Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #114 - John Cena Taps Out, What's Next For GUNTHER, Austin Theory Is The Masked Man, AJ Styles' Last Opponent

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Welcome to AskCVV #114! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about John Cena's last match at SNME, why he tapped out, what his smile meant, the crowd reaction and more! He also talks about what's next for GUNTHER after retiring both Goldberg and John Cena, what the plan is for Austin Theory after being revealed as the masked man with The Vision, Mount Rushmore of Christmas carols, who might be AJ Styles' last opponent and much more!Quote I'm thinking about: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" - Dr. SeussPlease 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 FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFFSTASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures   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!FACTOR: Use code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year!GLD: New customers get 50% Off with code INSIGHT at https://GLD.com 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/CVVand 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

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Flea! Happy Friday and welcome back, my friend, to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. A lot of big feelings this week. A lot of big feelings this week, so I just want to check in and ask you, how you doing? We've got a lot to talk about today, so thank you for being a real one and for hanging out with me on a Friday. And thank you for making insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Slap a sleeper hold on that follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now so you don't miss out on a single episode.

And could I ask for a teeny tiny little five second favor? Could you leave a rating on Spotify or a review on Apple? Man, both of those would help so, so much as we end 2025. on a high note. And thank you to everyone who tagged the show this week in your Spotify wrapped or your YouTube recap. Insight was a top 10 ranked show for 1005,000 listeners across 142 countries. Insane. I can't believe those are real numbers. And I saw a lot of you who were in the top 2%, top 1%. I saw a few in the top 0.001%. Incredible.

So thank you. You are amazing. And I can't wait to show you what we have in store for 2026. If you are clicked into my little group that I have on Instagram, the CVV feed that I have on Instagram. If you go to my profile and you click on CVV feed, you'll see some behind the scenes photos. You'll see some exclusive.

of holes that I have on there. It's all free. It's just a fun thing to like connect us together. I put a photo in there. Well, it's out now. I guess I can say it. But I put a photo in there of an upcoming interview that we're going to kick off 2026 with. Man, I am so pumped for you to hear the conversation with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Unbelievable. Like we're kicking off the year with Stone Cold. Where do we go from there? Like seriously, where do we go from there? That's a guess that I've had on the bucket list for years and years and years. And the fact that not only did we get Stone Cold in the show, but we recorded it at his branch just outside of Reno, Nevada.

Oh my gosh. What a day that was. Incredible. So make sure you're following the show or you're subscribed on YouTube or preferably both. So you don't miss out on that one and then everything melts that comes after that. Welcome, my friend, to ask. CVV number one 14 time world champion Randy Orton edition. Welcome, my friend, to ask CVV number one, one, four horseman edition.

And welcome to ask CVV number one for life edition. Oh yeah. If you've got an idea for next week for Ask CVV number 115, we already did the one, one, one, five time, five time, five time, five time, five time. WCW champion, we did five star frog splash. We did a lot of fives. So if you actually have an idea for 115, and I'm, you know, I'm racking my brain right now to think of some,

if you've got an idea, leave a comment on Spotify. Shoot me an email CVV at Chris Famifference. Fleet.com or send it on social media using that hashtag AskCV. We've got a brand new Insight Live that is on the way. This was just announced. I think the website is now up. It's functioning. I don't think I have announced this yet other than right here. But Friday, February 27th, the day before Elimination Chamber in Chicago, we are doing Insight. live. Tickets are on sale right now at CVVTix.com. CvvvTiX.com. Can't wait to see you in Chicago, Friday, February 27th for that. Also, tickets have been on sale for about a month now for WrestleMania

week. April 16th, grab your tickets for that one as well at CVVTicks.com. Let's dive into this. Man, so much to talk about here. This is from the Prince Hudda on Instagram who says, take on how Sina's final match ended. Having been there and knowing him on a personal level, is that actually how he wanted it to end? This is the question of the week. I've had so many different versions of this question sent in. I've had so many friends reach out to me.

I've had so many messages at the airport on Sunday. When I flew out of Washington, D.C., I had so many people asking me, what did you think of last night? How did it go? And I was there. I was there in D.C. for Saturday night's main event.

There was such a buzz in the city the whole time. Like from the time I landed there on Thursday, all day Friday into Saturday, and then after the show on Sunday as well. And it was just, there was just an excitement around the city. And there was a detail that I loved. WWE didn't have a super store there

like they normally do for PLEs. It was not a superstore. It was a Cina store. Everything in there was John Cina merch and John Cina sign memorabilia. Like that was it. If you wanted something from another superstar, you couldn't get it there. You had to get it at the arena because it was just Sina stuff, which was so fitting because the focus of the weekend was on Sina's last match.

And I think one of the big things that seems lost in Saturday night's main event is nobody's talking at all about the other three matches. Sol Ruka picking up the win against Bailey. AJ Stiles and Dragonly defeating Jvon Evans and Leon Slater. I feel like this was just a taste of what we're going to get in the future from them. I feel like we could see some one-off matches with that. I feel like a W.W.E versus TNA match

is kind of in the making there. We've got to see A.J. Stiles versus Leon Slater. That would be so good. I'm actually surprised that match was as quick as it was. But, man, that was just pardon the pun here. it was nonstop action from start to finish. It was just like, go, go, go, go, go. Crazy.

Cody Rhodes versus Obafemi, I think that's another one. This is the first of, I think, many matches that we'll see from them over the years to come. That was great, and obviously, Drew McIntyre is not done with Cody Rhodes, which is surprising. They've had so many matches together. I feel like that was, I feel like that was,

there was a definitive ending there, but I guess not. if they're going to restart this feud or I guess continue this feud, does that mean that Drew McIntyre gets a win here? Does that mean Drew McIntyre is going to be the next undisputed WWE champion? Because I can't see any other reason why they would continue this if it's not for Drew to get a win. If it's not for Drew to become the WWE champion again.

And then of course the main event of the night, Gunther defeating John Sina by submission. And there's two very polarizing opinions on this. We've got, I liked it, he did the right thing, or I hated it, he did the wrong thing. And in that Instagram group that I was talking about, the CVV feed, I put a poll up and I said, how would you grade John Cena's last match, A, B, C, D, or F? the poll right now leading the way b b is the number one answer right now

the number two answer f a big old failure according to the number two rating on the poll here and then we got a after that b f a i mean it's it's super polarizing right and i can see both sides of it I totally get it.

