Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #116 - Predicting WWE Champions in 2026, 3 Stages Of Hell, Austin Theory's New Theme

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Happy New Year! Welcome to AskCVV #116! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about who will be the WWE Champion at the end of 2026, reaction to Austin Theory's new look and theme, Mount Rushmore of the best talkers ever in wrestling, the most impactful moments of the last 25 years, the best 3 Stages Of Hell match ever, whether Carmelo Hayes will win a World Championship, favorite Insight LIVE so far and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason—because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you." 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 AMERICAN FINANCING: NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-721-3300 for details about credit costs and terms or visit https://Americanfinancing.net/Chris 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! 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 Happy New Year and welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. We're two days into 2026, so I hope the new year is treating you well. Although every new year, I always think about that sting meme. You know, new year, new me and it's sting, wearing the sting mask and then taking it off to reveal that it's just sting underneath. I just always think that's, I always think that's so good. good. Thank you for spending some time with me on a Friday, and thank you for making insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit an RKO out of nowhere on that follow button so you

don't miss out on a single episode because you definitely don't want to miss out on Tuesday's episode. Stone Cold. Steve Austin is on the show. I can't believe that's a real sentence, but I especially can't believe that this next one is a real sentence. we recorded it at Broken Skull Ranch, right? Which is in Nevada, by the way. I think a lot of people think that the Texas Rattlesnake lives in Texas, but he moved a few years ago. So the Broken Skull Ranch is in Nevada.

It's beautiful. It's incredible. It blows my mind that he invited me there to record the episode. I met the two solid-ass cats. Very solid. I also met the horse. I checked out the pond where his bass live. Beautiful.

Incredible. Again, I can't believe that these are real sentences that I'm saying. But we chatted for over an hour on the podcast. We talked about everything. Stone Cold is someone that I've wanted to have on the show for years. And, man, what a way to kick off the years. So RKO, that follow button on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening, so you don't miss out on that. And if you are listening on Spotify, and you think that kicking off the year with Stone Cold, Steve Austin, is pretty awesome.

the comments, give me a hell yeah. We're also kicking off the year with Insight Live in Chicago, February 27th, the day before Elimination Chamber. I'd love to see all the real, real, real ones there. Grab your tickets at CVVTicks.com. Welcome to your weekly finisher. Welcome, my friend, to ask CVV number one, sweet 16. edition. Also, Ask CVV number 1-16-time world champion, Woo, Rick Flair edition.

And because of our guest on Tuesday, I'm going to make this one work. Welcome to Ask CVV number 1-316 edition. That doesn't really work, but let's pretend it does because Stone Cold is on the show on Tuesday. If you've got a question for next week, Ask CVV number 117. Ask CVV 117.

Drop a comment on Spotify. Send it in on social media with that hashtag AskCV. Or shoot me an email. CVV at chris vanfleet.com. Man, this is the first Ask CVV of the new year. We've got a ton of stuff to get into here. We're going to kick this one off with Charles Mortimer on Spotify, who says, Happy New Year, CVV, and all the real.

real ones. Well, happy new year for you, Charles. Question for Ask CVV number 116. Who do you think will be the WWE champion at the end of the year? Well, I just wanted to point out that a few months back, we talked about this idea of who's going to be the WWE champion on December 31st, 2025, and who's going to be the AEW champion on December 31st, 2025. And I just want to point out that I nailed both of them. Cody, Rhodes and MJF. Cody Rhodes, I feel like that one made a lot of sense, especially when we were predicting

this, I think it was July or August. The MJF one, I feel like I just slid into the last second. I feel like the Indiana Jones where he slides under the door and then reaches back in and grabs his hat. Like, that's what I felt like. MJF just winning it a few days ago. And also, I feel like MJF now has to

live up to the promise that he made to me. He said that he would come back on the show when he was the AEW champion again. So we haven't set a date or a time or anything else, but I'm just saying it's probably just a matter of time before the AEW champion MJF comes back on the show. And hopefully it's a much different experience from the interview we did back in 2019 with the room service and the toast being thrown in my head. But great question here, Charles. And I just wanted to point out that I got that one right. There's a lot of things I get right on Ask CVV.

There's a lot of things I don't get right. I'm okay with admitting that. I mean, a lot of times we're just speculating wildly about things that are going to happen six months from now, 12 months from now, however many weeks from now. It's fun to play those games and guess and see where we'll end up. And that's exactly what we're going to do here. I actually put up a new poll on Instagram. I put it up.

I put a post up on YouTube and Facebook. and I said, who do you think will be the WWE champion on December 31st, 26? You know who's leading that poll right now? And I put like a ton of names on there. You know who's leading the poll right now? Drew McIntyre is leading the poll. After him, Brom Breaker, Roman Raines, then Cody Rhodes, then Goonther. That's the top five according to the votes that we have as of this recording right.

now. Who do I think it's going to be? It's interesting, right? We've got 363 days to figure this out. A lot of things could happen. I think we're definitely going to see a title change or two or maybe three, perhaps even more. I think that'd be interesting if we could have more. I think Cody Rhodes holds the championship until WrestleMania, at which time he loses the championship at WrestleMania to whoever his opponent may be. This is obviously wild speculation because it's January. WrestleMania is in three and a half months, a lot of things can happen between now and then. We don't even know who's in the Royal Rumble. And I think we'll get a much clearer picture, of course, after the Royal Rumble. So last week, I made an early prediction. I think Roman Rains wins the Royal Rumble.

So if Roman Rains wins the Royal Rumble, I think we get Cody Rhodes versus Roman Rains three at WrestleMania 42. I would guess, I would think that Roman Rains wins the championship there, but does Roman Rains retain the championship? And I guess that's a, That's the big if here. Does he retain the championship all the way through so that he's still the champion on December 31st? And I would have to think, probably not. Drew McIntyre, being champion in 2026, feels like it makes a lot of sense. I mean, he's been so, so close, way too many times over the last few years for him to not finally win it. And I think also with that said, he's been so close with Cody Rhodes so many times. Like he has been tied up in the storyline with Cody Rhodes in so many different iterations of it too and still hasn't been able to beat Cody Rhodes for the WWE championship.

Does that end up happening? I don't know. It doesn't feel like that's what we're lined up for here. It feels like we may get even more matches with Drew McIntyre not winning the championship. But, I mean, who knows what could happen? three stages of hell right around the corner. And what a match that is for a Smackdown. January 9th, Berlin, Germany.

