy fact about the big goal is it's the only championship, the only major world championship to ever be defended on a WCW,

ECW, and WWE pay-per-view. And there's so many people you think of when you think of the big gold, like Rick Flair, Sting, Savage, Triple H, Orton, Batista, Undertaker, Edge, Sina, so, so many people, right, that held that that championship. That's got to be on the list. And I just think that that's such a classic design. There's so much history there. that's so cool.

And then that leaves us with one left. And it's always so hard when you have to do the fourth head on the Mount Rushmore. The fourth championship for me, I think just because of like when I really became a fan, it's got to be the big eagle.

Like, I think it was a nice way to transition from the winged eagle, which is, again, my number one championship belt. But Big Eagle to me, it's so, it's the Attitude Era Championship. And when you think of like the people who held it during that time, and you think of like all the storylines that we got during the attitude era that surrounded that championship, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Mick Foley, Triple H, Big Show, Kurt Ang,

single so many i think that that belt just evokes that feeling of nostalgia from that era and it's such a special feeling around like that era of the wrestle manias that we got 98 to 2002 and that's the funny thing about the big eagle is it didn't last that long 98 to 2002 is all it's all we got but so many emotions, so many memories, so much linked to that championship. So there's my four. I think that you could definitely swap one or two, maybe just one of them in there. But the interesting thing about Mount Rushmore is, and especially when you're talking about championship belts, a lot of it depends on when did you start watching wrestling and who were the champions at that time? And what were you watching too? If you were a big WCW guy, your list might

look a little bit different. If you're a big ECW, guy, your list might look a little bit different. Honorable mention, because I think some of the modern designs are not as good as some of the classic designs. The new TNA world championship is such a good design. And congrats to Mike Santana. Congrats to him on becoming world champion at Bound for Glory. But that new design, I think it's just a perfect merger of like classic with new. They did such an amazing job with that. So there's my four with a nice little honor we'll mention as well. Pete Biggins on Facebook says,

Hey, CVV, after hearing you talk about the smash machine, it got me thinking, what is your favorite rock movie? And what is your favorite John Cena movie? And what is your favorite Dave Batista movie? Man. So for the rock, I think his best performance, for sure, bar none. isn't smash machine.

But my favorite rock movie is the rundown. And we're going way back with that one. But I just, I thought that what 22 years ago was 2003, the rock and Stifler, Sean William Scott. I just thought that that was like a breakout for the rock of like, oh,

this guy can act. Like he has the ability to be like a star. It's funny. He's credited in that movie as The Rock. and then he went on from there, maybe a few years later, Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Then, and now, forever, just Dwayne Johnson. I also loved Central Intelligence. And it was such an interesting role reversal because it's Kevin Hart and the Rock.

And the Rock's actually the funny one here. And Kevin Hart's playing the straight man. And it's just a really interesting way that like Kevin Hart's basically, teeing the rock up for these laughs. And I thought that was such a cool way to play it. So like run down. John Sina? John Sina's my favorite John Sina movie?

I just think he's so great in the comedic roles. I think it's a toss up between train wreck and blockers. And like he had some lines and blockers when you're just like, pardon me? John Sina said that? Whoa. Okay. Heads of State, which came out earlier this year on Amazon, was surprisingly great with Idris Alba.

Like if we're just talking about action movies, yeah, really good. But I think train wreck and blockers, yeah, I thought like really just like so good at delivering those lines. Dave Batista, there's so money to choose from. And I think that he just has such depth and range to his performances. I think his best portrayal, his best acting role is knock at the cabin. M. Nishamalan film.

I don't know if that's his strongest film as a whole, but just his performance in it is so good. And like, there's so much like subtlety to these. little things that he says or does when you're like, oh, that's a, it's a little creepy. I like it. Really good. But I think for me, the Guardians of the Galaxy is an obvious one. I don't know if I, yeah, of course, it's a Dave Batista movie. And he's fantastic as Drax.