How could the guy who says never give out, tap out in his last match? I mean, this is the guy who says never give up. He hadn't tapped out in more than 20 years. Kurt Angle and the ankle lock was the last time that he tapped out 20 plus years ago. So why would the guy cap off his career? The guy who says never give up,

the guy who's been an inspiration to all for his 23-year WWE career, why would he end it by tapping out? The other side of this argument, which is where I fall, Sina did the honors. It's a time-honored tradition. And I think, look,

whether you want to admit it or not, we all knew that John Sina was going to lose his last match. Sure, you might have had a hope of like, oh, you know what, there have been some instances, there have been some examples recently of legends winning their final match. Sting is a very, recent one that comes to mind. But I think that if you really think about it, the tradition in the

business is to lose your last match. What's interesting now is the conversation isn't about the fact that he lost because I think that deep down, we all expected a loss. The conversation now is about how he lost. And within that conversation, no one's talking about the match itself. The only thing I see people online talking about are the last few seconds. Not the 23 minutes that came before. The match was 23 minutes and 45 seconds, by the way. We're all focused on the last few seconds. What did that smile mean?

And I love that we're breaking this down in the same way that we would break down the end of a movie or the end of a TV show. Why did it fade to black in The Sopranos? Did the top keep spinning or stop spinning? an inception. My personal take on this is it wasn't John Sina tapping out. It wasn't John Sina giving up. It was John Sina letting go. I thought that it was from the John Sina character's perspective, I thought that it was his character saying, I'm okay with this. It's acceptance. Acceptance that his career was over. At peace with the incredible career that he had.

his way of riding off into the sunset and passing the torch, not just to Gunther, but to the next generation. Boli Ray raised a very good point this week. Obie Wan winked or Obi-Wan smirked slash smiled just before Vader struck him down because he accepted his fate and he knew that in order for others to live, he must die. Sina obviously saw that, obviously liked it because he shared a photo of Obi-Wan smirking on Instagram. And it's not like this finish came out of nowhere. Like if we're talking within the story of the match, Gunther was methodically working on the neck the whole time.

Lariots and then sleeper hold after sleeper hold after sleeper hold. Sina kept fighting out of them every time. And he like, just when you thought that, oh man, maybe this is the sleeper hold that gets him, he'd fight out of that. and then he tried every counter he could. He tried every finisher he could, including the Super Sina Avalanche AA. None of it worked.

He tried it all to no avail. And at the end of the match, John Sina had met his match, and he tapped out. I think an interesting thing about being there live is I don't think we could see the finer details of this. I think that you had a very different experience. watching at home versus watching in the arena.

I don't think you, I certainly didn't see that smirk slash smile. I was focused on the ring and I wasn't able to see that up close. So I think that that's an interesting point. And I think that that's a big factor that plays into the reaction that the crowd gave after the match because I don't think that you saw the nuance of that. But I just think like him tapping out. doesn't erase the 20 plus years of his legacy. And him saying giving up here doesn't like negate the things that came before it.

I think it's the perfect ending. And obviously John's decision. I guess another big thing that I don't know if it's being talked about enough. Like I don't think that John Sina went into this going, yeah, whatever you think. I think that he had a big hand in deciding like how the match would play out, what the finish would look like, how exactly that finish would play out. This isn't just John Sina, the wrestler in there.

This is also John Sina, the actor. I mean, he's been acting for almost 20 years now. I think the nuance of that is also John showing off some of his acting skills as well. I would love to know the full story behind it. I don't know if we're ever going to get that. This is going to be one of those things that has talked about forever.

Like this may be one of the biggest, wrestling, call it decisions or wrestling moments that is ever, like that we will have an ongoing discussion about. Is it the right move? Is it the wrong move? Why did he do it? Why did he not do this way? And I think that that's a really interesting thing about wrestling just in general when we can have these kind of discussions and discourse about it. But from a business perspective here, he just made Gunther a massive, massive heel, like much more than that. He's just more than he was a week ago. Did you see the video of him trying to leave the Capitol One arena in Washington, D.C., like walking out into the street to get to his bus? Fans were yelling at him. Fans were

booing him. They were throwing bottles at him. Like, this is like old school heel heat. And then when he came out on Raw, man, that's the reaction you'd want to see from a massive heel. You can barely hear him during that promo. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, it was just a constant stream of booze. Would he be getting this reaction if John Cena passed out? Maybe, but probably not. Would he have got this reaction if he pinned John Cena?

Also probably not. Certainly wouldn't be getting this reaction if John Cena won that match. I think that this was all done to build Gunther. And again, a decision from WWE in general, but I would think a decision from John as well to like build what's next after this. We've had 12 months of anticipation for the farewell tour. I mean, many more months if you think about just when John Cena talked about this last summer, Money the Bank, Toronto. But we've had 12 months since the start, right? kicked off January 6th into a dome, Los Angeles, first raw on Netflix.

So we've had 12 months of anticipation, also 12 months to build expectations, which could be a good thing or also a bad thing, because now there's 12 months for your expectations not to be built. So for everybody that's upset about the way that this went, what were the expectations going into the final match? And I will pause there and say, what did you think about the match itself? Not the smile at the end, not the tap-out. What did you think about the match?

And you might be saying, well, CVV, that doesn't matter. Because a movie's only as good as it's ending. Sure. I think that when you put all of this together, the story that was told in that match, the story of classic story, of good versus evil, The baby face of all baby faces, John Sina, the face of WWE for 20 plus years, taking on the heel of all heels. Someone who going into this match already had nuclear heat. Now it's just on another level, Gunther.

So we've got the story of that. We've got John Sina pulling out every trick in the book. He's trying absolutely everything to take down this monster, Gunther. None of it's working. he's leveling up. Man, the leg drop off the top rope, the chant, you've still got it. Oh, man, I loved it.

Like, John Sina gave it all. He left it all in the ring for that match. This was not the style of wrestling that we had seen from John Sina over the last probably even 10 years. This was vintage John Sina, to quote Michael Cole. I love it.

But if your expectations going into this mess, where John Cena needs to pass out. John Cena needs to take a pin. Anything but tapping out. Well, of course, you're going to be upset now. But I think that now that we've had almost a week go by and we've had some time to digest this, maybe your opinions changed on it.

Maybe it hasn't. I left the arena going, man, what a career. And what a way to push this forward and in the next generation. And then I started seeing some like discussion online of like, oh, well, there were a lot of like nuances I again didn't see from being there live. I just started to respect the decision and the ending and the match itself so much more. Again, I feel like there's not enough talk about the match. Like I really enjoyed the match back and forth, back and forth. The crowd's so hot.

