Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #118 - Drew McIntyre Wins The WWE Championship, Finn Balor Gets A Title Shot, What's Next For Oba Femi, AJ Styles' Last Match

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Welcome to AskCVV #118! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about Drew McIntyre beating Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship on Smackdown, whether Sami Zayn will become the World Champion in 2026, the Fatal Four Way Match to determine the #1 contender at SNME, who are the Champions heading into WrestleMania, when AJ Styles' last match will be, the most interesting place for an interview, Mount Rushmore of heels and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: “Stay close to anything that makes you feel glad you're alive.” Please support our sponsors! 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! 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 For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://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. And here we go. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. How you doing? Hope your Friday is off to a great start. Thank you for being a real one and for hanging out with me on an AskCTVV episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

Hit an elbow drop on that follow button on Apple or Spotify. Also on YouTube. If you're listening to this and you haven't subscribed yet on YouTube, hit an elbow drop on that subscribe button on YouTube, both on the main channel, Chris Van Vleet channel, where the full interviews are, and also the CVV Clips Channel, where we have the clips and the shorts there. The Clips Channel is approaching 1.2 million subscribers, which is an insanely large number. Also, crazy to think that channel is only like four or five years old. the main channel is 15 years old, and it still hasn't hit a million subscribers. But we are chipping away at it every single day. So if you're listening to this, and I'm sure you're subscribed because you're a real one, but just go check. Just open up the YouTube app and just check. Oh my gosh, I thought it was subscribed. But I'm not subscribed. So I will thank you in advance for just for being

a subscriber because I'm sure you already are. I'm in London right now as I record this. great to be back here. I'm going to Smackdown tonight. Can't wait. If you're going to smackdown tonight, if you're going to be in and around the arena, I would love to chat a little wrestling with you, hang out. If you are going tonight and you are listening to this episode, just come up to me and say the word banana. Just come up and say banana. Then I'll know exactly we're talking about. It'll be our own little secret exchange there. And that'll be fun because You will have just listened to this a few hours later. We're hanging out at SmackDown.

And I got to say, ever since Smackdown became a three-hour show again, it's been on fire. And I know that, like, it's a small sample here. But what a show last week. New WWE champion. Incredible. What a stacked card tonight as well. We'll talk about all of that in just a little bit. But, man, I am pumped to go to the show tonight.

welcome, my friend, to Ask CVV number one, WrestleMania 18 edition. And look, I know we could do this with literally every number up till WrestleMania 41, but WrestleMania 18 is so special to me. Toronto, Skydome, Rock v. Hogan, so we will make an exception for this one

and this one only, the one WrestleMania 18 edition. And also, welcome to Ask CVV number one, shake the hand of the person who wins 18 edition. It's a John Cena quote if you don't know what I'm talking about. He can't wait to shake the hand of whoever wins number 18. If you've got a question for next week and perhaps a better reference for next week. Because we already did the like one, one eighth wonder of the world. We already did those with eight.

I mean, there's plenty of those. but if you have an idea for next week, for Ask CVV number 119, Ask CVV-19, let me know in Spotify in the comments. Send me an email, CVV at chrisfanvely.com, or send it over on social media using that hashtag, Ask CVVN.

Those are also all the methods in which you can have a question sent in for the show. I hope to see you at the next Insight Live in Chicago. The day before Elimination Chamber, grab your tickets. It's February 27. grab your tickets at CVVTix.com, CVVTX.com. And then, WrestleMania Week, the Thursday of WrestleMania Week, April 16th. We're back at Circa Resort and Casino, Las Vegas. I can't wait. Grab those tickets, CVVTicks.com.

I've also had a few people messaging me since I put that video out on social media a few weeks ago. From Stadium Swim. So, like, the pool area at Circa is, unreal. It's 143-foot screen. There's like levels of pools there. Of course, they're heated. That's where they're doing the WrestleMania watch party. They did it last year. It sold out. It was insane. They're doing it again this year. So if you're going to be in Vegas, but you're not going to WrestleMania, that is the place to watch. So if you go through to, you can go to circa.com, or Circa, Las Vegas.com slash Circamania, or just go CVVTix.com. When you click through. It's the same place where you buy tickets for Insight Live. You can also buy tickets for

the watch party. But man, I can't wait. Can't wait for that. We're going to kick this off with an email from Chris Baldwin. And I've never met a Chris that I don't like. I hope that never changes. Hey, Chris, Chris, Chris Baldwin here from New England. A real, real one, hoping to become a real, real, real one soon. Well, I would love to have a show out in the New England area. Maybe Boston. That'd be That'd be fantastic. Or maybe, Chicago's not terribly far, Chris. Maybe I'll see you in Chicago in a month and a half. What are your thoughts on Drew's WWE title win so close to WrestleMania?

Hope you have a great Friday and a great weekend. I hope that you also have a great Friday and a great weekend, Chris. What a match that was. Man, three stages of hell, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre. They delivered a PLE caliber match and to cap it all off. Drew McIntyre finally won the WWE championship

in front of a crowd. And look, I know that he won the World Heavyweight Championship in front of a crowd at WrestleMania 40. What a moment that was for five minutes and 46 seconds. And then Damien Priest came down

and cashed in on him. But I thought that match went over and above. I think that sometimes we see a great match on paper and we see it on Raw or SmackDown. And we go, man, that would be a great match if it was at the Royal Rumble, if it was at SummerSlam, if it was at backlash, whatever the case

may be. And I think that people looked at that one, man, three stages of hell. Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre. Okay, it's going to be a great match, but will they pull out all the stops? Oh, they pulled out all the stops. What a match. And I just, I was like really on the fence when we were talking about this on Ask CVV last week. I'm like, man, I feel like there's a chance. My gut says that Cody's going to retain this and head into WrestleMania as the champion. Here's the thing.