What a, like, to have a three stages of hell match on a Smackdown? Man, I love it. What a first week of the year between the raw that they're cooking up this Monday, January 5th, we got CM Punk versus Braun Breaker. And then we got this three stages of hell match that Friday, Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre. They're cooking up a lot here. I just, I would love to be surprised,

but I just don't see Drew McIntyre winning this three stages of hell match. I see Cody Rhodes retaining this match on Smackdown, and again, taking this title into WrestleMania. But I see Drew McIntyre becoming a champion again at some point in time. He hasn't been the WWE Championship since he won it on an episode of Raw in November 2020 from Randy Orton. Drew is well overdue, well overdue for another WWE championship reign, especially one where there's fans in the audience to appreciate the work he's doing as

WWVE champion. Last time it was in the Thunderdome era, a completely different time. Speaking of Randy Orton, I also think that he should have another WWE championship run in 2026. When he lost it to Drew McIntyre, the match we were just talking about, that was the last time Randy Orton was WWE champion. So give me Drew McIntyre holding the title in 26. Give me Randy Orton holding the title in 2026. And again, I think, I think it's Roman Raines. I think that Roman Raines gets another championship run. I think that nothing will ever

come close to the length of the run he had, 1,316 days. But give Roman the championship for two, three, PLEs, have him put on the amazing matches that he's been putting on these last few years. I'd love to see that happen. But I think it really just comes down to, like, who do we see as the final few in the Royal Rumble?

Then obviously, who ends up winning it? Where do they go on from there? It'll be really, really interesting to see what happens. But if I had to make a guess, who's going to be the champion at the end of 20th? 26. As we sit here right now, my guess would be Roman Raines. Because if Roman Reins does get the title, man, where do things go from there? Is it a short run? Is it a longer run? Does this somehow

inject a completely different life into what he's doing? I mean, he's a baby face right now. Been a while since we've seen a Roman Reigns' WWE championship run as a baby face. I would love to see what he can do with that. The bloodline run, the tribal chief, iconic, iconic. And one of the highlights of the 2020s and this modern era of wrestling that we're in right now,

but it'd be really interesting to see what he can do. Can he turn it up even more as a baby face? I think the thing with Roman Raines, you just can't count them out. You really can't. Trent Smith on Facebook says, what's up?

CV-Double! What do you make of Austin Theory in the vision so far. While we just need to point out the very obvious right now, Austin Theory's new theme song is a banger. One of the best new theme songs in years. Wade Barrett, I think, said it best here. New music, new mindset, new Austin Theory. And I think that we still have some more time to see what this is going to grow into.

I don't know about you, but when Austin Theory got on the mic this past week, I was expecting a full-on explanation of like, why are you part of the vision? Like, why are you aligned with them? Where is this going from here? And he, like, said like 10 words and then CM Punk's music hit. And it was like, well, no, I want the promo. I want the explanation. And I feel like that's coming.

It's just not something we're getting right now. I do think that there is the chance here. for a curb ball. I'm sure you've seen the chatter online about this. What if Seth Rollins is actually aligned with Austin Theory? What if this is Austin Theory doing some sneaky stuff behind the vision's back? What if he like, you know, like infiltrated them on behalf of Seth Rollins? What if this is actually a roundabout way to give Austin Theory a babyface run? Could be interesting. And I I think that we'll see a little bit more this Monday with this very hyped up WWE World Heavyweight Championship match,

CM Punk putting the title in the line against Bronbreaker. Unless there's some sort of stipulation that says that the vision are barred from ringside, I think they play a big factor in this world title match to kick off the new year. This is, again, CM Punk's first title defense. He's had the title now for a while with no title defenses. This is C.M. Punk's first title defense, which is what leads me to believe that he hangs on to it. I just don't think in his first title defense, he loses it. He won it on November 1st, Saturday night's main event, the vacant title,

CM Punk versus J. Uso. I just feel like if he was going to lose it, there would be some other matches between November 1st and now. although it does make this match on Monday feel that much more important. I also think Brom Breaker becomes the World Heavyweight Champion at some point in 26. So I'm not saying it's not going to happen on Monday. I just feel like probably not yet, but man, if slash when Bronbreaker becomes the World Heavyweight Champion.

And maybe it's something where like CM Punk beats him on Monday. And then we get three more months of storytelling that. leads us to CM Punk versus Braun Breaker at WrestleMania. Could that be the case? Could that be something that we see? It'll be interesting, though, because you've got pretty much everybody else in the vision, want to be the world champion.

Logan Paul's made that clear. Austin theory should have been the world champion, in my opinion, by now. I didn't give the guy money in the bank and tell him to unsuccessfully cash it in for the U.S. title. Come on. come on so i feel like when braun breaker becomes the world champion we get some interesting tension within the vision and what a stacked i was just thinking about this the other day what a stacked faction that is like everybody like call it upper midcard to main event like impressive and like

continuing all of them continuing to get better with the greatest manager of all time all of them continuing to just get better. So I think that I'm interested to see where they go, where things go with Austin Theory. He actually posted a photo on Instagram. It's like recapping the year. And he posted a photo of him like backstage, wearing the all black with the hood on, the mask on, his eyes painted. It's kind of like eerie to look at that photo, but it was a photo backstage at Survivor Series. and just interesting that, like, he was locked in. So interesting to see where this thing all ends up going with Austin Theory, but I think they're starting off this repackaging right with him.

Bad ass theme song. So good. Gave me a little, tell me if you agree with this. Gave me a little bit of Triple H, my time vibes, the theme song. And you know how much I love that theme song. I just felt like there was a little bit in there. Maybe it was because Austin Theory was saying something in his entrance where he was like, it's my time now or something along those lines.

And I was just like, oh, wait a second. This theme song is hard. It feels like a little bit like that. Email from Jesus Contreras. Hey, CVV, a real, real, real one here. Man, does it feel good to finally say that? My question to you is out of all of the three stages of hell matches that there have been, I know there hasn't been many, but which one stands out?

to you more. For me, it's Steve Austin versus Triple H back in 2001 and no way out. Many blessings to you and your family and may 26 be an even bigger year for insight. Well, thank you, Hazers. I appreciate that. I think you're right. In my opinion, that was the most iconic three stages of hell match. And that was the first one, too. So there's only been a handful. I'll go through them right now. No Way Out, 2001 Stone Cold versus Triple H. Armageddon, 2002. Sean Michaels versus Triple H. Actually, I'll go through the stages here, too. So no way out, 2001, Stone Cold versus Triple H.

First match, just a straight up wrestling match. The second match, street fight, third match, the cage lowers down, which is so cool. We got a steel cage match. Armageddon, 2002, Sean Michaels versus Triple H, they started it off with a street fight. Then went to a steel cage match, ended it off with a ladder match. I mean, those stipulations just on paper. Crazy. Also, you can never go wrong with Sean Michaels versus AAA.