How about that video of Goonther yelling at that little kid? That video has gone viral too. It's so amazing to see that. Like, that's just how much he's just, he's gotten under people's skin. It's just a visceral feeling that Gunther has. And you know, he's going to continue to ride this way. I'm the guy who retired John Cena. I'm the guy who retired Goldberg before that.

I shared this on Facebook earlier this week. This is from WWE nostalgia. This is Gunther's resume. NXT, UK title reign, 870 days, two-time WWB world champion. A record Intercontinental title reign of 666 days. King of the ring winner, 2024, retired Goldberg, retired John Sina, and he's in the prime of his career. Many more accolades to come. I enjoyed the match.

I had such a different experience watching it back. versus seeing it in the arena. I'm so glad that I was there on the arena. Awesome to be able to chat with someone under you guys and hang out and high five before and after the match. That was a blast. Again, like I can't believe that that's it. John's seen his career.

What a career. But I feel like I've been saying this for many months now, but like January, 36 dates. All right, cool, here we go. We're down to 30 and 25, 20, right? 10 now, there's single digits. It feels like it was like not long ago that John Sina announced the retirement tour and here we are now.

It's over. And what will also be really interesting with the Cody and John Sina interviews, you could see how much this affected Cody. He was the last one standing by ringside after John Sina had left his shoes in his wristband and his armband in the ring. And Cody was emotional, crying. He gave that interview with Jackie Redmond and talked about how much John meant to him and just like the finality of his career. Man, a lot of different takes about John Cena's final match.

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Just head to zbiotics.com slash CVV and use the code CVV at checkout for 15% off. Ionia 42 on Instagram says, what are your thoughts on John Cena's retirement tour now that it's all said and done? And like I said, it's in the books now, 36 dates, 12 months, it's all done. And we can look back on it now. And hindsight's always 2020, right? But if at this time last year, if December 2024, I gave you a pen and a paper and I asked you to come up with a realistic wish list of what you'd like to see during

2025 from John Cena, what would you put on that list? Like a realistic list, right? And I say realistic because, like, you can't say a match with Edge because even at this time last year, it didn't seem that realistic. You can't say a match with Kurt Angle because, you know, Kurt Angle has said numerous times he can't wrestle anymore. You can't say a match with Chris Jericho because, again, under contract with another company.

But what would be on your realistic wish list a year ago? You might have said, I'd love to see John Cena turn heel. Seems unlikely, but just, it's been a face his whole career. I'd love to see him turn heel. We got a heel turn. What else would be on that list? Winning a 17th championship, boom, we got it. Winning elimination chamber, boom, we got it.

He's now tied for most elimination chamber wins ever. Main eventing WrestleMania, we got it. Man, do you think, if I'm making this wish list, do you think there's an outside chance, he could become a Grand Slam chance? I mean, would he win the Intercontinental Championship? Boom, we got it. We had matches with previous rivals. We had matches with future stars.

We had matches with people that he's never had matches with before. I feel like we got a little bit of everything. I think the only thing really missing here, if you're really diving into it, 36 appearances, 18 matches, I think, yeah, there's some names on there that I think people wish that he could have matches with. If you go back and listen to the John Sina interview I did last week, John Sina does not operate in could have and would have and should have. He operates in what is.

So yeah, there could have been a match with this person or that person. But 18 matches. Yeah, some people got repeat matches and some people didn't get matches at all. But I think outside of some of the dream, I think we got all the dream matches, but outside of the matches of like, oh, it'd be great to see him have a, a match with L.A. Knight. Yeah. Or a match with Carmelo Hayes. There's a handful of other names on there. It's, oh, man, be great. Could he have a match with Joe Hendry? No, but could Joe Hendry be part of his final night, Saturday Night's main event in DC? Oh, wow. That was pretty cool. He was

able to be involved in that. I think outside of some of those matches, we really got it all. And I don't know if anybody's looking at it from that perspective. If at this, again, at this time last year, you would have said, we got to see a match with Randy Orton. I mean, I was one of those people saying, Randy Orton's got to be his final opponent. There's just so much history there. It makes so much sense. But I would have said a match with Randy Orden. I would have said a match with CM Punk. I would have said a match with Cody Rhodes. I would have set a match with AJ Stiles. I would have set a match with Brock Leszer, which, man, that didn't seem possible this time last year. We hadn't seen Brock Lesder in a year and a half as of December 2024. Got a match. I'm a match.

with Brock Lesnar. And if you're asking why that match with Brock Lesnar was so short, go check out the interview I did with John Cena. I directly asked him about that. But again, I think there were so many things about this retirement tour that were crossed off. So many things that would have been on that list that we got. And I think that if you're able to see the forest for the trees and see all of the moments that occurred throughout the year, Yeah, sure, there were some things during the heel turn that maybe were a little bit clunky or maybe didn't deliver in the way that you thought they would deliver, but certainly wasn't the matches.

I mean, the matches that he had during the hill turn were great matches too. Specifically, Randy Orton and CM Punk. So I enjoyed the John Cena farewell tour. I love that they went for it. Again, it's a mind-blowing thing to think about that they were planning this for three years, clearing out John Cena's schedule for three years. He was getting the T-shirt designs, the uniforms, as he calls them, approved for almost a year in advance to make sure that those logos and those designs were okay.

Sure. We haven't got an explanation and we may not get an explanation anytime soon about Travis Scott and The Rock. Yeah, that's a missed opportunity there. But I think when you look at the matches, were there more going to be a more? good matches than bad. Absolutely. 100%.

Were there ever really even any, like call them bad matches? Maybe there were some matches that didn't deliver in the same way, but I don't know bad matches. Even the short match that he had with Our Truth, I thought was great. Maybe he had two short, which is also fun.

Another thing that would have been on the list. Could we see a match with John Cena and Our Truth? I mean, our truth. his childhood hero is John Cena. Cross that one off the list too. I think that this delivered in a lot more ways than people want to give a credit for. I don't know if we'll ever see another farewell tour.

We know that AJ Styles is hanging them up in 2026. I don't think we're going to see like a full-on farewell tour like this where dates are announced in advance. T-shirts are made for each specific city. We're counting down the dates to that final one. I think that when the people who are towards the end of their careers do finally hang him up. And AJ Styles, we know is this year.