I still think that there's a possibility that Cody could still be the champion heading in to WrestleMania. I don't know what's going to happen here, but first of all, huge congratulations to Drew McIntyre. I am so excited for him. I feel like this feels like his first real run. It feels like his first legitimate run.

He's able to go out there. First of all, he wins it in front of a crowd. Now he's able to go out there and be in front of a crowd. And, man, that belt just looks so great on him. I love it. I just don't know how long this run is going to be. Certainly longer than five minutes and 46 seconds. He's surpassed that.

Amazing. I just don't know. I just don't know how long this is going to be. And I feel like WWE is trying their very, best to not make it obvious. Number one, who wins the Rumble. Number two, who's going to be the champion going into and out of WrestleMania? Because I feel like the last few years, it's just been kind of obvious. Like you look at it and you go, oh, Roman's the champion. All right, well, then a baby face is going to win the Royal Rumble. Okay. So if a baby face is going to win the Royal Rumble,

who's it going to be? And then like the other way around, like, okay, well, going into this mania or going into this Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes is the champion. All right, well, is a heel going to win then? Face Cody Rhodes? What's going to be, what's going to happen there? Oh, wow. Okay. Jay Uso wins. Oh, Jay Uso's going to go for Gunther's title. All right. Interesting. Well, that opens things up. Right. And I just feel like I think there's a chance here that the title could switch hands one or maybe two more times leading up to WrestleMania. And the really cool thing about this, maybe this is just a pocket of time, maybe this is just a short little window. I don't know, but I would love if this is a thing that continues. Titles are changing hands on Raw and SmackDown, like, with relative frequency.

We saw three title changes in the course of a week this last week. The WWE Championship, the Women's Intercontinental Championship, and the Women's Tag Team Championship. Like, I don't know this for a fact. I'm sure somebody can look this up and drop it in the comments. When was the last time three titles changed hands in the course of one week? It feels big. Like it feels like to borrow a quote from the Stone Cold interview, he was talking about like things need to feel dangerous. And I feel like that's what this is. He was talking specifically about like individual wrestlers, but I'm talking about just like, is Ross skippable now? I don't know. is Smackdown Skippable now?

I don't know. Certainly not the one tonight. We're going to find out who's going to be in this fatal four way to become the number one contender to then face Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble. So like we're already like,

the stakes are high here. And I don't know if it's always felt like this. But where does it go from here? There's so much momentum behind Sammy Zane and the story of him never winning the WWE championship, the fact that he wants his son, to see him as the WWE champion.

I feel like as we look ahead to Saturday night's main event, as we look ahead to this fatal four-way match, Drew versus Sammy makes a lot of sense. So then could we see Sammy hold the championship? Into WrestleMania? I don't know. Possibility could happen.

I think the fact that the Royal Rumble is in Saudi makes things really interesting. but he just feels criminal in general that Sammy hasn't been the WWE champion or even the World Heavyweight Champion. It's been an incredible intercontinental champion many times, four times to be exact. But just crazy that when you look at the resume he has,

world champion, WWE champion is not on there. All of this brings us to Smackdown tonight. Again, I will see you there, Banana. We have four matches tonight. The winner of each of these will compete in a fatal four-way match at Saturday night's main event next Saturday, and then whoever wins it. That fatal four-way faces Drew McIntyre

for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble. So who's going to win this fatal four-way match? Here's our qualifying matches. Randy Orton versus the Mizz. Matt Cardona versus Trick Williams. Damian Priest versus Solu Solysocoa, Sammy Zane versus Ilya Droganov. So let's go through those.

Here's what I think we get. I think we get Randy Orton beating the Miz. Also, shout out to the Miz. I absolutely loved the interview that we did, the episode that came out on Tuesday. And like, I was told we would only have an hour right around the hour mark when to wrap it up. And he's like, that's it.

That's all the time we have. And I'm like, I'm trying to be respectful of your time. He's like, what time is it? How much time do we have? Oh, wow. We can keep going. We went for like another 45 minutes. I think the whole episode was like an hour and 52 minutes.

And we could have talked for like nine more hours and we'd still just be scratching the surface. What a great conversation. I loved it. And just kudos to Miz on the amazing career that he's had. I saw a stat that this year, 2026, marks Ms.'s 22nd year. It's been in WWE for 22 years. Unbelievable. But with that said, I think Randy Orton wins this match.

I saw this statistic earlier in the week. The Miz is not won a singles match in 23 months. His last singles win was in February of 2024. I would love to see Miz win this match. It just feels to me like this is going to be Randy Orden. Then we got Matt Cardona versus Trick Williams, which is a really interesting one, because they're both getting pushed right now.

I think that Trick Williams is probably going to take the win here because Matt Cardona can take the loss, and it doesn't really hurt him so much. Trick Williams on the main roster, I feel like they're going to do a lot with him, and I feel like a win here, puts him in this main event picture, right? It's going to be the main event,

Saturday night's main event. I think that's the smart move. Damien Pre-Solo Sacoa. That one could really go either way, but I'm going to go with Sola Sacoa, and then Sammy Zane, Ilya, which is going to be an unbelievable match. Can't wait.