But to your question, the Stone Cole versus Triple H and just the idea, the concept of like, they're going to do three different stipulation matches within a stipulation match? Crazy. And both of them were just like at their absolute prime, like, in the ring, 2001. All right, the Bash, 2009.

Triple H versus Randy Orton. First match, straight up wrestling match. Second match, Falls Count Anywhere. Third match, stretcher match. Payback 2013, which was the last official three stages of hell match on the main roster. First match, lumberjack, second match, tables match, third match, ambulance. And then NXT takeover Toronto 2019. It was not officially advertised as a three stages of hell match, but it was essentially a

stages of hellmatch. We got first match, straight up wrestling match. We can just call it a normal wrestling match, whatever you want to call it. Second match, street fight, third match, steel cage. There is a lot to live up to. These are some iconic matches that came before. These are some iconic wrestlers that came before.

Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, the bar is set very high for them. I would assume we're going to learn about the three stages, the three types of matches tonight on SmackDown. I'm very interested. Or maybe we learn about two of them, and the third one is like a surprise that we learn about, like, the day of the match.

But once we know what the stipulations are, I feel like it just adds even more to this. And like, that's a heck of a match, once again, to put on on a Smackdown. And both of these guys, Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, you know they're going to deliver. So I can't wait to see what it is. What do you think the stipulations are going to be?

Like, what are we going to see here? It's not like when you think of those guys, you don't think about like a certain type of stipulation. Don't think of like a certain type of match. Like if this was Kurt Engel, for example, you'd be like, oh, well, one of the stipulations has to be submission. That means a submission specialist. This isn't exactly what you think about here. Street fight for sure. And I think that when we're, one of the stipulation, you're like, oh, well, we're going to

we think of Cody Rose, we think of Drew McIntyre, both of them have had plenty of great street fights. I feel like they might do cage match. That would make sense. Cody does some wild things when he's in a cage or in hell in a cell. That'd be wild. Could we see hell in a cell? That's never been done as I was listing off the three stages of hell, the stipulation matches previously. Could they lower down hell in a cell for the third? stage of hell. Oh, man. That'd be crazy, but we could see, like,

ambulance match, maybe. Could we see, uh, like, I, I seriously think that, like, street fight is going to be in there.

I think there falls count anywhere. That's like street fight type of thing. Like, whatever you want to call it. I think we're going to see something like that, but I can't wait. Like, think about the last time there were two huge

matches like this. on weekly television within the same week. Like a huge match on Raw, PLE caliber match on Raw. PLE caliber match on SmackDown. Man, pumped. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup.

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Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Chris Scheibel on Spotify says, hey, yo, CVV. I should probably do it better like Scott Hull there. Hey, yo, CVV. I've got a bit of an odd ball question, but now that we are one quarter of the way to the 21st century, That's true, right? 25 years. Done. Wow. Now there were a quarter of the way through the 21st century, what are your top 10 most influential wrestling moments of the last 25 years that aren't the Rock versus Hogan match?

It can be a match, a storyline, something like WW on Netflix, the creation of AEW or VKM getting ousted from TKO. Thanks for all the great content. Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago and becoming a real, real a real one. Well, first of all, Chris. I've never met a Chris that I don't like. Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago as well. Can't wait for that. This is a fantastic question. One that requires a lot of thought. Ten, man, can I come up with ten? Let's see. So ten of the most influential moments over the last ten years. And, you know, I gave this a lot of thought since I saw your question the other day. And it's funny. I don't think that most of these are matches. I think that most of these are things that are bigger than the match itself. These are things that have a ripple effect

that are felt elsewhere, that are felt into the mainstream, that even have like implications on the business itself. So I think that if we're talking about one of the biggest, and these are in no particular order. I'm just going to list off, I hope I can come up with 10 here, I'm going to list off 10. WCW getting bought by WWE just absolutely did not even feel within the realm of possibility. It ended the Monday Night War. Vince McMahon bought his competition. It also created a monopoly. So, WWE had everybody now. There was no longer competition. So, like, It changed things in a lot of different ways. This was 2001.

I also, like, I loved that episode, the simulcast of Raw and Nitro, and they cut to Nitro, and Shane McMahon walks out and cuts that iconic promo. The contract reads McMahon, but it says Shane McMahon. I now own W-C-W. Man, crazy. That's one of them for sure. Not long after that, TNA launching. And I think that the implications of this were, if you were a wrestler, after the merger happened, after WWE bought out WCW, there was nowhere else to work.

The Indies weren't, I mean, they were a thing, but you weren't able to, like, really make a living on the Indies. So Jeff Jarrett coming around, creating TNA, started off as the weekly Wednesday night pay-per-view model, 999. watch it and then that turned into what it became and ended up having a weekly television deal and now tna is what it is coming up on almost 25 years which is crazy so many people predicted the tn a was going to fizzle out and die years ago tna is thriving now drawing some of the drawing the biggest crowds they've ever had this past year i think the creation of tna was so important from a business standpoint. If you weren't signed to WWE, now you had the ability to go elsewhere. And if you didn't fit into the WWE model at that time of being a certain height and a certain weight with a certain

look, you were able to go somewhere else and shine. And that's what the X Division was so good at. It gave guys like Christopher Daniels and AJ Stiles and Samoa Joe and Amazing Red, and the list goes on and on and on and it gave them all a place to shine and show what they could do. on a national scale. And I think that that was such a huge thing at that time. Along the same lines, and again, these aren't in order, A.W. starting up in 2019 and giving WWE its first real competition in,

at that point, 18 years, and also putting television on TNT for the first time in 18 years, it was huge. And also, like I'm talking about with TNA, it was huge because it gave wrestlers a chance to go somewhere else, which at the same point also leveraged a lot of deals. Wow, so WWE, you're interested in me? Oh, well, this other company, this new company that's starting up next year called AEW,

they're also interested in me. Now it becomes like a bidding war like you would see in other sports. Oh, this one basketball team likes me. Dallas wants me. Oh, well, guess what? New York also wants me drives the price up. So that was a huge thing. AEW starting up, especially at a point that I don't know if people really remember,

and I remember this distinctly, because I interviewed Cody Rhodes like a few days before double or nothing, 2019, AEW's very first event. And that week in particular just had a lot of things in WWE that just made people at that time roll their eyes. McFoley introduced the 24-7 championship to like a terrible reaction. people were like kind of scratching their head. Oh, that thing. Oh, man, that belt looks awful. Yes, the 24-7 championship ended up turning into something completely different.

Our Truth took that and ran with it and made it a beautiful thing. But at that time, that week, it was like, what the heck is this? Why didn't they just bring the hardcore title back? Also, that same week was when Brock Lesnar entered the Money in the Bank match, completely unannounced, climbed the ladder, won the Money in the Bank briefcase, and people went, he wasn't even in the match. How could he win this thing? How could he take that away from everybody else?

