Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #117 - Chris Jericho WWE Return, CM Punk Retains, Possible Hall Of Fame Inductions, Best Wrestling T-Shirts Ever

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Welcome to AskCVV #117! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about Matt Cardona's WWE return, whether Chris Jericho will be part of the Royal Rumble, CM Punk retaining the WWE World Championship against Bron Breakker on Raw, the possible Hall Of Fame Class of 2026, the recent interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mount Rushmore of wrestling t-shirts, who might beat Randy Orton's record to become the youngest WWE World Champion, possible surprises for the Royal Rumble, WWE: UNREAL Season 2 and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Failure is not the opposite of success; it is a stepping stone towards it" – Sundar Pichai. 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/cvv 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/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! 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 Oh, greetings and salutations, my friend. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Vleet. Thank you for hanging out with me on a Friday. Thank you for being a real one. Thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

And also, at last check, one of the top sports podcasts on the planet. I guess having Stone Cold Steve Austin on the show, show, we'll help do that. We'll help you skyrocket up the charts. Hit a stone cold stunner on that follow button on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening right now so you don't miss out on a single episode. And if it is Spotify where you're listening, could you leave a rating on there? It takes less than five seconds. It helps the show so much. And I know you're saying like, how do I do that? Where do I even find that? If you're on the show's main page, click the three

little dots there, dot, dot, dot, dot, then you'll see rate show, click on that, and then the stars will pop up from there. So I appreciate you. Thank you. I'm recording this from home right now, but in the next few days, I'm going to be flying to London. I will see you next week. I'm going to Smackdown in London, so if you live in the UK, if you're going to smack down, if you're going to be around the city, I would love to chat a little wrestling with you. I can't wait. This is my, yeah, this is my first wrestling show in the UK. And I feel like if there are other indie shows going on, I leave here Wednesday, you know, with the time change. And like, it's a 12-hour flight from the West Coast, from Los Angeles, into London Heathrow. So with the time change, with the long flight, I leave Wednesday evening,

arrive midday Thursday, hopefully doing an interview or two Thursday. Maybe it's Friday morning. But if there's indie shows happening Thursday night or Friday, Friday, or Friday, Friday, day during the day, because then I leave on Saturday. This is a quick turnaround to fly to the other side of the planet, but man, I can't wait. I can't wait to be there. I would love to just get in as much as I can while I'm there. I haven't been to London in a little over a year. I feel like I go once-ish, twice-ish a year, like something to do with work, whether it's a movie premiere or it's a celebrity interview or whatever. I feel like I'm there once-ish-ish-a-year-year, like I'm there once-a-one. I'm or twice-ish, sometimes a little bit more. But I can't believe I've never seen wrestling there.

So that all changes on Friday, and I'm pumped about it. I can't wait. I'm going to be going with my good friend Alex Hunt, who also helps out with some of the great research for these interviews. He also helps out with transcribing the interviews. So if you ever go to chrisfanfleet.com and you see the transcriptions of the interviews, just know that that is Alex's great work there. So can't wait to see you guys there. Then I think the next, like, big wrestling show I'm going to, oh, I think, no, the week after, I think I'll see you in Albuquerque, New Mexico, TNA Wrestling.

Can't wait. And then, of course, we've got Chicago Elimination Chamber, and the day before that is the next Insight Live. So if you live around any of those places, I hope to see you there. I especially hope to see you at Insight Live. CVVTicks.com to grab tickets. for that show in Chicago, February 27th,

or the show the Thursday of WrestleMania Week in Las Vegas. I can't wait. The Chicago one is almost sold out. I know. That's crazy. The show is six weeks away, seven weeks away, and it's almost sold out.

So if you've been thinking about going, if you've been in the group chat with your friends talking about maybe going, you should probably buy those tickets while you still can. It's mind-blowing to me. I can't believe it. But I appreciate you guys so, so much. Hope that your year has been off to a good start.

We're now nine days in to 2026. I hope that these nine days have been good to you. And if they haven't, if it's not going so great right now, just keep in mind there's still another 356 days to turn things around. Think about that. Welcome to Ask CVV, number one, never seen. 17 edition. There's not a lot of 17 references, and I could go with the 117.

We did a lot of sevens 10 episodes ago, so we're going to do one, never seen 17. And if you've got an idea for next week, 118, let me know. Or send in your questions for episode number 118. Send them in on Spotify by leaving a comment. Send them in on social media using the hashtag Ask CVV, or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris Fanfleet.com. We'll kick this off from... This is Instagram.

Question from Instagram from I am almost Ironman. Yo, CVV, my OPC, original podcast tribal chief. We won't tell Sam Roberts, don't worry. On last Friday's Smackdown, with Matt Cardona's intro set up the way that it was, did we actually witness the death of Zach Ryder?

a real, real one, Howard in Diamond Valley, Alberta, Canada. One of my fellow Canadians. Thank you for the question, Howard. Well, Matt Cardona has been saying for years that Zach Ryder is dead. So did the Zach Ryder that we saw wrestle during the John Sina last time was now tournament? Was that a zombie? No, let's be honest. The guy we saw in the John Cena tournament was Matt Cardona.

Sure, they called him Zach Ryder. sure they gave him the woo-woo-woo music, that was Matt Cardona. What we saw making his WWE debut on Smackdown was Matt Cardona.

That's right. That was Matt Cardona's WWE debut. Zach Ryder was in WWE for years. Matt Cardona has never officially been in WWE.

What an amazing moment for him. A huge congratulations to Matt who, who was just a perfect example of betting on yourself, perseverance, and never quitting. He's also clearly in the best shape of his life. Looks like a million bucks. Like Zach Ryder, that version of him was always in good shape.

Man, Matt Cardona has just dialed it in. And I just love that his hard work has all paid off here. And also, like, the cherry on top here is now he gets to go to work with his wife. like Chelsea Green and Matt Cardona were both in WWE at one point in time. They both got released. They both went to the Indies, reinvented themselves, figured it out, worked hard. Chelsea Green got rehired, and now Matt Cardona to kick off 2026, re-hired as well. Amazing.

One of the things we have to talk about, though, with Matt Cardona's match is how good is Kit Will's theme song. So catchy. It has been stuck in my head for a week. It's so good. And that Titan-Tron, we've talked about this before, but there's not a lot of Titan-Trons. In fact, there's really only one that I can think of right now. Like, yeah, your name appears when you show up, but it just like stays. That's it. Like, I'm talking old-school, attitude-era titan-tron. Like something that, like, moves and catches your attention. The only other wrestler that really has a traditional Titan Tron is Logan Paul. Kit Wilson has the great song now and an insanely good Titan Tron to go along with it.