Brock Lesers, probably soon. Randy Orton, also probably soon. More years behind him than in front of him. I don't think it's going to be this full-on tour. I think it's going to be like counting down to the match at WrestleMania or SummerSlam or whatever the case may be. Juan Kennedy on Instagram says, hey Chris, so here's my question for AskCTVV, the one-one four-horsman edition.

I think that we all knew that Gunther was going to win. The story only made sense that Gunther would make him an even bigger heel. But the current baby-faced champions in Punk and Cody, do we see either of them being the payoff to beat Gunther at Mania and get revenge for Sina? If not, who do you think will be the one to beat Gunther? Thank you from a real, real one. I think the story with Gunther and Sina is done.

I think that Sina now rides off into the sunset and Gunther now continues his reign of terror being a massive, insanely huge nuclear heat getting, heat seeking heel. I don't think that there's any revenge here for Sina. I think that Gunther just continues to go on. And the big question here, like you pointed out, is who goes on to beat Gunther? I see a match in the works here, and it has been teased for years. I think we get Goonther versus Brock Lesnar this year. And I think on the outset, from the outset, you look at that and go, oh, wow, well, could that be Brock Leisers' final match?

And if that is Brock Lezor's final match, does Goonther retire another legend? I mean, it's already been Goldberg and John Cena. Is it going to be Brock Lesnar? I could actually, like, I could see a point. I think you could make the argument that if we do get Gunther versus Brock Lezzer, Brock Lezzer could win that match. And I know that we're just speaking in hypotheticals here. This is all fantasy booking.

But who's going to beat Gunther? And if he continues this, when's the next time he loses? There's another really interesting thing. Like this kind of feels like the conversation we had about Roman Reins for a long time. There was a fun stat there up until WrestleMania 40 where it was like, you know, the last four people to pin Roman Reigns. Let me look this up, actually. It was like two years ago, but the last four wrestlers to pin Roman Reigns, and it was like dating back like years. It was Baron Corbyn, Eric Rowan, Jay Uso, and Shane McMahon.

Because you were having to dig back like, I was like back to like, 2017 or 2018 or something like that. I feel like this is going to be that similar case. It's going to be like, who's going to be the next person to pin Gunther? Because he's just like unstoppable right now. Who was the last person to pin him or to beat him? Jay Usso, right? How long does Gunther continue this?

How long does he keep going with this? And where does it lead to? I think it leads to a world championship or a WWE championship, championship in 2026. But I don't think it's to get revenge for John Cena. I think that that is, that had its moment that existed within the storyline of Saturday Night's main event. But I think that this, Gunther is past that. He will forever bring this up, right? This will be the thing, not unlike WrestleMania 30 and the streak ending. This is a conversation that feels a lot like that. Did they make the right decision? And also, who's the person to beat the streak? It's Brock Lezor.

and that'll be a thing that's always on his resume. And I think that, you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30, 40, 100 years from now, I feel like people are still going to be talking about now John Cena tapped out to Gunther. And I just think this is going to be like 2024 was a big year for Gunther. 2025, huge, like huge, huge, huge year. I think 2026 he's just going to take things up to just another level. Kenyon Brown emailed this one and said, Ask CVV number one-one, four-horseman edition.

Now that John's seen his final match is behind us, let's talk about AJ Stiles retirement tour. Do we get another TNA title or a WWE title run? And who is his last opponent? It is such a good question. Because as of right now, we know that AJ Stiles hangs them up in 2026. That's what he said.

And he told me earlier this year when he was on the show that he will not wrestle past his 50th birthday. And then he, which is in 2027. But then he made it more clear that 2026 is his last year in the ring. So now we get to talk about all of these final matches. Again, I don't think it's a retirement tour from AJ Styles or at least not an official one. I think we just kind of go into it unofficially knowing that this is it and it builds to whatever that final match ends up being. like I said, I think we need a match with AJ Styles and Leon Slater. That's like the goat of TNA, like the number one face on the TNA Mount Rushmore.

When people talk about TNA, undeniably, everyone's like, oh, AJ Stiles, like the greatest TNA wrestler of all time. And then, you know, when I talk to John Sina, he's like, AJ's just the greatest wrestler, like the best to ever do it, his exact words. So I think that we see AJ Styles versus Leon Slater. If AJ is going to have a match in TNA, I believe that that is the match that we're going to get. I don't think we get another TNA title run from AJ Styles, but it's wrestling. Anything could happen?

I would love to see another WWE title run, though. Even if it's a relatively short one, even if it's one that lasts just a few months, I would just love to see that. I mean, he hasn't won the championship since, 2017. That was the last time he won the WWE Championship. Won it from Jinder Mahal, November 7th, 2017. This is another thing it's not talking about. He held it for over a year. He held it for just over a year, 371 days, lost it to Daniel Bryan, November 13th, 2018. So by the time next year rolls

around, it'd be seven plus years since the last time AJ Styles held that championship and eight plus years since he won it. We'd love to see another championship from him. Who's the final match, though? And it's interesting because there's not a name that like immediately jumps out right now. Do we go the same way as John Cena putting over younger talent, having a program with them or a match with them so that they can take that torch and carry it in the next generation? Or is it, give him a feud? Give him a feud with somebody that like is a deep-seated feud, someone that he has like, you know, real history with.

I don't know. And it's funny off the top of my head right now. there's a bunch of different names. A lot of different ways you could go with this, but who would be A.J. Stiles' last match? And I guess the other question about this, the other part of this is,

who's the right opponent if they do it right? Who's the last opponent if it's done correctly? Because who was Kurt Engel's last opponent? Well, Baron Corbyn. Obviously not the top choice for either of those guys, and they both said that in interviews. but if AJ Stiles has this done right, if it is, they do this correctly, who is it? I would love for it to be in TNA.

I would love to hear, get ready to fly. I don't know if that's going to be the case. I do think he'll have a match in TNA at some point in 2026, but I could see his last match being with someone like Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, C.M. Punk. How about Dirty Dom? but that Camarillo Hayes would be great, Bronbreaker. But it really feels like

if we're going to continue this trend of retiring legends, don't be surprised if it's AJ Stiles Gunther. It just feels like it could make a lot of sense. But we've got some time at least. We've got some time to think about this and at least set our expectations, right,

for better or for worse. Jesus Cruz emailed this one in and said, hey, CVV, it's Jesus here, a real, real one from The Insight Live in Vegas. Well, thank you for coming out to the show. Hope to see the next one. For this week's Ask, CVV, what was the outline for the John Cena interview? How long had this been planned for? And who reached out to who?