And people were just at that point, just upset. And I feel like in 2019, that was May, I think it was May 25th, 2019, AEW was just coming around at the right time when like people needed a breath of fresh air. And now AEW is doing what it's doing now. It's created a ton of stars. And I think it's a huge moment that when you look back, When we're looking back now on the first 25 years of this century, it's a massive thing in wrestling. The pipe bomb. Another huge moment.

Because it wasn't just a promo. It was like a tone shift. And it broke the fourth wall in a way that WWE couldn't undo. Because CM Punk was saying all of the things on WWE TV that only, people were, like, fans were only writing about online. So now he was, like, making, like, saying, like, I hear you. And he's now voicing these on WWE TV. And it made this idea of, like, a worked shoot, like, a really, like, dominant thing in wrestling.

So the pipe bomb also brought a lot of people back into wrestling. There were a lot of people who maybe were lapsed fans, and they heard about this thing CM Punk did, and it felt really real. and it led to something completely different. That's one of them for sure. Brock Lezor ending the streak. Something that people thought was not possible.

It also proved that nothing in wrestling is sacred. And we can argue as much as we want. That was 12 years ago. And people still make the arguments now, oh, man, he never should have ended the streak. Oh, man, no, it makes sense to the end of the streak. It should have been somebody else to end the streak. Whatever you want to make the argument about.

It's a huge moment, and it's a moment that had lasting effects, or at least certainly has lasting effects now, but it was one of those moments that had people outside of wrestling talking. I was working for a news station in Cleveland, Ohio at the time. And I remember my sports director, Tony Zrella, love Tony Z. Not really a wrestling fan, like it was aware of wrestling and would report on it, like, he was the sports anchor, so he would report on it when, like, when it made sense, like, especially when the Ms. or Dolph Ziegler or someone from Cleveland, Johnny Gargano was doing something big in wrestling. But I remember him coming up to me is like, why is this such a big deal?

Why is everyone talking about the undertaker losing such a big deal? And I'm like, oh, but it's like, I was trying to explain it to him. It's like when a main character dies in a movie and you never see it coming. Or like, you know, the main character gets written off the show in a TV show. And like, oh my gosh, how could they, how could they kill off that person? That's what this was. It was something that people just did not think was possible. And again, you can argue whether it was the right call or not. That's up to you.

I think the WWE network was another big one that I think flies under the radar. That's like a really underrated moment. Because up to that point, you were paying, this was 2014 when WWE launched the network. Up to that point, there really weren't a ton of streaming services that were specific like that. Sure, there was Netflix and there was Hulu, but, like, there weren't a lot of, like, niche-specific streaming services like this. And for $9.99, you get access to not only the pay-per-view that's happening this month live, you get access to every other paper view that has ever happened in the history of this

company and the history of ECW and the history of WCW. This is mind-blowing. Oh, man. And every episode of Raw and 9-1. Nitro and NXT and all that stuff, that was like, you couldn't even wrap your head around that. And only for $9.99, that not only changed things for wrestling

and completely, like, destroyed the pay-per-view model, but it started to, you started to see the trickle-down effects in other aspects of different industries, too. Like, think of how many streaming services you have now versus how many you had in 2014. Like, they really bet on themselves, super risky move, like, bet on themselves, then and kind of forced all the other promotions to think about like how do we get our fans

are on our own platform here. Yes, things have kind of reverted back now and it's a little bit different now with having to stream PLEs on, it's kind of all over the place now, right? In the U.S., you're streaming the PLEs on ESPN, you're watching Ron on other streaming service, Netflix, SmackDown is still on USA. I think that this is still like the early stages of how things are going to end up being five, ten, fifteen years from now where maybe it reverts a little bit back to how things were in the the WWE network days.

But that was a big moment that I don't think it's talked about that much. Here's another one. We were just talking about WrestleMania 30, but the yes movement was so huge because this was a rare time that fans won. Fans had their voices heard. Like, they were trying so hard to resist it. They were trying so hard to ignore that Daniel Bryan was the guy. They were trying to like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but look at these other things over here.

And the fans just wouldn't be quiet. And it was one of those rare things where they were like, all right, let's give the people what they want. And it was this organic moment, this organic momentum that just can't be scripted. Because if they had tried to script yes, a man, it wouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have come together. And it really, I think, influenced how WWE handles the underdog reactions,

like even to this day. Like, they tried to ignore it, tried to pretend it wouldn't happen, or didn't happen. They took it, they ran with it, it turned into something beautiful. More recently, like you mentioned in your question, Vince no longer running WWE,

and then along with that, the TKO merger, WWE and UFC now being under one umbrella now, massive. Something that you never would have thought would have been possible a few years ago. I think that Vince McMahon said it himself, like he wanted to die in that chair. He wanted to do this till he could no longer physically do it anymore.

And then that decision was made for him. Triple H now in charge of creative has injected a whole new life into WWE. And like people are unofficially calling this era, the Triple H era, and for good reason. Like, especially when you look back to like when Triple H officially started booking, which was SummerSlam 2020, and you could just feel the breath of fresh air that came in with that. And I think that as we head into 2026, especially with the matches we talked about to kick off the year on Raw and Smackdown,

feels like that breath of fresh air maybe back again. There were some moments in 2025 where you were, like there's some good stuff or also some kind of questionable things. What's the story going to be in the 2026? Where does the focus go here? I don't know if I'm going to have a full 10. Is that eight? Is that nine? Is that 10? It's a lot. Those are like some of the biggest moments that I can think of. And I just, again, I think that the moments are moments that are bigger than just matches. There are things that we talk about for years to come. And I'll give you one more because it just happened. The John Sina

retirement tour as a whole, say what you want about some of the stuff that happened in the middle there. Say what you want about whether you're, whether or not you liked the end of it, the end of that match. And again, I talked about this recently, people don't talk about the match itself. And that kind of bothers me. It kind of rubs me the wrong way that like, I thought the match, John Sina versus Gunder was fantastic. I think it was one of his top five matches of the year. People don't talk about the match. All they talk about are the last few seconds of the match. And if the last few seconds of the match ruined the other 23 minutes that came before it, cool, that's fine. They were certainly entitled to that opinion. But I think that John Cena having a retirement tour,

giving fans the chance to say goodbye, 36 different dates, 18 matches. I think that that was completely unprecedented. And I don't know if we'll see that exact same model again, but we may see something like it again. And I just think it was an interesting way to kind of borrow from other sports. I mean, they certainly borrowed from Kobe's final year. They borrowed from Derek Jeter's final year. I thought it was a beautifully done thing, just the concept of it in general, of like, WWE is calling him the greatest of all time. Let's give him the greatest send-off of all time. Let's start it in January. Let's end it in December.