Sammy Zane wins this one because I think that when we head into Saturday Night's main event it has to be Sammy Zane that wins this fatal formway match because where's Sammy Zane from? Oh, he's from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And where is Saturday night's main event

next weekend? It's in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And it just ties into this whole thing like Sammy Zane is saying he wants a world championship in 2026. I think that even if he doesn't win it, he's going to be the guy who's competing for it at Royal Rumble.

But again, I think that things are going to be switched up a little bit. I think that WVE is going to keep us on our toes here when it comes to who's going to win the Rumble. I don't know if we're going to be going into this one with it just being like a super obvious decision of like, oh, yeah, it's probably going to be in the odds on favor right now is Roman. A lot can happen in the next two weeks. But are we going to go into it going, oh, yeah, it's definitely that person that's going to win this. What if, and I'm just spitball in here, this is big time wildly speculating and fantasy booking. But what if we get Sammy versus Drew at the Royal Rumble?

Sammy wins. Takes us to elimination chamber. then we get Sammy versus Cody. Cody wins. And then we're right back on course for the very rumored, very predicted main event at WrestleMania Night 2, Cody Rhodes versus Roman Raines 3.

But what if the twist on all of this is that Cody Rose is a heel? It could happen. It may not happen in the exact order that I said it, but I feel like if we're going to be going to get Cody and Roman again, it has to be something different. OCC Fat Man on Spotify. What a name. Hey, CVV, real, real one here. My question is, do you think Sammy wins the Rumble in Saudi, or do they wait a year have him win the title

in Saudi at Mania? Or does he win both a la Cody Rhodes, Mania 39 and 40? I just love that it's 2026, Sammy Zane is part of this conversation. Finn Baller is also part of the conversation where you're talking about the World Heavyweight Championship and we'll talk about that in a few minutes here. I think that Sammy has a real shot at winning the Rumble unless he's in that title match. Although I guess, you know, you can't rule that out. Here's another thing. Hmm, how about this?

And again, just wildly speculating here. what if the Drew McIntyre Sammy Zane title match at the Royal Rumble goes on before the Royal Rumble what if Sammy Zane loses that? Then he goes into the Royal Rumble extra

fired up, man, I really want to win this championship. I really want my son to see me as a WWE champion. Now he's in the Royal Rumble. Boy, that would make him the odds on favorite in my opinion because there's no rule against like competing in a match and also being in the Royal Rumble that night.

that one also feels like it could be a real possibility. So, like, I think right now, and I haven't wavered on this, right now my pick for the Royal Rumble winner is Roman Rains. But this is a very interesting possibility here of Sammy Zink, just coming up just a little bit short, can't beat Drew McIntyre for it, and he somehow finds a way to win the Royal Rumble. Maybe it's, again, we've got a few weeks to go here.

What if our final two are Sammy Zane and Roman Rains? And what if Bron Breakers in the final four? That feels like a real possibility there. 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 Seekek and I want to give a huge shout out to Seatgeek for sponsoring this episode.

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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 stake their claim, 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 Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Rob Reid on Facebook says, Ask CVV number 118, a real, real one here, and fellow Canadian. I love it.

My question is with Finn Baller, challenging CM Punk at home, should he win and become a champ with a huge pop, till a rematch at Raw, Saturday night's main event, or even the Rumble, and have a short run. As of the last few years,

W.W.E. champs have had long runs, and then CM Punk does this road to WrestleMania. Also, my favorite moment from Sina's tour was when he became a baby face again and kind of pinned the whole heel run on Ron Sina in that quick backstage segment. It's true. Love the show. Well, thank you, Rob. I appreciate that. Appreciate you reaching out and being a fellow Canadian as well. Finn Baller has his title shot on Monday. Belfast, Ireland for the World Heavyweight Championship against CM Punk. Look, in my humble opinion,

Finn Baller is long overdue for a proper title run. He's been the WWE champion once. He won the Universal Championship at SummerSlam in 2016, and I'm sure you remember, he had to vacate it the next day on Raw after suffering a torn labrum during the match.

So that was it. He won it once. That is one time more than a lot of, lot of superstars, but only once. A 24-hour run that happened 10 years ago. And I just loved it, like, clearly, WWE listened to the fans. There's just been this, like, swell around, like, Finn Baller needs another title shot.

Finn Baller needs to be in the title picture. Boom, he's here. I love it. Is there a chance here? Is there a chance that he comes out as a demon? Probably not. I know he's a heel and this is a completely different type of character now, but, man, that would be cool. I love that theme song so much.

And I just love that he's back in the main event picture. I'd love to see this happening. And like, if last week when we had Drew McIntyre versus Cody Rhodes, W.W.E championship on the line, three stages of hell, it felt like a real possibility. I can't quite explain it, but it just felt palpable. Like, it felt like it was a real chance. Why would they have this match again? Drew McIntyre's been screwed over so many times.

He's lost so many times in these big high-profile matches. Why would they do this one again if he wasn't going to win? Boom, he wins. But with this one, I just feel like Finn Baller's going to come close, but I feel like CM Punk remains the champion after Raw. But the question, again, and it's the same thing we're talking about with the WWE championship, who's the World Heavyweight Champion heading into wrestling Is it still CM Punk?

Because as you pointed out, Rob, the world or the title runs have been maybe a little bit shorter. They were long for a long time. Are they a little bit shorter? I would love that. I'd love to see four to five title changes a year. Yeah. Instead of one, one or two title changes a year.