Just give us the details in general. P.S., as someone who works at a quick trip gas station here in Arizona, what is your Mount Rushmore of convenience store items? Thank you and happy holidays. Oh, we love a good Mount Rushmore. Rushmore. So good. So let's talk about the John Cena interview first. I had been trying to make this happen all year. And I felt like there was like an outside chance that it actually might happen. So the whole story is after John Sina did the press conference at the first raw Netflix.

Well, I saw John Sina when he did the press conference at Money in the Bank, Toronto, when he announced the press or the retirement tour. Then I saw him and chatted with him. him very briefly in Los Angeles, that first raw on Netflix. And I sent him a message. I sent him a text, and I said, I would love to do an interview with you at some point this year. And he's like, I'm, I'm sure that'll happen. And I said, I'll keep bugging you till it does. And he says, I have no doubt that you will. And I was like, okay, all right, this thing could happen. Then after the heel turn, I sent him a quick message and just had a quick exchange there. and then sometime in the summer, I said, do you think there's a chance we could do an interview before SummerSlam?

And he wrote me back and said, unfortunately, I don't think my schedule will allow for it or something along those lines. I was like, all right. Well, it'd be really cool to like kind of do a post-mortem on this past year and just like chat about all the like the important beats along the way. And I'd been making some notes. I'm sure you've heard me talk about this before, but I have a note section of my iPhone. of like just anyone that I might possibly do an interview with, I write down notes or moments or like just different things that I think about of like, oh, if I ever get a chance to talk to that person, boom, here's a question I'm going to ask them. Or like, if I ever talk to this person again,

I'll just keep making notes. So I was making all these notes and all these ideas and like clips that I would see. I was like, I kept like writing them down. This list in my iPhone note section was getting pretty long. And then I got a random message from someone that works at WWE. And they were like, hey, you want to check on your availability on December 3rd. And they told me that I was going to get to interview John Cena. I was like, oh my gosh. It's happening. I can't believe this. And they were like, and just so you know, like, it was John who asked to do this interview. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, wow. So like now I start taking just these ideas and notes from my note section of my iPhone and like starting to formulate them more into like, all right, what would be the order of this

be? What would the, how could we phrase this into a question? And that's kind of how it went. But man, the day itself was pretty cool. So we were like setting up the timing and I gave John Cena's people like the address and location and like the parking instructions and all that stuff. and we had scheduled the interview for 1.30. And they were like, just so you know, he'll probably show up half an hour early.

And to his credit, he showed up like maybe 15 minutes early. And we were ready to go. Like, I was in the studio for like two hours just in case. Like, I knew that everyone's time is super valuable. But I knew that he had like a really busy day. And I want to make sure that he was like in and out without like too much messing around with like setting up cameras and lights and all that other stuff. I will say one of the cool things, and I haven't talked about this, I have an actual ticket stub

from WrestleMania 41 night two. And I feel after the interview, I showed it to him and got him to sign it. So I feel like I have one of the very few, like it's a one of one too, because he wrote on it never seen 17 as the inscription. But it was a, I feel like it's a very rare item because ticket stubs are so hard to come by now and I don't even know how I got a ticket stub. I just happened to get one when I went into the arena. But the fact that that's now signed by John Sina on the night that he won his record breaking 17th World Championship, pretty crazy. And also like, this is so silly.

1.30. We started the interview like 122 or something after like walking him into the building, getting set up. He went to the bathroom. and I said, what time do you like need to wrap up? And he's like, oh, about like 2.30. We'll start wrapping up. I said, 2.30?

My wife, Rachel, is going to kill me for this. Anytime I hear the time 2.30, I think of that absolutely terrible joke of what's a dentist's favorite time. Tooth. Herty. So when John said, yeah, about 2.30, I said, a dentist's favorite time? he looks at me confused. Like, 230, he goes, ah, ah, ah. Got a little chuckle out of him.

Then we started the interview and he was going to give me a signal at about the 230 mark that we were like an hour into the interview and like, he was like, I'm going to fix my time. I'm going to go and adjust my tie. So like give you the Iggy that it's like time to wrap it up. He never gave me the Iggy. So we just kept talking. I was aware of what the time was.

A little behind the scenes thing here. I usually put my phone in when I'm in the studio, I usually put my phone between my legs. So I just have like a gauge of how long we've been talking. So I just had my phone between my legs. Like I was sitting on it. And I was like looking down like, oh, it's like 2.30. No Iggy. 235.

No Iggy. 240-ish. Still no Iggy. So we just kind of kept going. The interview was like what, an hour 20-ish? I think it was an hour 22 was the total recording time? Crazy, right? because we got to cover just so many different topics there.

And then when he left, I think we walked him out at like 257 because he like needed to be in the car and off to the next spot by three o'clock. And like after the interview wrapped up, I said, did we get you out of here on time? He's like, checked his watch. He goes, yep, you sure did. And from the time he was in there until the time. he left, he couldn't have been kinder. He couldn't have been more present. And that was a really interesting thing. Like he had a stacked day. And he flew in just to do these interviews. He went from

my show to my studio, West Coast Creative Studio. Shout out to my buddy Zeus, who runs it. He went from the studio to Jimmy Kimmel right after with something in between. It's like a super packed day. but he wasn't like checking his phone every three seconds and like making sure he like was on to the next thing he didn't take his phone out one time and was like super kind to like take a photo with us in the studio sign the ticket stub super gracious and super grateful for the opportunity and thank you to everyone who has watched this and like the numbers on it are massive and we're putting together the top 10 list for the year of the top 10 interviews for the year there is There's no question that even after, what is it, a week?

No, the interview came out 10 days ago. It is the number one interview already after 10 days. And there's been other interviews like the Seth Rollins interview. It looks like it's going to be the number two interview. And that's had an entire year, 12 months, to build those numbers. The John Cena interviews at 675,000 views as of this exact second. I'm sure after this weekend, it will be well over 700,000. Crazy.

just again, super, super grateful for the opportunity. I also look forward to whenever the next one is. Hopefully there's another John Cena interview in 2026. Let's keep this trend going. We had John Cena for over an hour in 2024. John Cena for over an hour in 2025. Let's keep this thing going. The Mount Rushmore of convenience store items,

I feel like I might have a slight problem when it comes to C4 energy drinks. It drink like at least one a day. so that's that's one for sure doesn't really matter the flavor there's something about just the I used to love candy and I still do enjoy candy and I'm sure there'll be candy items on this convenience store Mount Rushmore but there was a point where I was like I couldn't go a day without eating like a bag of candy sometimes like the big movie size bag of candy now I feel like Drinking C4 is like drinking candy.