My goodness. I want to see Kit Wilson come out every single week just so I can hear that song. Kit Wilson! Kit Wilson! So good. So good. I can't wait to see what's next for Kent Wilson. also can't wait to see what's next for Matt Cardona.

And it's so clear that always ready is not just a catchphrase for Matt. That is how he lifts his. And I just, I appreciate so much if you've listened to any of the interviews when he's been on the show. I just appreciate that he never looked at this as work. He never looked at his like, oh, man, I have to get on a plane and fly to insert the name of the city here. And then from there, I have to go, you know, that's on Friday. and then on Saturday I have to go to this other city for this other booking and then from there I have

to go to this convention. He looked at it as like, man, look at all the opportunities I get to have. Look at all the things that I get to do because I'm in the position that I'm in right now. And he talked about how when you leave WWE, when you get released, when you get fired from your dream job, as he did and as so many of his other colleagues

have been in that situation as well, you basically have three options. Number one, you can fade into obscurity. That's it. You get to live your dream. You did the thing. You don't work at WWE anymore. That's it.

You call it a wrestling career, and you do whatever else you want to do. And there's no judgment here on these. He's just saying these are the three options when you get released. So that's one. Number two, you can coast off your WWE name. You can take bookings as former WWE star,

so-and-so, and you can continue to do that as long as you can. And then number three, and this is the path that Matt took and Zapat that he suggests that you should take. You reinvent yourself through hard work, through having fun, through rebranding, through great promos, through great vignettes. You rebrand yourself and you figure out a way to make it work. Him going back to WWE was never a guarantee. It was a hope. It was a dream. It was something he wanted to do, but it was never a guarantee.

And he also talked about like how he was, what, two? two, three years into doing his thing on the independence after getting released. And he's like, what more do I need to do? And I'm sure WWE was keeping tabs on what he was doing. I'm sure maybe there were even conversations of like reaching out of like, hey, I've got this idea. Or, hey, I'm available for the Royal Rumble or available for whatever. I mean, Matt even said, every Royal Rumble, he would have two sets of gear made.

He'd have one that said MC, Matt Cardona, and he'd have one that says Z.R., Zach Ryder. and obviously the gear didn't get used because he hasn't been in a Royal Rumble in years, but he was always ready. Again, not a catchphrase. But he was like, what more do I need to do? What, like, he keeps winning, like, independent wrestler of the year.

Like, what more do I need to do? No, he doesn't need to do anymore now. Doesn't need to do anything else now because he's been re-signed, and it's just an amazing story of, like, sticking to it. and I love it. Can't wait to see what's next for Matt Cardona.

Also, I just feel like Matt Cardona debuting on Smackdown. Then we had, as I predicted, we would find out what the three stages of the three stages of hell match would be. We found out what the stipulations were. And I feel like, did I nail it? I feel like I nailed it.

So what we're getting in the Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre match, three stages of hell tonight on Smackdown in Berlin, Germany, what we're getting is a straight up wrestling match to start, traditional match.

Then we're getting a Falls Count Anywhere match, which I said we were going to get a street fight. A Falls Count Anywhere match is just a different version of a street fight, isn't it?

And then we're getting a steel cage match, which I was like, yeah, you know what? I think they're going to either lower down a steel cage or they're going to lower down a hell in a cell,

which would be unprecedented. That has never happened. They've never had a hell in a cell to wrap up a three stages of hell match. But, yeah, I feel like I nailed that. So we got that last Friday on Smackdown. Then on Raw this week, we got two new champions,

and we got CM Punk defending his WWW World Heavyweight Championship against Brom Breaker. And that one also went the way that I kind of predicted would go. I'm like, yeah, we're going to see what Bronbreaker's capable of here, but I don't feel like CM Punk loses that title in his first title defense. But how about kicking off the first RAW of the year, the one-year anniversary of Raw on Netflix, by giving us a new WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion, Becky Lynch, who, man, she's just so entertaining right now.

Like, zero filter. And it's not just the promos. It's the interview she's doing. It's the tweets. It's everything she's doing on social media. I love it. I don't want her to turn baby face again, although I'm a little bit nervous.

If she ever does come on the show as this version, what kind of terrible mean things? is Becky Lynch going to say about me? She's calling our good friend Sam Roberts, scam Roberts. Come on. We also got new WWE women's tag team champions, Ria Ripley and Eoskeye defeating the Kubuki Warriors.

And I feel like what we're going to get here is Ria Ripley versus Eoskei at some point in time. Like they seem like things are going so well here. What's this leading to? And who turns heel here? Because both are beloved. We love Eoskeye, we love Ria Ripley. Who turns on who here?

And I can't wait because I feel like that one, Ria Ripley versus E.O. Sky feels to me like a match we're going to see at WrestleMania. I don't know. Also, what, I mean, what happens tonight? There is a chance. There is a chance. Drew McIntyre becomes a WWE champion.

I don't see it. I just feel like Cody Rhodes is going to be the guy going into WrestleMania, but I guess anything's possible here. Drew McIntyre is certainly due for a championship, but the fact that we're talking about the raw that we just had a few days ago and the Smackdown we're getting tonight, the fact that we're talking about these big matches, these PLE-level matches on a weekly show,

man, I think that's pretty cool. You know, it's hard to believe that it's already been over a month since John Cena's final match. And I'm grateful to say that I was able to be there in person in D.C. with some amazing tickets from Seatkeek. And I want to give a huge shout out to Seat Geek for sponsoring this episode. With over 35 million downloads, Seatgeek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70,000 events listed on Seatgeek, including concerts,

WWE, sports, festivals, and more. The NFL playoffs are here. The Super Bowl is right around the corner. Elimination Chamber also. around the corner. And the great thing about Seekek is they've got your back. Every ticket is rated on a scale of one to ten so you know you're getting a good

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Because last week I said, if you're excited to see Stone Cold on the show, give me a hell yeah. Real, real one here with a question for Ask CVV number one, seven, never seen 17 edition. You brought up Chris Jericho and the potential

for a surprise spot in the Rumble. Who else do you think they can or will surprise this with in the Rumble this year? Seems like it might be harder to keep entrance a secret with it being in Riyadh, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Love listening and excited to see

who else you get on the show this year. Well, man, what a week this has been already. Stone Cold, Raven. I'll tell you the next episode. I was going to wait till the end of this one, but I'll tell you who the next guest is. The Mizz joins us. us on Tuesday, like,

what a run. I don't know how we're going to keep this up. I truly don't. But somehow we're going to try to figure out a way. Somehow we're going to make it work. Like, keep your fingers crossed for me that we can nail down like a one or two really big ones next week when we're in London.