I think it'd be like, it would make things exciting. again would make things feel dangerous so if it's cm punk if it's cm punk who remains the champion or loses it and wins it back again like my possible theory here with cody roads let's reverse engineer this if cm punk remains the champion going into rasselmania who's his opponent i still feel like it's going to be brawn breaker i feel like brawn breaker it just that's a big moment that's a star making moment too for brahm breaker to become the world heavyweight champion at russellmania i know it's real early these are way too early predictions for russlemania especially but we'll see j5 underscore later josepherson on instagram says how do you hope or think that obafemi should be booked on the main roster

personally i think he should walk in and win either the u.s or i see title whichever show he's on This is WWE's new monster, new Brock, if they book him correctly. He should have been undefeated in his entire NXT run, in my opinion, but I digress. Love the show, and I hope to meet you in person. I hope to meet you in person as well, Joseph. I think that Obafemi vacating the NXT championship makes him look so strong. It makes him, like, puts him in the position of, like, nobody could beat me. So I'm just vacating this, and I'm moving on to something else.

and going to the main roster. I think we're going to see an incredibly strong showing from Obafemi at the Royal Rumble. Like, I think he's just going to be a beast in there. I don't know how many eliminations, but I think he's going to have a lot. Like, he's just going to go wild in there, five eliminations, six eliminations, whatever it may be. I don't know if we get 13 eliminations like Brock had in 2020 or 12 eliminations like Roman

Raines in 2014, but I think we could see him getting the most. most eliminations of the night. Maybe it's six, seven, eight, but they're going to make him look like a beast. And I don't think Obafemi loses anytime soon. I like what you're thinking here about winning the U.S. title or I see title. It'd be great if that's how he debuts in his first singles match that happens. I just think it's going to be him showcasing what he can do first, if I'm just making a guess here. I think he has some like glorified squash matches. Like some matches where his opponent gets in some offense, but quick matches, two, three, four, five minutes.

And, like, just showcases just how powerful he is. Because if you didn't watch NXT, if you have only seen him on the main roster, the only time that you really saw him go to work was against Cody Rhodes. And he held his own. He ended up losing the match, but by disqualification when Cody Rose got jumped by Drew McIntyre.

But, like, he hung. and it also protected him because it wasn't like a one, two, three, clean pinfall finish. So I feel like he doesn't lose for a while. I agree with you. He is WWE's new monster. Let's see what they can do with him.

And I think the Royal Rumble's going to be like that first chance to like showcase like, oh yeah, here's what he's capable of. Andy Bergdorf on Facebook says, with the Miz being your guest this past Tuesday, who is on your Mount Rushmore of heels? Who is the baddest of the bad? Again, I can't say enough great things about that episode with Ms.

Love that. And Ms. and I go way back. Like, I mentioned when he put me on the spot and made me do that intro, I mentioned in that intro, he was one of my first wrestling interviews ever. Like, he would have been my sixth or seventh wrestling interview when I was working for Channel 19, W.O.I.O.O.O.O. and Cleveland, Ohio. 19 action news, honest, fair, everywhere. They're not called that anymore, but when I was there, that's what they were called.

I think they're just Cleveland 19 News now. But he was great. Like, he would come into the station when he was home for the holidays, home for Thanksgiving, home for a Browns game. He would always come by, do a quick interview. You can still find those on my YouTube channel, but it was just always so gracious. And then fast forward now, 15 years later, since the first interview I did with him, we got like that almost two-hour interview.

Also, the Ms. interview that I did in 2011, right before he threw out the first pitch at the Cleveland Indians game at the time, it was like my first, like, I think I was, I don't know, not quite a year into doing my YouTube channel. And my YouTube channel had no plan, no purpose. It was just a dumping ground for like, oh, man, I interviewed a cool person,

and it would kind of suck if you live outside of Cleveland, or didn't have the TV tuned to Channel 19 on that specific day at that specific time, like it would suck because you wouldn't be able to see this interview. So I was just, it was like a dumping ground for like, oh, man, I interviewed Jack Black or or Angelina Jolie or The Miz. Let's just put these up on the YouTube channel and see what happens. That interview with The Miz, I went to bed and it had like, I don't know, a few hundred views. I woke up the next morning and had like 6,000 views, which was gargantuan for me at that time.

Then I woke up the next day and it had 36,000 views. And I was like, oh, what the heck? How did this happen? And he had commented in that video about CM Punk's pipe bomb because it had just happened. And he said it was the most exciting thing to happen in wrestling since the attitude era. That quote got picked up by a bunch of wrestling websites. And then they were linking to my interview and like, oh, my gosh, out of nowhere, here's a whole bunch of views.

And then he also just as an aside, It wasn't even like, it just brought it up. I was like, oh, I was there at WrestleMania. It's like, oh, wow, well, I was concussed and I don't remember it. And that was news. Like, I don't think that it was publicly known that he got concussed at WrestleMania 27. And, like, he doesn't remember a lot of that night. Headlining WrestleMania, walking in his WWE champion, walking out as WWE champion,

beating John Sina, by the way, with The Rock as a special guest enforcer. Like, what a stacked main event that was. and he doesn't remember that much of it, but that became news too. So, like, all of that is to say, 15 years later, crazy it is on the show. My Mount Rushmore for heels. Man, this is going to be tough to narrow down to just four because there are so many just great wrestlers who I feel like we're put on this earth to just piss people off and be great heels.