So C4, salt and vinegar potato chips. I love salt and vinegar potato chips. High Chews, if we're going to go with some sort of candy, but there's something about the consistency of high chew that I just, I love. And like I could, I can crush a bag of high chews. And I go with the bag of high chews, not the, like, I don't even know what you'd call that.

Like the, I guess the roll of high chews where you'd, taking out like the individual rolls that are all stuck to each other. Like the bag with the wrappers on the inside, you know what I mean. That like those ice cream flavor high chews, they are elite. They are so good. And then like sometimes I want a little chocolate. So I think to round out the Mount Rush more of the top four here of quick, quick trip gas station convenience store items, nothing beats a Reese peanut butter cup. the new one that's like the Oreo flavored.

Like it's Oreo mixed in with it. Oh, my gosh. Those things should be illegal. They're so good. There's plenty of other items. I will also grab from a convenience store, but if I were to go to a convenience store right now, and I might after this episode's done,

it might be a little bit late for a C4 as I'm recording this on Thursday evening, but those are probably the four items that I'm going to grab. Although I don't know if I've ever grabbed all four of those items in one trip, but that's probably what I'm going to go with there. So thank you, Jesus, for the question. Jordan Nates on Spotify says, Ask CVV number 114. Hey, Chris, do you think Austin Theory has come back for something other than aligning with the vision?

If so, what do you think the reasoning is? I'm surprised we got the reveal from Austin Theory already, which makes me curious where this is going, because that's that was the big reveal on Monday what's going to be the explanation from it this Monday because I I doesn't seem like he's actually part of the vision it kind of seems like he's feels like he's like a vigilante and he's off doing his own thing maybe to impress the vision maybe to impress Paul Heyman I'm not sure but it'll be very interesting to see where this thing goes Austin theory has some like real unfinished business when you think of some of some of

the storylines he's been involved in, winning money in the bank. It's like, oh, my goodness, okay, he's won money in the bank. He's probably going to be a future world champion. Then he cashes in on the U.S. title. Okay, that's a little strange. And then he cashes in on the U.S. title and doesn't even win? Hmm. All right.

Think back even before that. He's aligned with Vinsukman. Like, he's basically being positioned as like on camera as Vince McMahon. as Vince McMahon's right-hand man, Vince obviously sees something in him, and he has the look. You can cut a promo. He can wrestle.

He sells, man, he sells like, I was going to say like Dolf Ziegler, but nobody sells like Dahl Fziger. He sells at a high level. Austin Theory takes a lot of boxes, but then that with Vince McMahon didn't turn into anything, then you think about the fact

that he's had moments in the ring. Austin Theory has had moments in the ring with the Rock, with Stone Cold, with Vince. Like, there's a lot there. And maybe this is a repackaging here or rebooting

of Austin Theory. And he's obviously aligning himself now, aligning himself now with a main event faction. And the greatest manager to ever do it, Paul Heyman. Where does this go? So I'm curious where this leads to and will we see the Austin Theory run that I feel like was teased years ago? That's what I would

love to see. Also, I don't know if you saw the comments online, but him taking off the mask. This is a nice little fun throwback to, it's me, Austin Theory. Craig Usher emailed this one in. Yo, CVV, what is your Mount Rushmore of Christmas carols? And what is one gift that you got for Christmas that was the most memorable item received. Craig Usher in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Mount Rushmore of Christmas carols, I mean, tough. I've been listening to a lot of Christmas carols. They've been on since Thanksgiving weekend in our household. And again, if you missed it, the Christmas tree has also been up. We had it up so that when we were eating Thanksgiving, we could see the Christmas tree. We've been listening to a lot of Christmas carols. So,

I think that this list would change day to day, but as of right now, the Christmas playlist that we've been listening to kicks off with rocking around the Christmas tree. And I love it. I feel like it just sets the tone. That guitar riff at the start, rocking around the Christmas tree, it's so good, so catchy. And also, Logan, who's two and a half, my daughter, when she hears it, like we were at a grocery store the other day and it came on. She goes, rocking around the Christmas tree. She knows it and loves it. Holly Jolly Christmas, another one that I just put you in a good mood. How can you listen to rocking around the Christmas tree or holly Jolly Christmas and not

be in a good mood? Also, rocking around the Christmas tree reminds me so much of the party scene in Home Alone where he has the mannequins and the Michael Jordan cut out. It's going around on the train. I love that scene so much. I love that movie so much, but I love that scene so much. What else? I think some of the classic ones, like any of the Andy Williams songs,

I think particularly for this Mount Rushmore, Happy Holidays slash the holiday season. Happy holidays, happy holidays, well the merry bells keep ringing. I'm not going to sing anymore, but you get the point. Happy holiday. Okay, you get the point. I just, I love that stuff.

And I think because I listen to so many Andy Williams songs and just like old school Christmas songs, when I got my Spotify Rapped this year, first of all, I think the Spotify Rapped is a scam. I don't think it is an actual, accurate representation of the music you listened to

over the previous year. But because I had listened to so many old school Christmas songs, Spotify Rapped said that my listening age was like 95, years old. It said that I was spending a lot of time listening to music from the 40s, 40s and 50s because I was listening to so many classic Christmas songs. It also said that this is where I have to, I have a bone to pick with Spotify. For sure, the artists that I have listened to the most are kids artists. I've listened to so many children's artists this past year

because driving around with Logan and Cooper in the car, we're listening to Danny Go for sure. He is, if you are a parent, you probably know about Danny Go and if you don't, check out literally any song and you will be hooked. They are so catchy. We listen to so many Danny Go songs. We listen to so many just like generic like wheels on the bus type of songs, twinkle, twinkle little star. And we listen to super simple songs. None of those artists are on my Spotify top five. I listen to probably 4,000 hours of Danny Go songs. And somehow, how Danny goes not on my Spotify wrapped top five artists, doesn't make any sense. On October 3rd, when Taylor Swift's new album came out, I listened to it. I listened to start to finish. I skipped through some of the songs that I didn't think were that catchy, but I listened to every single song, or at least parts of every single song. And that's it. Maybe I listen to another Taylor Swift song here and there when it popped up in some sort of playlist. Somehow, Taylor Swift was my number one artist of the year.