So we'll see. Chris Jericho, obviously the big, rumored surprise slash return. It really made me scratch my head how many people thought that this past week's episode of Ross sucked just because Jericho wasn't there. There was no guarantee of this. There was no announcement of this. This was just speculation. And I know that that's what we love to do as wrestling fans. We love to speculate wildly. And I know it would have made sense. It would make a lot of sense for the first raw of the year. One year anniversary of Raw being on Netflix. I get that. I know

there was like some buildup to that. And if you believe the reports online, Chris Jericho is a free agent, or at least no longer signed with AEW. Jericho has not confirmed that, but that is what the reports online say. But it's funny to me, like, oh, no Jericho on Raw? Oh, man, this sucks. Man, if your expectation, every single week is like, if there's not a massive return, then the episode sucks. My goodness. You must be. be fun at parties. I'm just saying that, like, it'd be a nice surprise if he's there, but it's not like, it's not like they were, like, leading up to, like, really, like, get our hopes up that he's going to be there. Like, yeah, if and when, or if or when this happens,

it'll be a surprise. Unless, like, like you said, it might be hard to, like, with this being overseas, it may be hard to have, like, to really sneak in the surprises, but I guess we'll see how this works. I just feel like if the Chris Jericho return is in fact happening, I see it as 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 Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures,

but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henco. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Number 30 in the Royal Rumble, or just, I guess, in general, in the Royal Rumble, but number 30 feels like the absolute perfect spot for that. What are the other big returns? What are the other big surprises we could see in the Royal Rumble?

Bianca Bel Air is another one that I think feels like if she's ready to go, The Royal Rumble feels like the perfect spot to bring her back. Royal Rumble begins the road to WrestleMania. We haven't seen her in action since WrestleMania 41, when she broke her finger during that incredible triple threat match with Ria Ripley and E.O. Sky, one of my favorite matches of 2025. Bianca Bel Air coming back feels like it needs to happen as long as she's healthy. The return to Chad Gable, that one also feels like a real possibility.

And with the relationship the WWE has with TNA, how about one or both of the Hardy Boys? And how about like, man, it'd be so cool if it was like back to back. Like, we get the do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do, Jeff Hardy comes out, and then right after that,

oh, yeah, Matt Hardy version one, well, like the version one theme song, oh, I can slap a tornado. That'd be great to see. And then I think there's the other, like, I don't know if you'd call them surprises, but I think there'll be some NXT stars peppered in there. I think we're going to see, like, first-ever Royal Rumble appearance from someone like Javon Evans.

I mean, he's on the main roster now. Huge congrats to him. Oba Femi, I think, will be in there. I think there'll be some stuff like that. But in terms of, like, massive surprises, returns, maybe there's a legend here or there. Santino Morella would be a good one. I'd be a really good one again with the relationship that WWE has with TNA. Give us Santino.

Santino told me when he was on the show a little while ago. He knows he can break that record for fastest elimination. So maybe this is the year it happens. We'd love to see that. But I'm excited. I'm excited to see what happens here. I mean, the cool thing about the Royal Rumble is who's coming out. What are the surprises?

The other cool thing is like, all right, who are our final four? Because there always seems to be a storyline that's weaved into there with who gets eliminated by who and that kind of stuff. And then I think we're also going to get like, all right, well, if this person wins, which championship are they going after? Oh, okay, they're going after that championship. All right, well, that leaves the other championship now available for another storyline. And I think that that's such an interesting part about like this season, if you would. WrestleMania season. And I just, I also, the thing I love about just

WrestleMania season, Royal Rumble season, is I watch a lot of football, not nearly as much now with young kids. Not a lot of things going on the TV in general, but when the TV is on, it's Miss Rachel or Danny Goh. We've been watching Toy Story a lot. I think I've seen Toy Story maybe 150 times, in the last month or two.

But there's something about having NFL football on during the playoffs Saturday and Sunday, just like football were like, you lose and you're out. You win and you go on and you're one step closer to the Super Bowl. And I just love this time of year for that. The stakes are high.

Not just in wrestling, NFL as well. I love that. Lee Curran on Facebook says, who's going into the Hall of Fame or who deserves? to go into the Hall of Fame. Thanks, and I loved the Austin episode. So, Leah, I think there's two questions here.

Who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame? And who will be part of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2026? There are two very different questions. We already know Stephanie McMahon has been announced. Huge congrats to her. I believe the Undertaker is going to be the one inducting her. That was a nice surprise where was the Undertaker informing her that she's in. where to Stephanie?

So Stephanie McMahon is in. I would think, I would think that the headliner of the class of 2026 will be the greatest of all time. We'll be the Never Seen 17, will be John Sina. And it would still allow him to be a big part

of WrestleMania weekend. The only caveat here is I could see them holding off on inducting John Sina until 2027 so that they'd They could advertise him to be part of WrestleMania 43, which I feel like they're going to pull out

all the stops for WrestleMania 43. So I could see that like, he's obviously going to the Hall of Fame. There's zero question about that. It's just a matter of when he gets inducted. It would make a lot of sense for him to be part of it this year, fresh off of the retirement tour last year. I would have to think it happens.

If he's not announced this year, it's only because they're going to hold off and make a huge deal of it next. year when WrestleMania 43 is in Saudi. But with AJ Stiles retiring this year, I would have to think that if AJ retires this year, he gets inducted next year. Because the thing with wrestling is there's no rules about the Hall of Fame. There's no voting committee, right? This isn't like the baseball Hall of Fame or the Football Hall of Fame where you have to be retired for five years before you can even be on the ballot. I mean, you see examples like Ray Mysterio. In the

a Hall of Fame, and obviously has had a Hall of Fame career, no question about that, but he's still active. So, like, there's no rules here of, like, when you are even eligible to go in. It's just like, you're going to go in when it makes the most sense, honestly, from a marketing standpoint, to go in. So John Seenid feels like it could definitely happen. Sid Vicious. Sid Vicious should be in the Hall of Fame class of 26, a posthumous. induction after his untimely death. What a career. And I'm actually surprised he's not in already. Demolition also. I mean, finally, come on. I know they had their issues with Vince McMahon. They had legal issues in the past, but if Lex Lugar got inducted and he had all kinds of issues with

WWE and Vince McMahon, if Ultimate Warrior could be inducted and could mend the bridges with WWE and Vince McMahon, I feel like Axe and Smash have to go in. And it just, it feels to me that like, when we saw Lex last year get inducted, it's like, okay, I feel like what they're doing here is then they're setting it up for people like demolition to be able to go in next year. And there seems to be, for the most part, there seems to be like one big headliner. There seems to be a tag team every year too. So it's like, all right, if there's going to be a tag team,

why not demolition? And then I guess as we continue to go down the list, there is a ton of people that are deserving, right? But is it, are they going to get inducted next year? Are they never going to get inducted? Are there too many issues for bridges to be mended there? Mickey James needs to go in. Like, Mickey James is one of those where it's just a matter of time.