Rick Flair, the ultimate heel, and he's the heel. that every other heel still borrows from. The robes, the cheating, ducking challengers, fake injuries, stealing the win, all of it. He didn't just get booed. People were like emotionally invested in wanting to see Rick Flair lose. The Rick Flair of the 70s, 80s, even into the 90s,

legendary. So legendary. And like so many, people now credit Rick Flair's style, credit Rick Flair's in-ringability, credit Rick Flair, of course, in his promos, Rick Flair on my Mount Rushmore of Heels. Vince McMahon. When we're talking about wrestling characters, the Mr. McMahon character is probably the greatest heel wrestling character ever created. Because Vince didn't just insult the audience. He weaponized reality. The screw job happens, and he ends up turning this into an

angle that benefits him, like, oh, if you're going to boo me, well, why don't I turn into a character then and make it like this billionaire boss who's abusing his power and screwing over your fan favorites, humiliating employees that kiss my ass club, like all of this. And the character worked because it felt real. In fact, it felt too real. Like fans weren't just booing the Mr. McMahon character and no chance. They were booing like their own boss, like projecting their own boss. And like, I think that that's what got, that's what got stone cold over so much. It's like, you saw yourself in this guy who was able to like stick a middle finger in the boss's face and then beat up their boss. And I don't feel like any heel has been more.

hated than the Mr. McMahon character and just also so effective in everything that he did. He was able to elevate baby faces and make them feel even more important. And when Stone Cold was on the show, he said, without question, his greatest rival was Vince. Because it really elevated the Stone Cold character. Roddy Piper, long the same lines as Rick Flair. I've just like, an huge influence for so many people that are doing it now. And the cool thing about Roddy Piper is he wasn't ever trying to be liked. He was just effortlessly cool and like mean and unpredictable.

And if you put a mic in his hand, you knew it was going to be dangerous. And he just made you always feel like violence was like going to happen. Like it was just inevitable. And promos that felt so real. So real. Like I feel like without a Roddy Piper. Piper without that influence, we don't get the type of promos we get from someone like CM Punk.

So Roddy Piper's got to be on there. And, oh, man, it's always so hard when you come down to the final spot. And maybe this is a little bit of personal bias for me. But I'm going to give the fourth spot to Triple H. Cold, ruthless presentation. Like when he became the game, right after that. that backstage interview, the sit-down interview with Jim Ross and he cut the game promo. I am the game, JR.

And then he started coming out to 1-2. Is this on? What a song. I love my time. So good. I think he was just so good at just brilliant, long-form storytelling, slow burn, heat, making baby faces look important. I think a lot of that is the storytelling, but a lot of that is also just. he was so good at selling. He had a weapon. If you're a wrestling fan, in the same way that you look at a ladder and think of the Hardy Boys, you look at a sledgehammer and you think of Triple H. And then just the whole marriage to Stephanie McMahon, the McMahon-Helmsley era and the McMahon-Helmsley regime, all of that. Brilliant. And it just never felt right to cheer Triple H. And maybe this was also because J.R was always like,

JR hated Triple H or the Triple H character. Go look at a super cut on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram today of just Triple H getting like just hated on by Jim Ross. I can't believe you. I can't believe you, Triple H. No, Triple H, no. So good. But it helped get the character over.

Like an amazing flip for an amazing 180. When you look at the Hunter Hearst-Helmsley character and then a fast forward a few years later, and he's the hottest heel and one of the most over characters in a time when that roster was just stacked, amazing. Honorable mention, of course, to Randy Orton, specifically 2009, Randy Orton.

There was something about Bald Randy Orton that was just, he was a menace, an absolute menace. Also, you can't talk about great heels without talking about Eddie Guerrero. But Eddie Guerrero was a special kind of heel. Eddie Guerrero was the heel that you loved to cheer. He was the heel that would do healish things, but would smile and wink at the camera,

and you knew it was all right. So, like, he lies, he cheats, he steals, but you love him. And like, sure, he was playing a heel, but he's playing this, like, it's just a legend. And I love that everybody universally just respects Eddie, loves Eddie, agrees he was taken from us far too early. I get asked the question frequently of, like,

who's the one person that you wish you could interview that's not with us anymore? The answer is always immediately, Eddie Guerrero. Ben can reach on Instagram says, do you think that was low-key, AJ Style's last WWE match? Is he going to quietly retire? This, then the TNAW on AMC,

and that's it? That's my guess. So you're saying that that was his last WWE match, and he's going to have his final, final match in TNA? I think we've got a lot more left from AJ Styles. I actually think we get another AJ Stiles and Gunther match. And I think that that was set up beautifully with the tap out that the referee didn't see.

So no, I don't think that is quietly his last match. I think we will know when it's AJ Stiles last match. I think that I don't think it's going to be the same buildup, the farewell tour that John Cena had, but I think that they will make it clear. Or maybe it's a stipulation. Maybe it's title versus career or whatever the case may be. but I think that we'll know, going into it, that this is AJ Stiles' last match, or that his career is on the line. Also, A.J. Stiles says he's going to retire in 2026.

It can't be in January. He's got 11 more months of possible matches and possible opponents. No, not happening. He's got more. But I do love the fact that TNA is going to be on AMC, and then we get AJ Stiles in TNA one more time. It's a beautiful thing. Levi on Spotify says,

Joe Hendry has a Titan Tron. But on the next episode, what was your favorite place to do an interview? Any interviewee, not necessarily wrestlers. Joe Hendry technically has a music video. I was saying last week that Kit, Will, son, his Titan Trons, just incredible. And I was saying that he's only, I believe,

one of two superstars right now that have Titan Trons. Logan Paul has one and Kit Wilson has one. And I feel like I would love to know the story. If I ever have the chance to interview Logan Paul, I need to ask him, how did Logan Paul get a Titan Tron when everyone else just gets their name or their logo? He has like an old school, like, attitude-era Titan-Tron.