That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense at all. It should be one of these kids artists. Or like, you know how much hot mulligan I listen to or blink 182 or senses fail? Nowhere to be found on this list. I can't be the only one whose Spotify rap just doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense. But I digress.

Rocking around the Christmas tree. Holly jolly Christmas. Happy holidays, the holiday season. and you know what other song I just love. Insinks, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. That song could come on during any month of the year. And I'm going to stop what I'm doing. And if I hear it in a grocery store, I'm going to start dancing or singing or both.

I just, that song, I love it so much. And speaking of InSink and just boy bands in general, I got Rachel, I got RVV for Christmas, tickets to see Backstreet Boys at Sphere in Las Vegas. And she already knows about this. So I'm not like revealing this a week before Christmas. She's aware of this gift because we've already like planned out the grandparents watching the kids. That's really fun.

That's another whole thing. My parents are coming in from Canada. They're spending the week with us for Christmas and I can't wait. DVV, Dv-V, Dirk Van Fleet and HV, Helen Van Vleet. They're coming in and I said, great, we can't wait to spend Christmas with you. And also, by the way, you're going to be babysitting on December 26th. because we're going to Las Vegas to see Backstreet Boys. So if you happen to be in Vegas,

you happen to be at the sphere for Backstreet Boys on December 26th, Boxing Day, I will see you there. So there's my Mount Rushmore of Christmas songs. Rock around the Christmas tree, holly jolly Christmas, happy holidays, the holiday season. In sync, Merry Christmas, happy holidays. And also Spotify wrapped. Doesn't make sense.

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Dave Canning emailed this one in. Yo, CVV, real one-percenter here. Amazing. Thank you. I'm on the road a lot for work, and your show has helped me make the drive so much more enjoyable. You are my top podcast on Spotify Rapp with over 9700 minutes listen. See, in that case, I feel like Spotify Rapt is definitely 100% accurate. There's no way that that's not accurate.

My question for Ask CVV is what was your Spotify wrapped? We'd love to know your top music and podcast for 2025. Thanks for all you do and a Merry Christmas to you and Rachel and the kids. So I gave you a little bit of my Spotify wrapped right there. And I just don't feel like it adds up. I just don't think that it's that accurate. But should I give you the whole thing? You know that Taylor Swift was my number one artist.

which I still cannot believe because it just does not add up to me. Again, I don't know how accurate this is, but here's what top artists, Taylor Swift, even though I listen to, I don't know, eight and a half songs, Jordan Davis, Hot Mulligan, WWE, and Tim McGrath. I feel like some of those are accurate. Also, in my top songs, Santa Baby is song number four. Like, we're listening to Christmas carols that much that Santa baby is in the top five of songs. Tito Santana Ches on Twitter says,

Hey, yo, CVV, I hope all is well with you and the family. I love the energy you bring every week on AskCV. I want to know, I know that you love a good Mount Rushmore question. And here is one for episode number one, one, for life with the too sweet emoji. With John Cena's farewell tour wrapping up in a new era kicking off in 2026. What's your Mount Rushmore

a post-attitude era, WWE wrestlers, 2002 to present, to be more precise? Who are the four that defined the last two plus decades in terms of drawing power, in ring work, and overall impact? Been trying to get a question on Ask CVV for a while now, so hopefully this week is my lucky turn.

is in fact your lucky turn, Tito. Keep bringing the hits, my friend. Thank you for all that you do. Tito Sanchez from Carlisle, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Mount Rushmore, specifically from 2002 to now. Excellent question, because I think when you've, most people's Mount Rushmore's have names from the 90s or 80s or both.

John Cena, obviously. He, top spot. absolute no-brainer. The face of WWE for 20 plus years carried the company through the PG era, through the era that came after that, the network era, into now this entire last year.

The story of 2025 was around John Cena, plus the fact that he's a legit mainstream star. Movies, TV shows, pop culture in general, even if you've never seen a John Cena match, you know that you can't see me meme. It makes sense. Where do we go from there? Randy Orton, the quiet assassin of longevity.

20 plus years is a top-tier guy, moved from the legend killer into just like WWE cornerstone to like, now he's like the final boss and looks like a million bucks now. Plus, everyone talks about just how smooth and effortless he is in the ring. And I feel like we are honored to be able to watch what he does in the ring. And he's just so consistent. John Sina, Randy Orton.

Brock Lesnar. If you're going to talk about who's had a huge impact in wrestling over the last 20 years, you've got to talk about Brock Lesnar. Box office attraction every single time he appeared. He has not held a championship other than the WWE championship or the world championship. He's just a top guy. Never held a mid-card championship, never held a tag team championship.

And he's done it all. And he just has this aura, right? Even if you don't watch wrestling, if you just look at a picture of Brock Leisure, you go, oh, man, that guy's massive. I think he's got to be part of the list. And like he's had so many iconic matches, so many iconic moments.

I think about my favorite Brock Lezor match. I'll give you my two favorite Brock Lezor matches. We did this a while back, but I love the match with Kurt Angle at WrestleMania. Even though that Shooting Star Press didn't work out, man, that match was just special. And I think the Rock's best match, and this is the hill that I will die on, while my favorite rock match is Rock versus Hulk Hogan and just the crowd reaction,

WrestleMania 18 and everything that went on with that icon versus icon match, I think that if we're talking about in-ring performance, Barack Lezor versus the Rock at SummerSlam was just next level. So good. And then where do you go from there? Right? This is the tough thing about Mount Ruff. Rushmore's is you got to like narrow it down to just four. So if we're just, just four,

this is going to ruffle some feathers, right? Doesn't matter whose name I say here. Doesn't matter whose name I say you're going to go, well, what about so and so? And you're right. What about so and so? They should be on the list too, but this is the thing about Mount Rushmore's. There's only four. And are you really going to take off one of the three that I just named? My fourth spot goes to Roman Reins. When you think about the last 10 years in WWE, other than John Sina, he's been the face. He's been the guy. Again, hop tier, a guy who's just at the top of the card all the time, a guy who whenever he's, especially in the last five years, whenever he's involved in that conversation, it means something. And then I think that, like, especially what he did with the tribal chief run,

one of the most important long-term WWE storylines, maybe ever. When you talk about the bloodline and the tribal chief, and just like an undeniable top guy, like super dominant. And even though there was a point in time when WWE was shoving Roman rains down our throats

and just fans were not taking to it, something happened during the COVID era, the alignment with Paul Heyman. the fact that there weren't fans there to boo him when they were supposed to cheer him or cheer him when they were supposed to boo him, the fact that they were able to kind of drive the train themselves. I don't know why it's a train, car, taxi, whatever. They were able to take the wheel and drive.