She's a TNA Hall of Famer. She was just inducted last year. She is most certainly going to be a WWE Hall of Famer as well. It's just a question of, is it this year, is it next year, is it the year after that? But it's going to happen for sure. If John Cena is not the headliner this year, maybe it's Batista. He was announced in 2020, but not inducted. Things were thrown off that year because of the pandemic. So if John Cena is not the headliner this year, I could see Batista being the headliner. Will the Hardy Boys go in? I mean, I know they're still active. I know they're, I mean,

they're still having great matches. If we're to believe the chatter online, there's already been talk. They've already been approached about the idea of being inducted in previous years, but it just sounds like they're, they don't want to be inducted until they're done, done. And, man, I am enjoying the work they're doing right now.

It's been so fun. It's like such a, I know, I say it all the time, but it's true. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. and seeing the Hardy Boys together doing Hardy Boys things, man, I love it. And then the other category we've got to talk about, the other induction is, now that matches are part of this, what's the match? Because there's so many great matches that could go in and will eventually go in,

but it just comes down to like, what's the match they choose for the class of 2026? and then who are the people, who are the legends that we get to see on stage because their matches getting inducted? There's a ton of matches, right? If I'm going to have to make a guess here, I'm going to go Undertaker versus Sean Michaels WrestleMania 25. That's a match that will at some point in time be inducted and it's such a great match, so good.

It also gives us another excuse to see and hear from the Undertaker on a home. Hall of Fame stage and also see and hear from Sean Michaels on a Hall of Fame stage. It also gives us another excuse, not that we need an excuse to watch that match, but it gives us another excuse to watch that match. And man, it is just so, so good. So there's some of my ideas, some of my picks. The list, though, of like, who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is long. Who could realistically get inducted in a few months here?

those are the people on on my short list Scott Schober on Spotify says real real one here so when you were talking in the Maven interview he asked if you paid for interviews you said no but you

might for some guests namely Stone Cold so does your streak of not paying for interviews still stand yeah I think I'd like to make this clear no I did not pay to have Stone Cold on my show and I have never paid for a guest.

I don't say that as anything other than a matter of fact. I have nothing against podcasts in any genre, wrestling, or otherwise, who have compensated their guests for their time, but it's not something that I've done. I feel like the whole thing, though, just got completely misunderstood. I was a guest to Maven's podcast on his YouTube channel

this summer. We recorded it during SummerSlam weekend in New Jersey. He was a guest at my show, and I was a guest on his. He asked me during the segment, and it was, what was his YouTube video call? An honest conversation with Chris Van Fleet. And if you haven't checked out of the video, it was a lot of fun. Go check it out on Maven's channel. I can't say enough great things about Maven. Super grateful to call him a friend.

Love that guy. He asked me, do you pay for guests? And I said, no. I've never paid a guest to appear on my show. I have nothing against people to do it. But I said, there's probably like two or three people. that if they said the only way I'll do it is that you have to pay me X amount of dollars,

yeah, I guess if that's the only way. So what I'm talking about here is if, like, they are like, no, I do not do appearances for free. There are no exceptions to this. The only way that you can get me to sit in front of a microphone or get on a plane to go to a convention or whatever is to be paid my appearance fee.

So what I was saying there, and I thought I was pretty clear about it, but I guess not, I was saying that if, and that's a big if, if one or two or three of these seemingly unattainable guests on my wish list were to say, no, the only way I do it is if I get paid, then I'm saying, yeah, I guess in those instances, I guess I would do it. That was not the case, it was Stone Cold. As you know, he's been on the wish list for years. He's been on the bucket list like, can we get them as a guest? And man, I am so grateful that it came together.

I got to sit down with him for an interview that was over an hour long. We've recorded it at his Broken Skull Ranch. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. So how did it come together? I know that's what you're asking here. I work with a very talented, very well-connected guest booker who just happened to be in.

touch with the right people to make the ask to see if Steve would even be interested in coming on my show because ultimately it comes down to does he want to do it or not right that's it he has he's at the point in his life where he can choose how he wants to spend his time does he want to do it or not well turns out he's seen some of my clips on instagram and he was excited to sit down with me for an interview that's it that's how it came together and this comes back to the the thing that's the thing that I talk about all the time of like, the answer is always no unless you ask. Like, if you don't ask, the answer's no. So I figured, man, when I started working with my guest booker, she was like, give me a wish list.

Give me like 10, 15, 20 names of like people you would love to have on the show. List them all out. And I'll do my best to see what we can do. And the next day, she sent me an email and she goes, Steve's in. Like, what? This is amazing. So I flew to Reno, Nevada. He lives like 45 minutes away from the Reno airport, flew into Reno, rented a car,

and checked into this hotel that was close-ish to the ranch. And I got an email saying, like, here's Steve's phone number. Can I get yours? he's going to give you a call the night before to just let go over the details. So, all right, cool. So checked into the hotel, was, like, putting everything together, like going through my research, and my phone rings. And I'd already saved his numbers, so I'm looking at my phone,

and it says Stone Cold Steve Austin. Man, that's so cool. Hello? Hey, Chris, Steve. I'm not going to do a stone cold impression, but hey Chris is Steve. Hey, Steve, how you doing? And then he starts to play a bit of a prank on me.

He goes, you're still coming out here. I think it was like, I don't know, 545 when he called me. He goes, so you're coming out here, right? Six o'clock? You're coming out? Six o'clock, right? And I said, don't do this to me, Steve. Don't do this.

And I've never met him before. Like, it's not like we've met in passing before. This is our first conversation. It's our first meeting. And he's like playing this prank on me like, the interview is happening 15 minutes from now. I'm like, don't do this to me. It's tomorrow morning, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's 6 o'clock, right? Six o'clock tonight? Yeah, you're still coming on by? I'm like, don't you do this? And then he has a little chuckle about it. And then we're like, oh, we went through like the logistics for the next day. How long is this going to be?

How long will take to set up? And I'm like, where should I park when I get there? So we had a good laugh about that. went to sleep. I was so excited about this. Woke up the next morning. We were arriving at the ranch at 10 o'clock. We said that set up would take about an hour,

so we'd be ready to roll at 11. So got there right at 10 o'clock, rolled up, like went down this long driveway, and it's beautiful, by the way. He's like right in the middle of the mountains. He has all kinds of land there. And we drive up the long driveway, and who's standing right by the house,

actually by the garage where we filmed, there he is the man himself, Stone Cold Steve Austin. He was awesome. We chatted off-camera for a while. He toured us around the property. At first, just like, let's find a great place to film. And he still has the podcast studio there.