Love them. But I'm actually going to go with glass onion. I just thought that, like, especially like, they filmed that during COVID and like working around like just having a tight-knit cast and like you're in there with them and it's this classic who done it like someone gets murdered and who did it got to figure this out and try to put the pieces together and like you're solving this in real time as the characters in the movie are also solving it. I just thought that that was really well done. So and his character and that's just a lot of fun. So I'll go, I'll actually go toss up glass onion and

just his work in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and his work as Drax. And he has said this many times. If not for getting Guardians of the Galaxy, if not for being given the role of Drax, his career isn't what it is. He said that many times. He said he was broke before getting that role and put everything into it. And when he got the call that he got the role, he broke down and started crying because he knew how much it would change his life.

that's the movie that made him a star. So if we're talking about like with the rock, rundowns like, oh yeah, there's something about this guy as a star. I feel like with Batista, it was just playing drags and like playing it so perfectly.

And also, when you think about invisible people in wrestling, now we've got two of them. You can't see John Cena and you can't see Dave Batista. An email from Alex Moore. Hey, Chris, real, real one here from Gloucestershire, England.

I was rewatching Judgment Day 2005, and there was this outrageous storyline between Booker T and Kurt Engel. Oh, yeah. In short, Kurt wanted his way with Booker T's wife and wasn't going to take no for an answer. That is a very nice way of putting it. Alex, I appreciate that. That led to the little feud between them. That also reminded me of the storyline between Kane, Matt Hardy, and Lita. The winner at SummerSlam, being Kane and Matt, gets to marry Lita.

Crazy Times! wild times. My question to you is what's your wildest slash craziest or bizarre storyline that you can think of that really stands out to you. I know there's been so many. So if you want to make a Mount Rush more of them, then feel free, but not required. Great work. I always look forward to the interviews and ask CVV episodes. Have a great weekend, Alex. First of all, Alex, did I seek Gloucestershire correctly? I hope I did. There's a lot of letters in that. The wildest and craziest and most bizarre storyline will for always and forever be not May Young giving birth to the hand. I know that's what a lot of people think of. And yeah, that was very silly, but at least not part of like a main storyline,

like the ones you're talking about here. That was kind of just like a throwaway like mid card thing, although very comical. And Mark Henry's hilarious. It's Katie Vic. Like find a more ridiculous a storyline and a, like, more disgusting storyline than Katie Vick. And I don't want to get into the details. I've talked about Katie Vick at great length over the course of 106 Ask CVVs. But it's just so dumb. It was so, so stupid to begin with. And then it like, necrophilia and triple H putting on the cane mask and the coffin. and like now the fact that we know that that was actually filmed at a real funeral parlor while an actual funeral was going on next door.

It's so dumb. But Katie Vic, two words, not suck it. Katie Vic, the worst storyline in wrestling history. Not just WWE. Like, you show, yeah, David Arquette was the WCW world champion. I don't care, Katie Vic. Oh, but CVV, the anonymous, raw general manager. I don't care. Katie Vic. Oh, but CVV, Don Marie getting engaged to Tori Wilson's

dad, Al Wilson. I don't care. Katie Vic. Katie Vic. Go back and watch it. And the fact that, like, the fact that that episode of Raw ended, Cain's in the ring, Triple A's music hits, and he's like, I know about Katie Vic. Like, what? What? What does that mean? Oh, then we found out. And the thing, it just, that was the storyline that never ended. It was so bad, so dumb. So, what were the words you, wild as crazy, most bizarre were the words you used?

Sure. Yeah, I think it ticks all those boxes. It's wild. It's crazy. It's bizarre. And it's also dumb and stupid. And if you couldn't tell, I have a. Real hatred for the Katie Vick storyline.

It's bad. And I said go back and rewatch it. Don't. You already know it's bad. And if you've never watched it, just no. Just know that it's really, really bad. I'm not, we could make a Mount Rush more of this. But I already listed off some of the terrible storylines there.

But still, Katie Vic. That, my friends, is the final question on this. Ask CVV number 106-sided ring, number 101, Y, at 6, number 106-packed challenge, and yes, number 106-1-9. Thanks for joining me on this one. If you've got a question for next week,

if you've got an idea for Ask CVV number 107, and what we can do with that, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify. Send me an email, CVV at chrisfanfleet.com, or send it in on social media, using that hashtag, ask CVV. What a great quote we're going to end this one with. It's from Bob Proctor.

Faith and fear, both demand you to believe in something that you cannot see. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. you on the next one for some more insight. Mickey James joins us on Tuesday. We'll see you back here on Tuesday for that one. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from

top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard it in to rock bottom dude i was born in nineteen eighty seven i can't believe he's doing this hammer alley follow and listen on your favorite platform