And so does Kit Wilson. I will have to ask Kit Witt Wilson that when I interview him tomorrow. I mean, today as you're listening to it, I'm sure by the time you're listening to this, I may have already done the interview with him, but Friday morning, I'm recording this Thursday evening, of course. It's late here in London, but it's like the middle of the day in L.A. Like, I'm about to go to sleep after I record this episode and like, my wife's just hanging out with the kids and like, oh, yeah, it's like the sun is still up over there. yes, I'm doing an interview with Kit Wilson. I'm pumped. I have not been able to get Kit Wilson's

incredibly catchy theme song out of my head. And I can't wait to dive into everything with Kit Wilson. But Joe Hendry, I think, yeah, I guess depends on what your definition of a Titan Tron is. Joe Henry has the music video that he shot, he edited, he produced, he put together, he funded, and he's been incredibly fortunate, I guess, that TNA allowed him to use that and that WWE is allowing him to use it. But I don't know if it's really a Titan Tron. To your question, what's been my favorite place

to do an interview? Well, the Broken Skull Ranch has got to be up there. Like, if I could jump into my DeLorean, and back to the future style, head back and talk to the 17-year-old version of CVV and say, hey, Chris, one day you're going to interview Stone Cold Steve Austin because he, and he said yes to doing an interview with you, because he saw some of your clips on this app called Instagram, which hasn't been invented yet. I'll explain that later.

That's not important. But because he saw you doing your work, he said yes, because he was a fan of that work. and he thought it was good enough to say yes to doing an interview with you. You're going to do this interview at his house on his 40-acre ranch. CVV's mind would be blown. And my mind is still blown. Like, I can't believe that happened. And, like, he toured us around.

I told the whole story last week, but he toured us all around. It was like, you know, hey, where do you want to do it? Do you want to do it over here? Do you want it over there? That's definitely up there. Doing the interview at the Undertaker, Undertaker's Gym. his house. Also another cool moment to tell the younger version of myself. And that was like, I don't know, if you haven't heard the story, I'll give you the quick version of The Undertaker's story.

I flew to Austin. I was going to be a guest on The Undertaker's old podcast, six feet under with Mark Callaway. It's now called Six Feet Under with The Undertaker. I was going to be a guest in a show, which was crazy. His co-host at the time, Matt Lida, reached out and said, hey, would you want to be on the show? And I said, are you serious? I can't believe that's a real question. Of course. And he's like, and I think that like, while you're here, Undertaker could do your show too. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I get to do an interview with The Undertaker. Crazy. So I went to the studio where they film. That was the first time I ever met The Undertaker. What a guy. I mean, I met Mark. Mark Callaway is just an unbelievable human.

One of the nicest people you'll ever meet. We do the interview. me as a guest on his show first. And then he was recording a few more episodes and he's like, all right, well, where do you want to do my interview later? I said, you tell me. Like, I want to make it as easy as possible for you. I can rent out this studio space that you have here. Just let me know how much it'll be. We could do it in my hotel.

He goes, ah, I don't know, let's do it at the house. Okay. Sounds great. All right, let me give you the address and let me give you the gate code. and when you get to the guard gate, just to tell them you're there to see the Calloways. And I'll give you my phone number in case you get lost. And he's like, yeah, so just head in there and set up in the gym.

And I'll be there when I'm done here. And if you have some extra time, you're welcome to get a workout in. Like, what? How did all of this just happen in the course of this last minute of him explaining all these things? But that was a pretty cool one, setting up. in his gym and we talked for almost two hours. I think it is still, to this day, the longest episode we've done on the show.

The Miz is a very close second, but yeah, I think Undertaker was like real close to two hours. But I did an interview completely unrelated to wrestling. Do you remember when the movie Murder on the Orient Express came out in 2017? I took the Orient Express. It's called the Venice Simpland Orient Express. It's an actual train.

that has been restored to look like how it looked a hundred years ago. It goes from Venice, Italy to Paris, and you're on the train for, like, a day. So, like, you eat on the train, you drink on the train, you sleep on the train, and I did interviews on the train for that movie, Murder on the Orient Express. I interviewed Josh Gad for that movie. So, like, that was a, I mean, all of that. To start in Venice, to end in Paris, to be eating and sleeping and drinking on the train.

There was also one night. Josh Gad, if you're unfamiliar, if you have kids, Josh Gad is the voice of Olaf, but an incredibly talented actor, also Broadway performer has a great singing voice. He was on the Book of Mormon play for years. So there's a thing called the bar car on the train. and I guess after dinner, the bar car gets to be an exciting place to hang out.

People are in there, they're having some drinks, having a good time. There was a piano in there. And Josh Gad was singing show tunes while we were over here sipping on old fashions going, what is this life? We're in the middle of Italy on the Orient Express, going to Paris with Josh Gad singing show tunes. Crazy. Just crazy. Another one was,

Tom Cruise was at the top of my list of, celebrities I wanted to interview. I'm a big Tom Cruise fan. I love his movies. I think Vanilla Sky is severely underrated. We can get in. Tom Cruise films can be a Mount Rushmore for next week if you choose to ask that question.

But I got to interview Tom Cruise. On the Red Car, for Mission Impossible Fallout. So the sixth Mission Impossible movie. It was in Paris. So the photo is me in a tuxedo, Tom Cruise in a suit, on the red carpet,

Mission Impossible logo behind us, the Eiffel Tower behind that. What? Crazy. Just like the setting of that was wild. And I was there with one of my best friends, Jake Hamilton. So what a cool thing for all of that to come together.