That's kind of why I asked him, like, are you thinking about starting up your podcast again? Like, he has everything there. It's all ready to go there. So he toured us around the garage, toward us around like other parts of the property, like just trying to find a spot. Like, what would be the best spot

for us to do this interview? We ended up choosing the garage, which is, if you watch the interview on YouTube, that's where we filmed it because the lighting was good in there. The acoustics were good in there. It just looked cool. He had his, like, his vehicles behind us there.

It was very cool. So we're setting up. And like, he just hung out with us the whole time. It's not like he was like, all right, how long is it going to take? Half an hour? I'll see in 30 minutes. And just hung out with us, me and my buddy, Jamil.

And we were setting up the camera, setting up the tripos, and just chatting about, like, everything. It's like hanging out with our buddy Steve, which was so cool. Then we got the shots all set up. We tested the lighting, tested the mics, and we were good to go.

And then hit recording, what you saw is what you saw. Then afterwards, we tore everything down, still continue to chat. He signed an 8x10, which is now proudly hanging in my office. And then I said, you know, while we're here, I got to meet your two solid-ass cats. And he's like, of course, we'll go over to the horse barn, see what they're doing. So we walked over to the horse barn.

And sure enough, there was macho and poncho. I saw the two horses as well. Saw the chickens. Saw the pond where he's like, oh, yeah, we got all kinds of huge basses. there. It was a cool day, so you couldn't, like, the bass weren't, like, near the, near the edge of the pond, so we couldn't see them, but we, like, looked around there for a while. And that, like, just chatted. Like, just, we just hung out. And then our, our flight back home was out of the Reno airport later that afternoon, but it was, there was no, like, it was just so

great that there was no rush to, like, okay, well, your time's up. We did the interview, like, see you later. It was just like, We were talking about all kinds of things, probably a lot of things that you couldn't put on a podcast or you wouldn't put on a podcast. But it was just, it was cool. I texted him later that day and I just said, hey, that was such a fantastic conversation. Thank you again. And he said, hey, thanks again for coming out. Let me know when that episode comes out.

And here we are about a month later. I think we recorded that on, I'm looking at the calendar right now. We recorded that on December 6th. second. So flew into Reno, Monday December 1st, did the interview Monday, December 2nd, and then this is wild. Flew back to, flew back into Orange County Airport in California. My buddy Jumail stayed with me. The next day, we drove into L.A., the next day was the interview with John Cena, inside the West Coast Creative Studio, the studio that I record out of in Hollywood. So in a 24-hour period of time, actually, maybe even less.

Like, maybe it was like a 22-hour period of time. It was an interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin at the Broken Skull Ranch. The very next day, an interview with John Cena in my home studio. I mean, that's going to be a tough 24 hours to top. Man, unbelievable. So the only person really left.

I mean, there's a lot of people I haven't done interviews with, but I feel like most of those are still possible. The one that I still feel like is just unattainable just because he doesn't do interviews. And I've said this so many times, but I will continue to put it out into the universe, Sting. I will continue to put that out there with the hope that one day, maybe it's this year.

Like I said, we've got 356 days left this year. Maybe it's this year. And interview with Sting. But thank you to everyone who watched the interview with Stone Cold, listened to the interview of Stone Cold, left a comment, sent me an email, sent me a DM, sent me a text about it. Thank you.

That was such a cool conversation and such just a surreal moment in general to be able to spend some time with him on his home turf, chatting about whatever we wanted to check, bad about. And there's still, like, there's still so much meat on the bone. Like, I feel like we could have eight more episodes with Stone Cold, and we'd still just be scratching the surface of his incredible career. So, a huge thank you to Stone Cold for just making it happen and for the

incredible hospitality as well. B underscore Honcho 4 on Instagram. Hey, CVV, my question for Ask CVV number 117 is, if Stone Cold had another match, who do you think would be a good opponent for him? I think it's got to be CM Punk. That's the match that was teased for well over a decade. And it's the match that felt like it was maybe possible for like a blip of time there. But I think that if we're going to play Fantasy Booker here, the match that people would love to see. Stone Cold versus CM Punk. And then if we're going to play the true

fantasy booking game here of like this person in their prime versus this person in their prime, it's like prime CM Punk versus Prime Stone Cold, oh man, I would love to see that. Interesting. I'm sure you picked up on this, but

I said to Stone Cole, you look like you could still go. And he's like, I could. Do you think we'll get another match out of you? Probably not. Like, he seems really content with that final match in his home state, WrestleMania 38 with a great, very-giving opponent. Kevin Owens, Stone Cold called him a future Hall of Famer. Hard to disagree with that. Kevin Owens has had a Hall of Fame career, and it's continuing to have one.

There's another one. There's another one we haven't really talked about. Could we see the return of Kevin Owens, the Royal Rumble? I don't know what the status is there, but another possibility as well. Stone Cold CM Punk. That's the dream match, I think, for Stone Cold. Eddie Dominguez on Spotify says, Hey, CVV, how close do you think we are

to a Chad Gable return? Well, if you've looked at any of the videos that he's posted on Instagram, feels like we're real close. Like, Chad Gable is looking like he's in the best shape of his life. And that is saying a lot for Chad Gable. Because the last time we saw him on TV,

he was already in the best shape of his life. Like, veins popping out of areas I didn't even know it was possible to have veins popping out of. But he posted this video doing, I think it was an arm workout. Posted this like five, six days ago. And he was doing just like strict bicep curls, like dumbbell bicep curls. And just like his delts were popping, traps looking huge. Again, veins everywhere. He looks ready to go. I don't know if his physical conditioning and his physical appearance has anything to do with him being fully recovered and ring ready and cleared to get back. But man, it looks like he can go. And also, if you've picked

up on those videos, he has a beard right now. Does this mean he's going to like pull a mid-2000s curt angle? I guess it'd be a late 2000s curt angle and return with a beard and be that version of current angle? I don't know. Maybe he just has the beard right now like like a Rocky Ford training montage, but he looks amazing. Chad Gable at the Royal Rumble, also with the possibility of El Grande Americano or a second El Grande Americano appearing in the Royal Rumble, I like that. There's some loose ends there that need to be tied up with El Grande Americano. But at the same time, it would be kind of easy if they have other plans for Chad Gable.

it would be kind of easy for Chad Gable to just return, make no mention of El Grasne Americano, make it clear that he isn't him and was never him, and then we'll let the taller, leaner version of El Grande Americano, which some people seem to think might look like Ludwig Kaiser, let that version of El Grasne Americano do his thing, and then let Chad Gable as Chad Gable just go on his own path. But man, I'm excited. Chad Gable, I feel like, was like just about to like, whatever it was. Like he was right on the cusp of something great. And then what an unfortunate injury he had.