Let's go to many different cities, countries, continents, and have all of these different fan bases have a chance to say goodbye. I don't think we're going to see something quite like it, but we may see versions of it. Like if this is AJ Siles last year, this is possibly Rox Lesnar's last year, I don't think we're going to get like a full-on like goodbye tour, but I think we're going to like,

we're going to feel the weight a little bit more of like what it means to have one of the most iconic wrestlers, one of the faces of this generation, say goodbye. If there's a, like, if there's a glaring moment here that I'm forgetting about, let me know, but I feel like that's a pretty solid list and we're covered a lot of things there. Hope you're still with me. on this ride. Joe.aesthetics underscore on Instagram says, do you think Carmelo Hayes will win a world championship in 2026 or, more likely,

2027? Congrats to Carmelo, new U.S. champion. And what a run of U.S. champions, U.S. men's champions we had in 2025. I mean, also great women's champions. By the way, Chelsea Green started the year. As women's champion, women's United States champion, ended the year as women's United States champion. Two different runs, too. But let me go through this list of all of the men's United States champions we had in 2025.

Shinska Nakamore. L.A. Knight. I didn't say that right at all, did I? L.A. Knight. Yeah. Jacob Fattu, Solo So, Sokoa, Sammy Zane, Ilya, Ilya, and Camrello Hayes. heck of a run, fighting champions, seven great champions there.

Love it. I think that this is a massive step up for Carmelo. His first main roster championship, I think it gets him that much closer to being a world champion at some point someday. He's been an NXT champion before. He could definitely be a world champion. I think 2027 feels like that would line up a little bit more.

It already feels like there's so many people vying for, either the WWE Championship, like we talked about, or the World Championship as well. There's a lot of people that are, you could put them into a title picture, put them into a title match, and you could be like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Like, think about it.

If today you made a match with Cody Rhodes versus, any of these like five or ten people, or CM Punk as the world champion versus Drew McI, Bronzer, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Dominic Mysterio, Gunther, L.A. Knight, yeah, A.J. Stiles, like J. Uso, Logan Paul, Seamus. Like, it makes a lot of sense. You just throw them right into it, boom. What an embarrassment of riches. What a great problem to have. A lot of people vying for that top spot. I think Carmelow's going to do some great work with the United States Championship

that's going to continue to elevate him into that main event scene and something that we'll be seeing, yeah, maybe it's towards the end of this year. Maybe it's in a 2027 or 2028, but he takes every box. There's no reason he couldn't be a world champion. Ronnie Keeper on Facebook says, assuming it is confirmed that Chris Jericho returns to WWE,

what entrance song do you think he will use? Do you think he comes out to the ring with his usual? Break the Walls Down theme? Or does it come out to Judas, his own song? How would you react if he went out with his own song? That is like the million-dollar question. I guess there's a lot of questions within this. Is Chris Jericho coming back to WWE if he does?

What song does he use? Chris Jericho posted a photo last week. He recorded a Talk His Jericho episode with Viva Van. And he was looking trim. like he was looking lean and mean and healthy. Like looks like a million bucks. Looks like a Chris Jericho we haven't seen in, man, 10 or 15 years. I shared the photo on Facebook.

Jericho posted it on his Instagram. It won't be hard to find. But you'll see that photo and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. He looks like he's ready to go. And if the reports are true, his deal with AEW ended on December 31st. That is not confirmed. That is not me saying that. That is what the reports say.

And I guess that would line up. Makes sense. He started with AEW January 1st, 2019. I mean, I don't know. But that's when they made the announcement about AEW, so it would make sense that he would be under contract that day or the day before. I feel like Chris Jericho comes back within the month. Royal Rumble seems to really make a lot of sense.

what a huge reaction that would be, what a huge moment that would be, especially if you put them in like the 30 spot. You know, maybe you've already had another fun return or fun surprise leading up to that. And then 30, I always love, I always love when they do the 30 spot

because there's the extra pause. There's the three, two, one, er. Then there's an extra pause. And then we get the music of whoever's coming out. I would have to think that Chris Jericho is pushing to have Judas be the song. Because I think just strictly from a business standpoint, Chris Jericho is a fantastic businessman.

From a business standpoint, every single time they play his band's music, he gets a little extra money out of it. And so do his bandmates. So I would have to think that that would be something that he's thinking about. Also, how cool is it to come out to come down to the ring to a song that you and your friends wrote and performed and recorded? Like, amazing.

And even if you have never seen Chris Jericho come to the ring with that song, you'd probably know the lyrics. Like, you know the experience that it creates in the arena, especially when he gets to the ring and they fade down the music, and the crowd sings the, like, one more version, or one more line of the chorus. It's such a cool thing. I would have to think it's Judas.

Maybe, though, maybe it's a combination of both. Maybe we get the Y-2J countdown. Gee-J-J-D-D-D-D-D, right? And then it gets into Judas. Pretty cool. But if I had to, if I had to guess, I would think that Chris Jericho's probably pushing to have his own song be played there. I remember when I interviewed him,

was it like 2018, I think, when he had a match in, it was New Japan and he came out to a Fawzzi song. And he like told me in the interviews, like, if you noticed, I walked extra slow down to the ring because it was a great advertisement for that song. So like, if I could walk extra slow to the ring, most of the song would play during my entrance so that most of the audience would then hear our song. And I thought, man, this guy's just brilliant. Like, Chris Jericho just thinks in a completely different way. So I would, I would think we're probably going to hear Judas.

And what a cool moment. Chris Jericho's last WWB appearance was April 27th, 2018, the greatest Royal Rumble. His last WWE appearance before that was a house show, 2017. July 20, 2017, then it was a few house shows before that. He hasn't been on, like, call it weekly television since it was raw. I guess he had to payback.

So we got payback. April 2017, I'm looking on cagematch.net. By the way, if you know whoever runs cagematch.net, or if you're listening right now, you guys do phenomenal work. I feel like cagematch.net is like the Wikipedia for wrestling fans. It's the greatest thing. I go on it, no joke, like 10 times a day.

Like, oh, man, who did that person lose the title two? Oh, wow. Oh, look at the date. Interesting. Man, did that person win the, I'm just making this up, the United States Championship First or the Intercontinental Championship First? Huh, well, you look at that. So interesting to see.