I think that really helped and that propelled the character forward. Roman Raines as a heel was undeniable. So that's going to be my four. Of course, there's a ton of other names you could put on there. Edge, Seth Rollins, Batista, Siam Punk, lots of other names, but for me, those are going to be my four with a ton of honorable mentions. Email from Dozer. Hey, Chris, Dozer from Wisconsin here.

What's up, Dozer? It was great to meet you back in May at the ACW show. That was probably Minnie Dozer's second favorite wrestling show ever after NXT Live in Green Bay last month. And it was so fun hanging out with you and Minnie Dozer there. Thank you for making his night so memorable. Now that that's out of the way, here's my question. What is the difference between a real one, a real, real, real one, and a real, real, real one?

I just started listening to you a few months ago, and I just started listening to Ask CVV a couple weeks ago. And I've heard those phrases use a couple times, and I don't know what the real difference is between them. I love listening to your show. I hope you, RVV and the kids have a very Merry Christmas dozer. P.S. Sorry, not sorry about your Browns on Sunday. All the Browns are. There's always next year. There's always next year. That's what we say in Cleveland. I don't live in Cleveland anymore, but I still claim Cleveland as my American hometown. So this is a, thank you for the question. And it was so great meeting you and Dozer in Green Bay.

It was the ACW is Hornswoggle's wrestling company. So if you live in and around that area, you probably already know about ACW, but if you haven't been into a show, go. It was like one of the most well-attended indie shows I've ever been to. There were like 800 people there, like 800 rabid, loud fans. That was the same show where I did the rock bottom in the ring. So we just had a blast there. And I hope to go back to an ACW show next year. Thank you for the very important question. And I'd love to make the official distinction here between a real one, a real real one and a real, real, real one. And maybe there's some other levels after that as well.

This started because jokingly, maybe a year or so ago, maybe a little bit over, it was over a year ago. I said, man, if you are listening to an Ask CVV episode, you're a real one. Like, I understand if you want to tune in and listen to an interview with someone like Kurt Angle or John Cena or Seth Rawlins or AJ Styles or Samoa Joe, whatever. I understand that. But like, if you're here and it's just me. and you hanging out on a Friday, man, you were a real one. That's where that started. And then not long

after that, I went, if you are still listening at the end of this episode, you're a real, real one. Like, not only did you click play when there wasn't a big name guest, but then you listen for the entire duration of the show and you're still listening here in the last minute or so, my goodness, you're a real, real one. So that's where real one came and real real one. And there was just a thing I threw out. I put zero thought into that. It just came out off the top of my head. Then when we started doing live shows earlier this year, the first one being in January, in Indianapolis, the day before the Royal Rumble, we sold that show out. We sold that show out like a week in advance or something like that. Incredible. It just was mind-blowing to me. So for all of the people who came and

attended that show or attend any live show. I said that you guys are now real, real, real ones because you came, you paid your hard-earned money to watch this show, to watch this live podcast episode of me and whoever the guest happens to me. That one was Carlito and that show was hilarious and amazing. And if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it or go watch it on YouTube. He was so funny. Those are the distinctions there. Real one, you are a real one, just by click and play on an Ask CVV episode. Thank you for trusting me with an hour of your time on a Friday or on the weekend as you're listening to this. Real, real one.

Thank you for not only hitting play, but for listening all the way through to my just ramblings about wrestling. Thanks for hanging out with me. This is just a one hour uncut, off the top of my head. You and I are just chatting like we're having a beer or eating some pizza together. or watching the game. And then real, real, real one, you came out to a live show. And I guess I've now been saying you were a real, real, real, real one. So real times four if you buy the CVVIP tickets to an ask,

or to an insight live. So you come out to the Ask CVV portion before the show. It's not recorded. It's just us hanging out in the room, chatting about wrestling. that makes you a real, real, real, real one. And then there's a meet and greet after the show as well. So that's the new level. The very, very small percentage of people are real, real, real, real ones.

And again, if you want to come out to the show in Chicago, or you want to come out to the show in Las Vegas, tickets are on sale right now at CVVTix.com. That, my friend, is the final question on this. Ask CVV number one, 14 time world champion Randy Orton edition. And I've still had my fingers crossed early 2026 trying to make it happen. Randy, he even left a comment on Instagram this week. So it's now official.

It's out there in the public. He promised me we do an interview. And he said in this comment, let me see if I can pull it up real quick and read it to you. he said, oh, hold on. I can't find it now, but he basically said, like, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about our promise or my promise. I just might need a little bit more time. So let's hope that that all comes together in early 2026.

Ask CVV number one, one, for life edition and Ask CVV number one, one, four horseman edition. Send in your questions for next week for Ask CVV number 115 by leaving a comment on Spotify. Also, let me know your thoughts on John Sina's final year, the farewell tour, and John Sina's final match. And I think a distinction has to be made, the match itself and the finish of that match. Because again, I don't think a lot of people are talking about the match because the finish of it is overshadowing that. But leave a comment on Spotify with your thoughts about that or your question for next week, for Ask CVV number 115 or your thoughts on what 115 could be. Send me an email CVV at chrisfanfleet.com or send it in on social media using that hashtag

Ask CVV. And I'll leave you with this because it seems like such a fitting quote after this last week. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened from the great Dr. Seuss. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Happy holidays. you will be next Friday. Boxing Day, if you know what I'm talking about, December 26th. Well, actually, that's not true. We have an episode on Tuesday with the wonderful, amazing, incredibly

inspiring DDP, who I am grateful to call my friend. We're doing a repeat episode on Christmas day next Thursday. So if you have an idea of who you'd love to hear from again, we'll re-er that episode on Thursday and then Ask CVV. Boxing Day, December 26th, and then my goodness, wait till you see what we have in store for January 2026. I've already recorded, I told you Stone Cold, but then there's another big one I just recorded on Saturday, and it's someone I've been trying to get on the show for a long time. It's someone I've never sat down with. I've done short interviews with them here and there, but I've never sat down with them for a full interview. And this one's like an hour 45. So I can't wait.

for you guys to see who that is in 2026. But have an amazing weekend. Be great and be grateful. 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, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef?

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.