I feel like he's going to pick up right where he left off in 2026. So maybe it's the Royal Rumble. I don't know. But he sure looks like he's ready to return. So my completely uninformed opinion here tells me he comes back real soon. What does real soon mean? I don't know. But I would say,

looks like he's ready to come back, like he could come back tonight. It sure looks like he's ready to come back, but Royal Rumble feels like a spot that would make a lot of sense right there. An email from Adam that says, Hey, Chris, love the show. My question is,

do you think that Seth's fake injury and our Truth's release were manufactured with the Netflix Unreal show in mind? Or are we in an era of a new layer of k-fabe between the wrestling world and the supposed truth of Unreal? Keep well, Adam, from the Isle of White UK. Oh, if you're in the UK, will I see you next Friday, Adam?

I don't think that anything's being manufactured for Unreal. I think the biggest thing that they're playing with on Unreal is how much do they show? I think that's the biggest kind of line that they're going with. From what I have heard, they're filming everything. Like with the people that have given approval

to like, yes, I'll be part of the show, they're filming everything. So there's going to be a lot of stuff, maybe it makes for an incredible documentary five or ten or twenty years from now, but from what I understand, they're filming everything. And we're just seeing little snippets of it on Unreal.

I think the other thing about it is they're filming everything over a several months, period of time. And then they're releasing it in just the episodes that we see on Unreal. So there's like, yeah, there's storylines that I guess have to be worked into all of the different episodes, because it seems like each episode is kind of centered around one or two superstars and what they're going through both personally and professionally. But no, I don't think that Seth's fake injury or Art Truth's release were manufactured. I know they're a big focus of the trailer that just came out for Unreal.

And by the way, season two kicks off on January 20th on Netflix. I just think that whatever the storylines that happened to be going on during that time, I think that they were going to be the focus of this season. Like it feels a lot like hard knocks. Like I think that we need to look at WWE Unreal as being that. It also reminds me a lot of Chronicle. And it's funny, Unreal gets painted by people that are like, I can't believe they're breaking K-Fabe.

And then those same people would like watch Chronicle and be like, oh, man, this is so cool to see the behind the scenes. I don't, they feel really similar to me. And I don't know why they're viewed as different things. But I just think that the cameras are on. They're filming Unreal with whatever is going on, whatever is in front of them, in the same way that if you do watch Hard Knocks, the NFL show, the one that happens during the season, I find so fascinating.

They turn it around so quickly, too. But I just think it's like, these are the storylines. If we're talking NFL, like, this player got injured, or this player got released, or this player had a baby, or whatever the storylines may be, they're filming it all, and it gets all put together and edited together for the show. I think the same thing happens with Unreal. Seth Rollins' fake injury, I would love to know the exact number of people that knew maybe it's five, I'd think it'd be a stretch to say 10.

Like, I think the obvious people know, right? Becky knows, their daughter, Rue knows, Triple H knows, probably Bruce Pritchard knows, like a few of, like, the people that need to know, no. But then that's it. Like, from the sounds of it, everything that Seth Rolins is talking about here, he was k-fabing his friends.

Like, he's walking around on crutches in public and walking around on crutches anytime he's like backstage supporting his wife. So like he's K-Fabing everybody. So I don't feel like this is manufactured at all. But in a time where like people are saying, oh, K-Fab's dead, I don't think it's dead. I think it's just been reinvented in a different way where like in the truest form of K-Fabe that we had like when wrestling was like in its infancy, it didn't have to deal with the internet. So like something could happen in the town in which you live with these characters were like, this guy hates this guy, or they pull an angle.

Like this would be a thing that would happen a lot in the territories. They would pull an angle in this town and then they could take that exact angle and then go two towns over, an hour away, and pull the same angle. And most of the people weren't even aware that it happened. And you could continue to do that all the way down the coast or all the way through your region or whatever the case may be. it's not something you're able to do right now because word of mouth spread so quickly with the internet it's like quite literally almost instantaneous i feel like kfabe has had to reinvent it's like a

rebirth of kfabe and like the lines get blurred right like there's still people to this day that aren't sure does set ralins really hate cm punk does drew mcintyre really hate cm punk like they built it up so much. It felt so personal. Do they really hate each other? I don't know. It's kind of the cool thing. And I think that when you can be tricked like that, man, that's when wrestling's at its best. I think that one of the coolest things about wrestling, and we were just talking about it with the Royal Rumble, is the surprises. Someone's music hitting, an angle you didn't see coming. This person becoming a good guy or a bad guy, like the baby face turn, the heel turn, that type of stuff I think is,

is like the precious few moments right now. And I personally enjoy seeing how the sausage is made. I've always enjoyed the DVD extras. I've always enjoyed the behind the scenes of like, oh, man, how'd they shoot that scene? Oh, that person was on a wire? Oh, man, that's crazy. Like, I always loved getting the DVDs, the Blu-Rays

and watching the extra features and, like, checking out, like, oh, man, that's how that was done. Oh, man, that was, oh, crazy. And if that's not what you're into, cool. WWE Unreal is not for you. You probably shouldn't watch it. But you shouldn't be mad that it exists. If there's people that enjoy watching it, cool.

Let them have their thing. If it's not for you, then it's not for you. But I'm excited to see how this all unfolds, and I still think they're not telling us everything. And I think that that's a beautiful thing, too. That's also part of this, like, new definition of K-Fabe of like, they're going to show you most of it, but they'll keep this one close to the best. They'll show you almost everything, but not tell you this last little bit. I think that's cool.

Our Godfrey O2, Ryan Godfrey on Instagram says, hey Chris, Ryan from Hartlepool, England here. My question for Ask CVV number 117 is we've had a lot of, we've had a lot of recording. broken in recent years. Oh, you're talking about records. Okay. Had a lot of records broken in recent years. One record, I think, will be the hardest to break is the youngest world champion in WWE.

Bronbreaker could be the closest that we get to Randy's record as if he wins on Monday night. I'm typing this right now on Sunday. He obviously didn't win on Monday. We know that now. He's 28 right now. So do you think there's anyone right now

under Randy's record-breaking age that could win the world title and break this record. Very interesting question. So the exact age of Bronbreaker, 28 years, two months, and 17 days. So keep that in mind.