We also use it, the graphics that I post on Instagram. Can you guess the wrestler and it's the belts with the arrows between them, all the championships they won in order? we use so much of cagematch.net to line all that up and make sure we got it all right. But basically what I'm saying here is Jericho hasn't been like an active WWE superstar since summer of 2017. It's been a long time. Yes, the one-off at the greatest Royal Rumble, but it's been a long time. It'll be, man, it would be eight and a half years if he does end up returning this year.

It could be a big moment. Kumpa Carlin. Kumpa Carlin. This is on Instagram. Out of all the live interviews, you have done, which one was the best and why? This is like asking me to pick my favorite child. They were all great.

All of the live shows we did in 2025 were amazing for different reasons. We did seven of them. Kicked off the year with Carlito, Royal Rumble Weekend and Indy. You guys sold out that. a show without even knowing what Insight Live would be like. And we already knew Carlito was funny, but man, that episode was just hilarious.

Like, if you haven't listened to it or you haven't listened to it recently, go back. He, like, he had us rolling, like, telling just amazing stories. And I think it was just like, I walked into that not knowing what to expect either. Like, I came up with this idea a few months before of, like, can we do a live show? All right. Can we get a guest for it? I don't know. Maybe. But we put the tickets on sale without knowing that. We just announced the live show, found the venue, and went, well, we'll figure out the rest of the details later. I think there's a big lesson to be learned in that as well. Like, figure it out. You got to take the first step. Like, don't worry about what the finish line's

going to look like. You got to worry about with that. Like, if you're going to run a marathon, what's the first mile, two, three, four, five, what are they going to look like? You'll figure out mile 26 when you get there. So we just, we were like, let's find the venue. Let's put the tickets on sale and let's see what happens. Then we had Natty in my hometown, Toronto. That was special for so many reasons. That was the day before Elimination Chamber. My parents were there at that show, which was so cool. Then the day after Elimination Chamber, the Hurt Syndicate in like such a cool venue, downtown Toronto, like three blocks from where I used to live. I used to live at Blue Jayway in front.

I used to live in a building called 81 Navy Wharf. If you live in Toronto, you know exactly where I'm talking about right next to Rogers Center. Sorry, Skydome, it'll always be skydome to me. Like so many of my friends from Toronto being able to go to both of those shows, so cool. Our Truth in Vegas, the biggest show we had of the year. Circa Resort and Casino with just an absolutely incredible

set up for all of this and I'm so happy to say we're going to be back there again this year. Crazy else to say it's this year. WrestleMania 42 is now this year, 2026. And our truth's like the perfect guest

for a live show. Like he came out on stage we were playing his theme song and he started rapping it like grabbed the mic and started rapping his own theme song. Then he had like not only funny answers,

but then like thoughtful answers. So, by the way, halfway through my list here, thank you. If you came to any of the live shows this last year, thank you. I had more fun than you.

I can guarantee you. You might have had a great time, but I had so much fun hanging out with you guys, doing the live Ask CVV before the show for the VIPs, meeting all of you guys afterwards. It's so much fun.

Ethan Page, Money in the Bank weekend, did that one at the Hollywood Improv, like the iconic Hollywood Improv. I've known Ethan for like 15 years. We go way back to seeing each other at independent shows. Like, crazy. Like, and crazy that full circle, we get to share the stage together. He was just healing it out, making fun of people in the audience. Hilarious. And also, that one was really fun because it was driving distance. Was able, like, my wife came. which was just so cool that RVV. RVV was helping out for the Q&A.

She was the beautiful, wonderful, talented, amazing woman who was walking around with the microphone for all the Q&A questions. That was so cool. And then we get to drive home that night. Amazing. Seamus, Somerslam, New York City. Like to be able to do a show in New York City,

SummerSlam was just across the water in New Jersey. That was an amazing thing too. Seamus doesn't live far from. there either. So it was kind of like, he kind of felt like it was like, kind of like a hometown show for him. That was, he told so many great stories on that stage. And then like, what you didn't see, and I've never shared this before. But backstage, he came with a bottle of Irish whiskey. And he's like, oh, I just wanted to say, this is a little gift for you. I wanted to say thank you for having me. I'm like, what? Thank me? No, thank you for wanting to do

this. Like, you didn't need to do this. You didn't need to say yes, but you did. See, it came bearing gifts. Like, what a gentleman. How classy is that? How amazing is that? And then there was a moment right before I went out for the live show. So like, the way it works is like the podcast theme song hits the amazing catchy song from Downstate, which is another like pinch me moment of like, I have a theme song for my podcast from the same band who does Cody Rhodes theme song and The Mrs. theme song and Dolph Ziegler's theme song and so on and so on and so on. Crazy. But there was a moment backstage where I'm getting announced to the stage by my good friend Jamil.

Like, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. And Seamus just turned to me and he goes, hey man, this is all for you. Like, take this in for a second. like all these people came out to see you. Let that sink in. And it was just a nice reminder. Obviously, it's not completely truthful in that. A lot of people came to see him as well.

But it was a nice reminder to be present. And it's kind of what we saw a lot of from John Cena on this retirement tour of like just taking in the moment, remembering things. Oh, man. Taking it all in. And then the recent one we had with Chelsea Green again, just hilarious.

You thought she was funny in her matches and her promos? She's just so funny with a mic in her hand in front of an attentive audience inside a venue like we did for that live show. San Diego, you were so good to me, too. So thank you. Like that one, that show also sold out weeks before we even announced the guest, which was crazy. So I appreciate you guys. I hope to see you at one of the live shows this year, Chicago, February 27th. or Las Vegas, April 16th.

There'll be more dates on the way. Trying to, I'd love to do at least seven again this year. We'll see how it shakes out. Also, I'll be on the Jericho cruise. I'm doing, what's that, November? First weekend of November. I'm doing a live, Insight Live on the Jericho cruise. So if you're doing Chris Jericho's cruise, I will see you on the water.

Email from Sam Acisto. CVV! don't ever tell Sam Roberts, but you are in fact the original wrestling podcast Tribal Chief, and you're the reason that I got in, so I guess I have to acknowledge my true podcast Tribal Chief.

Well, I don't know if that's completely accurate, but I will say yes, Sam Roberts had a podcast long before I did. My YouTube channels, no, I think he had a YouTube channel before me, but love Sam, but I appreciate the respect there. I wanted to create

what for these purposes, I'll call a CVV-style New Year's resolution. Something with a creative spin. Saying you want to exercise more is so boring and cliche. So what I came up with this year is I want to breathe more oxygen. This means I will be spending more time outside enjoying the weather, more time breathing to recover from exercise, less time vaping. It's a way that I'm going to live my life in 2026. I imagine I have a little oxygen meter that I need to fill up every day as if there's a

number of oxygen points. I love that. What would your CVV-style resolution be? I appreciate you and your constant positive outlook on the world that continues to get worse. I know that I can count on you to help me find a silver lining. Sam from Salt Lake. I like your silver lining on this one. That's very cool. I've always said vague goals, get vague results. And I don't think that just specifically needs to apply to New Year's resolutions. I think that in general, I think you need to be For example, if you say, I want to lose some weight this year. Well, if you lose one pound, you have lost some weight this year. I think it's more important to be like, I want to lose, just making this up, 15 pounds by July 1st. All right, well, now you've got a specific number and a date.