So that's almost like I made a Mount Rushmore without even thinking about. I give you four answers there. But who where else, you know, there could be so many more opportunities this year. So let's see. The biggest thing, though, with interviews is just like, like right now I'm in this hotel. We shot an interview in like the like the business center area earlier today. I did an interview with Naya Jacks earlier today. What a great one too.

She doesn't do a lot of podcasts. So I feel very grateful that she wanted to come on the show and just open up and talk about everything. So like usually I get to a hotel and I'm like, all, first of all, where's the lighting going to be good? All right, could we do it in front of a window? We did it in front of a window today, but it was nighttime, so that didn't really help. But like usually like just looking for a space that's like big enough to put two chairs, big enough to put two or three cameras. If the background can be cool, if that's an option, amazing. If not, it is what it is.

Like, Ms. was making fun of me in the interview we did because, like, I took the bed, I moved that off to the side. I moved a bunch of furniture off to the side. Behind the scenes, it probably looked like a mess. On camera, though, if you haven't watched the Ms. interview on YouTube, on camera, it's a beautiful shot. You've got the blurred background behind him. You've got the subtle different lighting.

Like it's like a 3,000 degree Calvin lightball behind him. Man, that got real nerdy. I thought that shot was great. But what you don't see is like all the behind the scenes messiness to get that shot looking like that shot. And then sometimes you get like the interview I did with Seamus last year and also Art Truth the same day. We were just like both sitting in front of like a random white wall.

And it works. Like it's fine. But like if you. can get an interesting background, I'm always trying to do that. And if you can get like, you know, stone colds four by four in the background or, you know, there's stone colds deer where we shot that in his garage. Oh, man, I guess that's the icing on the cake. David Patrick, Nizzy Dog, on Instagram, says, hey, CVV, you mentioned on a recent episode of AskCV that WWE hasn't had a world champion born in the 2000s yet. They got me thinking.

We haven't had one from the 90s either. It's true. Who do you think becomes the first one? It's a brahm breaker, Dominic Mysterio, Logan Paul, or someone else. Thanks, Dave. Great question. And it's true.

Like we were talking last week about who could possibly break that record of being the youngest WWE world champion? Who could break that record? Randy was 24 years, eight months, I think it was. And we talked about a few possibilities there. And then I pointed out, don't sleep on big show. Don't sleep on Paul White

winning the WCW World Championship at 23. And I feel like a lot of people don't mention that for whatever reason, but you got to throw that in there. So we were saying, could it be one of these people that are born in the 2000s?

Because it would have to be someone young enough to be able to have the rap, have the runway, like a Javon Evans. That one feels very possible. Maybe. I mean, things can happen. But yeah,

You're right. We have not had one from the 90s yet, either. I think you listed some real possibilities there. Dominic Mysterio, born in 1997. Then we got Bronbreaker, born in 1997. Logan Paul, 1995. And another one, we were just talking about him, Obafemi, 1998. There's four real possible ones. I think, though, it's, Bronbreaker is probably going to be the first. I think that Bronn Breaker is probably going to be the first. I think that Braun Breaker is the champion at some point in 2026. And you could even make a even bolder prediction, because I don't feel like saying Bronbreaker is going to be world champion in 2026, is even a bold prediction.

It kind of feels more like a when that happens, not an if that happens. He could be the champion in the first half of 2026. So I think there's a lot of possibilities here, and anything can happen and things can change really. quickly. But it feels like that's what's going to happen. It feels like we're going to get Bronbreaker as the first 90s baby to be WWE champion. Adam Bartolo on Facebook says, how in the world did you survive your first cold plunge? I now cold plunge every day,

but that first one was rough, Adam. I had been doing cold showers. I don't think they're the same thing. Like cold showers, like you're getting one part of your body. Maybe it's on your back or your neck or your chest, wherever you're pointing the shower head at. And it's cold. Yeah, and it's uncomfortable. But when you immerse yourself all the way up to your neck, all the way up to like your chin in cold water and I'm cold plunging right now and he's like 43 degrees. That's what the cold plunges set to. It's cold. The first time I really did it was kind of like, We were staying at this place that had like a, they call it a cowboy tub, which is essentially it's like a hot tub in the summer.

Like when the water is warm, it like warms up real nice and you're sitting in. It's like, it's just like standing water. Like it's just water that sits there and like kind of adjust to the temperature, whether it's hot or cold. Well, it was cold at this time of year. I don't know what the temperature was of that water, but it was cold, real cold. It felt like the coldest water I had ever been in. and I sat in that for like, I don't know, 30 seconds or a minute, and I was just frozen.

I couldn't warm up after that. But that wasn't like an official, I don't think, cold blunds. And not like, you know, I'm sure I've jumped in a cold lake or something like that. But the first time I did like an official cold plunge and like the health benefits of this are many. It really helps with inflammation. But one of the, it helps with like it's a huge dopamine kick when you get out. you're like, ah, I can fight a bear right now.

But one of the other things is like, cold punching is like you condition yourself to do something hard. And I feel like so often in our day-to-day life, we are just seeking comfort all the time. And this is something like you're going out of your way to get uncomfortable. If you can get uncomfortable with that, what else could you get uncomfortable with? What else could you push the envelope on just a little bit? Step outside of your comfort zone just a little bit. And I think the thing with a cold plunge is if you start your day with that, you're starting your day doing something you didn't really want to do and now you did it.