That is an important number to keep in mind as we talk about this. Randy Orton is the youngest to win a world championship in WWE. 24 years, four months, 20 days. Is there anybody right now that could win

a world championship younger than that? Sure. There's a few possibilities here. Let's go through the rest of the list first. So Randy Orden won the World Championship 24 years, four months, 20 days. Brock Lezor, the youngest ever, WWE champion, 25 years, one month, 19 days. One of the people that is hardly ever talked about, and I don't know why, is big show. Paul White was 23 months, sorry, 23, 23 months. Can you imagine he's a baby? still would be seven feet tall.

It was 23 years in eight months when he won the WCW Championship. So he is the youngest to win a world championship in either WWWCW or TNA. The youngest TNA champion is TSA Blanchard, the exact number 24 years, old when she won that.

So as we look at the roster right now, the person who seems to be the most, possible here to break Randy's record to be about 24 years old if they win a WWE World Championship. Jivon Evans. He's 21 right now, turns 22 on April 29th. The guy is on fire. Again, congrats to him. He's now part of the main roster, signed to Raw this past week. He was the male superstar of the year in NXT at the Year End Awards this past year. He had the match of the year at the NXT Year End Awards. It was Javon Evans versus Obafemi versus Trick Williams at Stan and Deliver.

He's on fire. If he can continue this momentum, and like this is a long way away, right? Like this is a long journey. It's about building the character, continuing to have great matches, building his way up. I'm sure there'll be a mid-card title in there at some point. But if you think about it, he hasn't even won the NXT Championship. So it'd be tag champion or U.S. championship or Intercontinental Championship. Javon Evans feels like the most possible.

Feels like it could happen. You're probably saying, what about Obafemi? Can't be Obafemi's 27. Like, there's a lot of people that you think, like, oh, man, what about this, NXT star? They're not 21 years old like Javon Evans. Trick Williams, 31 years old.

So, like, a lot of, like, very talented NXT talent, but they're older already than Randy was when he won that world title. And I'm going to go through the list here because, like, we look at some of the talent right now in the roster, and we look at them as quote-unquote young because their age begins with a two. But a lot of them aren't as young as these WWE champions on this list. And a little aside here, there has yet to be a male WWE superstar to win a world title in WWE that was born in the 2000s. So who's going to be the first one? And are they going to break Randy's record? So we had Randy Orton, 24, Brock Lesnar, 25.

Yokozuna, 26 years, six months, eight days. The Rock, 26 years, six months, 20 days. Undertaker, 26 years, eight months, 10 days. Bruno San Martino, 27 years, seven months. Big show, 27 years, nine months, 12 days. Interesting, right? So, like, he won the WVE champion, or WCW champion. at 23, wins the world title in WWE at 27.

Crazy. John Sina, 27 years, 11 months, 17 days. Now we got 9th on the list. Pedro Morales, 28 years, three months, 24 days. And then 10th on the list, Ivan Kahloff, 28 years, five months. Not a lot of people that could even break onto that list there. Ron Breaker, if he did win it this past Monday, would have been like 8. on that list, but I think you look at Javon Evans and that's a possibility.

Leon Slater also feels like a possibility, at least to break that TNA record. Leon Slater could be the youngest TNA champion. He's the current X-Division champion. Sure feels like there's a possibility there for him to be the TNA world champion at maybe some point. In the next three-ish years, he's 21 right now, doesn't turn 22 until September 27th of this year. Who knows how his career path would go?

If he ends up going to WWE, there's another possibility as well. But like, all of this is to say, the future looks so bright, and I love it. Like, there is so many just exciting young talent right now on the roster. Amazing.

Nick Silag on Spotify says, Hey, CVV, real, real one all the way from the home of Chelsea Green, Victoria, BC. Unique question for you. What are your thoughts on the Hall of Fame? Personally, I like the Hall of Fame,

but I find it interesting as WWE can essentially decide who goes in or not based on how they are booked in their career. I know there are external factors that also add to this, but in my mind,

WWE has the opportunity to create a Hall of Fame career from a superstar's first day. Love the podcast. Keep up the great work. I agree that WWE has the ability to shape and mold it

but you've got to do what you can with what they give you. And they can set you up for, you know, amazing things. But if you take it and you fumble a ball or you take it and you don't really do much with it, that's on you. Like, the booking can only take you so far. And at the same point in time, like your in-ring talent can also only take you so far if you're not getting great booking. So I agree with you there to a certain extent.

The way I feel about the Hall of Fame is there needs to be a physical. Hall of Fame. This needs to happen at some point in time. Either make it a traveling thing, make it a thing that goes to all the PLEs, something they set up every single time, like, make it a part of WWE World at WrestleMania, like give us something like that. We get little snippets of it. We get like a taste of it at WWE World. If you've ever been, it's cool. They show you like the iconic gear there. Or like, you know, this is the this is a, this is The Undertaker's robe from WrestleMania 25.

This is, I don't know, this is another, like, iconic prop. Like, this is one of the skulls from Triple H's entrance. Like, they have little bits of it. Obviously, there's a warehouse full of, like, every important piece of wrestling history.

It'd be cool if they could open this up. And just give us a fraction of that. Like, just give us 10% of what's in the warehouse. It'd be so cool to see. make one location somewhere that's like a centrally, like not centrally located,

but somewhere that like made sense. I'm just making this up here. You could put it near Stanford, Connecticut. You could put it near the headquarters. Put it in a building adjacent to that and go, here it is. The W.W.E. Hall of Fame. Admission costs X amount of dollars.

Here's the hours. Put it in Las Vegas. Lots of tourists go through there. Lots of wrestling fans go through there. I'm sure the WrestleMania we'll be back there, not just this year. I'm sure it'll be back at some point in time. But there needs to be a physical location

for the WWE Hall of Fame. And I just feel like that's the one thing that's really missing from it. And maybe you make it a two for one. Maybe you make it a UFC Hall of Fame and a WWE Hall of Fame. Like they're both owned by the same company. Why not put them in the same building

or buildings right next to each other? But that's the one thing I'd really love to see. And maybe it's just a matter a time before that happens. But that one to me makes a lot of sense. Are you old enough to remember WWE New York or the WWE store in Niagara Falls? I used to go to the WWE store in Niagara Falls, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Clifton Hill. Just, I didn't go there to buy things. I would just go there to be like, I'm in the WWE store. Like, that's it. Like, there's cool merch in there and cool things. And I love that. But I, I, you know, but I,

feel like there needs to be a destination like that in a place that would make sense. So that's the biggest thing I want to see, the Hall of Fame. Email from Michael Goggan, gone? I would say gone. G-A-U-G-H-A-N. Hey, CVV, what is your Mount Rushmore of wrestling t-shirts? Hmm. So I'm going to go with like the most iconic wrestling t-shirts.