Now let's work on that, figure out how we can get there. I don't know if this is like measurable. It's not a smart goal. Have you heard a, have you heard about a smart goal before? A smart goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timebound. DDP had his own version of it, Smackdown, if you go back and listen to the DDP episode from last week. But I think one of the things I really want to work on is I just want more patience. I want to work on having more patience. And I don't just mean that personally or professionally, just in general, more patience.

And I guess the CVV spin on that is trying to realize that. that somebody might be doing something for a reason I'm not even thinking about. Like, sometimes when I'm in an airport, I will get a little frustrated sometimes by, like, people that don't have spatial awareness. Like, you're all walking along, right? Everybody's heading in the same direction. And then there's always inevitably somebody who just stops, stops dead in the middle of the, the middle of the concourse.

And, like, I feel like you're going to, like, crash into them because, like they didn't like have the wherewith all to think, oh man, I need to stop and like get off to the side because there's hundreds of people walking behind me and, you know, me stopping dead in the middle of this hallway or concourse may affect the lives of other people. They're not thinking about that. I need to remember that in that moment, maybe they left their phone on the plane. Maybe they just realized that they were walking to the wrong gate. Whatever the case may be, I don't know. And I think that that's something that I need to start to apply more frequently in life of like, I don't know your story. I don't know what you're going through and everybody's going through

something on some sort of level. And I think I need to apply that same patience more frequently of like, maybe you're having, maybe you're having a bad day. Maybe you were having the worst day ever. And you're still out here doing whatever it is that you got to do in the world. And I just need to have a little bit more patience with that. And I think that there's this, unfortunately, there's this underlying thing right now of like, and I'm not specifically talking about that example now, but it just seems to be this like, this underlying negativity of like, oh, man, that person, they tried to do something and they didn't do it. Let's like point and laugh at them.

Like, that person, that person started a wrestling channel. That person started a podcast. that person tried to be a wrestler and they looked awful. Well, yeah, but they did the thing. I think the thing that you're not realizing is they tried. They tried to do the thing. And there's so many people that are so scared of even taking the first step towards doing the thing, they're like sit back behind their phones or their keyboards and they judge.

And I think that if we could all just be a little bit less judgmental. And I think that that's probably the root of what I'm saying here. So I think that that's my CVV goal for 2026. Also, I guess another New Year's resolution. I made this with my beautiful, wonderful wife, RVV, is more consistent bedtime. So we've been pretty good at it. And I just think that sleep is like the ultimate biohack.

Like it's the ultimate, like, if you don't have energy, have you tried sleeping more? And I get them maybe you're not able to sleep more. Maybe you can't get to sleep. I understand that. Have you tried going to sleep at a consistent time? Have you tried not scrolling in bed? That's another one I've been doing.

I've been charging my phone outside of the bedroom. Have you tried getting into bed and just turning off the light and going to sleep? And like we started doing that recently and it's something, a New Year's resolution that we are now striving to do more often. Go to sleep every night, like lights out at the same-ish time every night. Also tough when you have two years. young kids, but it's something we're working towards. And I think the biggest thing with any sort of goal, whether it's New Year's resolution or whatever the goal is, quite literally, whatever your goal is, is start to just break it down into like instead of, for example,

writing a book. Nobody writes a book. What they write is a word that is then followed by another word that turns into a sentence. And then they write a few more sentences and that becomes a paragraph. And then you write a bunch of paragraphs and that becomes a chapter. And you write a bunch of chapters and that becomes a book. And I think that it's so easy to get bogged down in the idea of like, oh, man, writing a book, recording an hour-long interview. Oh, my gosh.

Like, it's so easy to get bogged down by the big idea of it instead of breaking it down into like simple steps. And like, are you able, like, like the most simple of steps. Like, going for a run isn't like, I'm not even talking about like putting one foot in front of the other. It's like, what if you just broke down on the most simple of steps? Put your shorts on. Yeah, there's a win.

Put your shoes on or your socks on before that. There's a win. Go outside. There's a win. Like, I'm breaking it down into those easy steps, like those easy attainable steps. All right, we're doing the thing now. My goodness. I didn't even think this was possible.

I'm doing it. But more patience. And thank you for being so patient with me. on this whole journey that we've been on these last few years. I appreciate you. James Hunter on Facebook says, your Mount Rushmore of talkers on the mic. I'm a real, real one from Sydney, Australia.

What's up, James? That is my son's middle name, Cooper James. James, you said minor, Flair, Savage, Rock, and Sina, honorable mention, MJF, who will be in the future. Yeah, MJF, so good. I don't even know if I can top your Mount Rushmore.

Rick Flair, the macho man Randy Savage, yeah, Rock and Sina. As always, it is so hard to narrow it down to just four. But we love ourselves a good Mount Rushmore question. Man, I saw a meme the other day. It was a Rick Flair promo, And it was, this was on 90s, WWE and it was saying, any New Year's resolutions, me. And then it's this Rick Flair promo.

And it was such a nice reminder of like, just how charismatic and engaging Rick Flair was on the mic. So any New Year's resolutions, me. What a promo. What a promo. So Rick Flair's got to be on there for me. Rock also has to be on there for me as well. Like, Rock, the ability to cut a promo for 20, 30 minutes, not say um, not say, oh, listen to the crowd, which is another part of it.

Think of all the ridiculous things the Rock got over. Like, think, just try to explain this to someone who's not a wrestling fan. Try to explain the fact that Rock was taking inanimate objects asking you to shine them up real good. and then you know the rest of it. Try to explain to a non-wrestling fan that that was a catchphrase. Okay? Like, the amount of things

that Rock got over, unbelievable. And Rock's a huge inspiration for me growing up as well. Like, I don't, there has not been anybody to cut a promo before the Rock,

and there was nobody to cut a promo like that since the Rock. Like, he is in a league of his own. I also got to put Cina on there. Like, Cina's ability to take the audience on a journey with his promos, like another level. And that's why you always hear people within the industry

talking about how great Sina is on the mic. And look, I know we've already named three, and it's so hard to narrow it down to just four and put like just just one other person on there because there's so many other great promos. And we're going to have a ton of honorable mentions here. but if we're talking about like give him a mic and let him go, I'm going to put CM Punk on there too.