Not my personal favorites here. and I'm not saying that I don't like these shirts. That's not the case at all. But like the most iconic shirts, like shirts that transcended wrestling or shirts that transcended the tribalism of wrestling, a shirt that you look at and you go, man, did we just become best friends?

Yep. Austin 316. What an iconic T-shirt. And one that just like encapsulates everything that was kind of going on in that moment of wrestling. late 90s. Huge.

And that shirt is still so iconic, 25 plus years later, almost 30 years later, that Austin is still one of the top merch sellers. Every single month on WWE shop, the shirts when you go to shows like London 316,

Toronto 316, Nashville 316, those shirts are still like wildly popular. And I think Austin was telling me that that's like a trademarked thing. the three colon 16. iconic. NWO. So iconic also, just like a perfect relic of that time.

Like you look at the NWO T-shirt and you know exactly what era of wrestling we're talking about. Think of how many logos, how many podcast logos, how many YouTubers have taken the NWO format and then put their own three letters into that. iconic. And you look at that font, you look at that style, and you know exactly what it is. Those two shirts, I think, are just like, they've got to be on everybody's Mount Rushmore. Also, the classic DX shirt. And that's one that has, like, withstood the test of time. That's a, there's been so many different iterations of DX shirts, but I think when we're talking about just the classic DX, the lime green, that's one that like, just like the NWO one, it just speaks to that certain era and speaks to just like,

hell yeah. I look at a shirt like that and I just say, hell yeah. And it's tough, right? Because there's three already. So the thing about Mount Rushmore's, I gotta narrow it down, right, to only four. But I'm gonna give you another like just iconic design. And it's the bullet club.

Think about, we're going what, almost 10 years ago. Wow, like late 2010. right, where the Bullet Club shirt was everywhere. And again, kind of like the NWO shirt, there were so many different parodies of it being made and like so many different versions of like something club, right? Like it'd be like the Van Vleek Club. I didn't make a shirt like that, but you got the idea.

So many different versions of like that thing in the middle and like people were making it like put sunglasses on it or put, you know, whatever your hairstyle is or whatever the case may be. so many different versions that even if you couldn't name a single member of the Bullet Club, even if that wasn't what you were watching, you knew what the Bullet Club shirt looked like and you knew what it meant. That shirt is still so iconic to this day. There's still people that are rocking that shirt and there's still people that are making their own versions of it now.

I think that those four shirts to me and that's, I'm not, like, there's so many other, like, iconic shirts. There's so many other iconic wrestlers that had great shirts, but I think that those four shirts just scream wrestling fan. And I love it. It's funny. Like three out of those four shirts have something in common. White font on a black shirt. Us wrestling fans, we love our black shirts, don't we? Email from R.J. Gabrentina Hey, CVV, I have a question for Ask. CVV number one, one, Trent, seven. With WWE really getting into the podcast game

with What's Your Story with Stephanie McMahon, six feet under with The Undertaker, and what do you want to talk about with Cody Rhodes? I'm surprised they haven't brought back after the bell with Cody, uh, Cody, Corey Graves. Jeez. I thought his podcast was very entertaining, and I thought he was a pretty good interview.

I agree. Corey Graves is incredible. Anyway, my question is, which superstar do you think would be a great podcast? host. Maybe it doesn't have to be an interview-style show, but if it were to be different, what kind of show would they have? Huge fan of what you do from a real, real, real one, hoping to be a real, real, real one day. RJ from Burnaby, British Columbia, another Canadian, another British Colombian. Thanks, RJ for the question. C.M. Punk. If C.M. Punk dropped a podcast tomorrow,

we'd all be listening to it. I just feel like when C.M. Punk speaks whether it's a promo or it's an interview, wrestling fans listen. And if he were to dive into, I mean, he's got a career worth of stories from the stuff he did in the ring, from the stuff behind the scenes, from stories from the road,

you would have an endless amount of stories. CM Punk would be an amazing one. Even if it was just a watch-along podcast, him watching his matches from whatever era of his career. And now he opened up, TNA with the partnership, WWES with TNA, opening up to him talking about the stuff he did in TNA. I would love to see slash hear a CM Punk podcast. And I feel like it would be, it would live up to all the expectations that we have. So give me a CM Punk podcast. Call it something like

it's clobbering time. I don't know. Call it the pipe bomb. I don't know. Call it whatever you want. Call it the CM Punk podcast. I'm listening. Josh Bloom says, Hey, CVV, Would you rather? Get blue mist to the face from Oskah every time you shave your face.

Oh my gosh. Or take a stink face from Rikishi once a week after brushing your teeth. Please. Keep the would you rather's coming and keep making them as ridiculous

and silly as possible. I love it. Would I rather take a blue mist to the face? Wow, the blue mist, I feel like, doesn't wipe off that easily. Like, I can feel like, yeah, it comes off, but, like, you still kind of have, like, a slight blue tinge for a little while.

I could just not shave? Like, could I grow a beard and then trim it? Because, like, I wouldn't be shaving then. So maybe I do that one. Hmm. But then the alternative here, a stink face from Rakeshi once a week after brushing my teeth? So are you alluding to the fact that I would only be brushing my teeth once a week? Or are you saying that just once a week where Tiki Shows up after you've brushed your teeth? And there's no telling when it is. Is it in the morning of that week?

Is it right before bed? Is it in the middle of the day when you're trying to brush some chicken wings out from between your teeth after flossing? I don't know. Or is it like scheduled? Like, Rakesh is going to come over every Monday at 5 p.m. Knock on your door. Hey, I'm here for the stink face. All right. Well, let's go to the bathroom.

I'll brush my teeth. And then here it comes. Could I just not brush my teeth? Because that's an option. Not really. It's an option to avoid the stink face, perhaps. I don't know the stipulations here. But, yeah, I don't think you go very long.

your teeth. I think I'll just grow a beard. I think I will avoid all of this and I will just grow myself a beard. I also, I think the missed spot, very underrated. Love the missed spot. There we go. That's our final question on this. Ask CVV number one, never seen 17 edition. Send in your questions for next week. Ask CVV 118. I can't wait to hear what you've got. Send him in on social media using that hashtag, Ask CVV. Send him in on Spotify comments and email them in. CVV at chrisfanvely.com. You, my friend, are a real, real one for hitting play on an Ask CVV episode and listening all the way until the end. I'll leave you with this quote. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is a stepping stone towards it. Be great.

Be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Miz joins us on Tuesday. It's almost a two-hour interview. I can't wait. Ms. has been someone I've wanted to have on the show for a long time. We're finally making it happen.

I'll see you back here on Tuesday. With that one, have an incredible weekend. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock?

I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley.

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