We already talked about the impact of the pipe bomb earlier in this episode. I just think that there's something that's so authentic about the way that CM Punk cuts a promo. It doesn't feel like a promo. Like it genuinely feels like he's like trying to get under your skin. Or he's like, he's, and the thing I really appreciate about CM Punk's promo style is he's a baby face that cuts a heel promo. Do you know what I mean about that?

Like, he's a baby face who says healish things, but he's over as a baby face and it just works. Like he has the ability to push buttons. Like some of the promos that he cut in AEW, especially the stuff he was doing with MJF, like, man, that was so good. like two generations of great talkers going at each other. It's fantastic stuff. Also, like, just a cool full circle moment because MJF grew up loving CM Punk. Now here he is, standing across from him cutting promos. Crazy.

MJF, fantastic. I feel like he hasn't even reached his full potential. And so, like, so, again, believable in the mic. So good. Roddy Piper, like you said, Macho Man Randy Savage. There are, I mean, there are so many. But I think those four, that's my four, at least today.

Ask me again in a few months. Ask me at the Ask CVV in Chicago. Maybe my answer will be slightly different. K. Francerra 615 on Instagram says, Who's the dream guest on your podcast in 2026? And what an excellent question to K. kick off the first Ask CVV of the new year. Like, what a great question because we have,

if we do about a hundred in-person interviews every year, we started the year, January 1st, with the current reigning TNA champion, Frankie Kizarian, an interview that was a long time coming. I've known Frankie for a long time, and I love that at 48 years old, he achieved the thing that he wanted to achieve for most of his career.

He's the guy. He's the king of. a TNA. I love it. And so many great stories from that one, man. But we got like a hundred-ish, 99-ish more episodes, more interviews on the way. The one on Tuesday, that's a dream list. That's a dream guest. It's a bucket list guest. Stone Cold Steve Austin. And just the setting of it. Like, to be able to do that at his ranch, we hung out before. He was like touring us around, oh, do you want to shoot it here? Do you want to set up here? Maybe over here. It's so cool. And then we hung out after, showed us around, oh, yeah, check out this, check out this.

So cool. Like, I can't, I can't fathom that right now. 2026 version of me, can't fathom that. The 20, the 1998 version of me certainly could not fathom that either. Crazy. Sting would be the ultimate dream guest, though. It would love. I know that he hasn't done a long-form interview, and I don't even know how.

long, a long time. And I know that he's done some short ones here and there. And shout out to Denise Salceda, who's done some great interviews with him at some of his convention appearances. Amazing. I would love to have that sit down interview with him. And I don't know if that's going to happen. I don't know if the man, Steve Borden, I don't know if he even needs to do a podcast interview, but if he is interested in doing one. I would love to be the person who sits across from him and just enjoys the stories that he tells. So fingers crossed that that may happen at some point. Randy Orton also on the list. And it seems possible. We've been chatting about it for a while. We've been going back and forth. He even put something on Instagram basically saying like,

I made you a promise that it's going to happen. Just give me a little bit more time, but, you know, I'm good on my word. Okay. So I think that's good enough for me to say, keep an eye out for a Randy Orton interview at some point in time. It hasn't been recorded yet. But Ms. is another one. I've done a lot of interviews with Ms. He's been so kind to me and so gracious to me over the years, especially when I was working in Cleveland, and he would come back home for Thanksgiving or he'd come back home for whatever the case may be.

And he would always be so kind to stop by the TV station and we'd do an interview. So to be able to do an interview with him now at the stage of his career and to be able to do a longer interview would be amazing. and because you're still listening to this episode and because you're a real, real one, I will tell you to watch out for that interview on Tuesday, January 13th, and it's like an hour and 40 minutes or something like that.

Amazing. Email from Jonathan Smookler. C.V.V. Yeah. And you said, that's L.A. Knight inspired. Thank you. Would you rather? You have the power to summon anyone in history for an interview, living or dead. But if they don't speak English, you have a translator to allow you to communicate perfectly.

But every time you use this power, you either get a Roman reign spear or some sweet chin music from HPK. If you get an interview the old-fashioned way, you're safe. Oh, man. What a question this is, Jonathan. How often are you using this power? Who are you interviewing? And would you rather get the spear or the sweet, chin music. Love the show. Keep up the good work. Jonathan S. Wow, what a, what a magical power this is.

To summon anyone in history for an interview, living or dead, if they don't speak English. So is it, so I can interview anybody. Okay, so I'm amazing, I'm going to have to take the Roman Rainsphere or the sweet chin music just for summoning them. Whether they speak English or not is beside the point. You're saying, we'll provide a translator for that. Well, man, think of the list of people I would love to interview that I unfortunately didn't get the chance to talk to. And I've gone through the list. I think we might much more of them. But man, there's so many people.

Eddie Guerrero's always forever going to be at the top of that list. But think of all the other people I didn't get the chance to talk to. Roddy Piper. We're talking about great promos. Roddy Piper, Ray Wyatt, Andre the Giant. I went through the list, what was this, like six weeks ago of all the wrestlers that I wish I had had the chance to talk to, that it left us way to. So, uh, if, how often am I using this power?

I mean, I'd, I'd use it several times a month. Several times. Chin music on the show. I got a chin music from HBK. And it talks about like just, Sean Michaels is so good, like, makes it look so smooth in the ring. And he was describing, taking the sweet chin music as like, someone just, lightly tapping your face

with like a ping pong paddle, just a little pop on your face. Like, he's that good that he, like, he can measure it out to like the centimeters. And he's just barely grazing your face. Whereas the spear, like, you're eating that.

He's going right through you with that. So I'll take the sweet chin music. And, you know, if I happen to actually, like, take one on the jaw, how cool is it that I got to say I took sweet chin music? And in exchange for that, I got to interview some of the greats. I love it.

Please keep the ridiculous, would you rather questions coming. And yes. Bring all of the Mount Rushmore questions. I want to hear them all. That, my friend, is the final question on this. Ask CVV, number one, sweet 16 edition, one 16 time. Woo, world champion Rick Flair edition and won 316 edition.

I know that doesn't really work, but let's just pretend. And I talked to Austin about 316. Man, there were so many questions where I was just like, I've just always wanted to know the answer to this. And one of them was, who took the worst stunner? He talked about who took the best stunner,

but who took the worst stunner? It may be the person you're thinking of right now. It may be someone completely different. I guess you'll find out on Tuesday. I'll leave you with this. It's a perfect quote to start the year. The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason, because what's in front of you is so much more important than what's behind you.

Be great. Be grateful, my friend. Happy New Year. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We'll see you on Tuesday with Stone Cold. Steve Austin. 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.