So you started your day doing something hard. Well, what else could you do today? That's one of the things I love about it. But I interviewed one of the founders of the company plunge, plunge.com. Plunge.com slash CVV, I believe, still gives you a nice discount if you're looking to get a plunge. maybe it's CVV-150, one of those codes. But I interviewed Ryan Dewey. It's one of the founders of Plunge,

and I did it at the Plunge headquarters. This was like four or five years ago when I was talking to like everybody. It was talking to wrestlers and actors and comedians and entrepreneurs and like speakers and thought leaders, just people that were interesting to me at the show. So we did the interview,

and then afterwards he's like, do you want to plunge? And I'm like, of course I do. And I'm like talking this up, or at least like playing it off like I've done this before. It's like for sure. And I dipped into that. And he was like sitting there with the timer, timing two minutes. And it was so cold.

And he's like, yeah, it's just all about like control your breath. You just want to control your breath. Get your breath down. Slow deep breaths. I was like, and I didn't want him to like realize that I don't do this frequently. Yeah, cold shower here and then. here and there, but like, this is like my first official cold plunge, and I'm doing it like in front of the guy who founded this company at their

headquarters. Someone's just playing it off, like, it's cool. Yeah, it was, it was like, talk about, like, diving in. Talk about taking the plunge. I did it in the way that, like, yeah, it was like, there was no looking back. There was no turning back. And then I ended up getting my own. So it's in the backyard now. But it's, uh, Adam, if you're doing it, Kudos to you. It's not an easy thing. And if you're thinking about it, just start with a cold shower for like a minute. Can you stand under the shower for a minute? And here's the thing. In most places, unless it's winter, and it is winter right now, if you live in a place where it's cold in the winter

and there's snow on the ground, your cold shower will be cold because the water's coming up from the ground, the ground is cold. Yeah, it'll be like probably in the 40s, maybe the 50s, but probably the 40s. If you live somewhere where it's warm right now or it doesn't get that cold and you turn it to cold in the shower, it'll feel cold, but it'll still be like 60 degrees, which is cold compared to, you know, whatever your shower is, I don't know, 90 degrees or something like that. But I'm just saying, like, it'll feel cold, but there's nothing quite like 39 degrees or 40 degrees. It's a lot of talk about cold plunging, but as you can tell, I'm passionate about it. Got an email from Say No More Awarida. Would you take a Camoraloc submission hold from Brock Lesnar if it meant interviewing Sting? Love the show, love listening at work.

It makes the time go by faster. Keep it up. Yes. Yes, I would. And this falls into the same category of like, if you had to pay for an interview with Sting. would you? It's like if I had to, if that's the only way, if I had to take a Camoralok and that's the only way that I could get an interview, yes, because I would really like to sit down with Steve Borden and have a conversation about his incredible career and his incredible life. So the answer here is

pretty much if you're saying, would you insert whatever here if it meant interviewing Sting, the answer is going to be yes. I mean, within reason. All right, within, within reason. Okay, let's not get crazy here. But yes, I'll take a Cameroa. Is he breaking my arm? I hope not. If I'm trading a broken arm for an interview with Sting,

yeah, I guess I'd do it. I guess I'd do it. Brian Dowie emailed this one in. Hey, Chris, a belated, happy new year to you and yours. Well, to you as well, An awesome 2026 to you and off to a great start already. Would you rather? Take the finisher of every interviewee after the interview

or hear wrestling tunes in the background of your life forever. If you interview a non-wrestler, the previous interviewee gives you another one of theirs. Perfect example. This week, you'd get two skull-crushing finale from the Mizz because you had Jackie Redmond on the show. The background, music can be turned down, but it's always audible. Except if you're actively watching or listening

to something, like if you're at the cinema or at a backstreet boys concert at the sphere, you can pick the songs that are on. Grateful for you, Brian, you've set some very specific parameters here. I like that. So am I going to take a, am I going to take a finisher? Pretty much every interview. So am I going to take 100 finishers a year? Because we do about 100 interviews a year. Or am I going to listen to wrestling music in the background for the rest of my life? Forever! But I get to choose the songs?

Like how low could the volume be? Because if the volume is turned down but always audible, I feel like it wouldn't take long for me to just be able to tune that out. Like if it's just playing like it's audible and I can hear it, I could still have a conversation. I could still do an interview. I could still, is it playing while I'm sleeping? you didn't, I would have to guess because it's forever, right?

Okay, I could sleep through that. Although, like, imagine it's like, you know, like a, I don't know, you're listening to some entrance themes, and then out of nowhere, gong, or out of nowhere, I'm an ass man, b'am, b'bow, what a theme song that is. I think I could probably listen to Kit Wilson's theme on repeat for an entire day. and still not get sick of it. Yeah.

That's, man, this song is so good. I will take, I will take the wrestling tunes forever in the background. Because I just,

you know, I'll take a finishing move. I, and I'd be totally okay with that, but I'd rather not. I mean, I would, it would be nice,

like, how cool would it be to, like, is it happening right after the interview? So like the interview ends and then like, all right, here we go, Skull Cushing finale. All right, thank you so much for joining me on the show, John Cena. And then he like kicks you in the gut and gives you an attitude adjustment. I thought taking a stunner.

Like Stone Cold offers you the beer. And you know what happens if Stone Cold is offering you a beer. It's all downhill from there. He offers you a beer. Oh my gosh. This is so cool. I'm at Broken Skull Ranch. Stone Cold Steve Austin is having a broken skull IPA with me.

Well, cheers to that. Boom. And then a stunner. Oh, that would be pretty cool. That'd be a great story to tell the kids one day. But I'll take the tunes. Oh, forever? Can I update the list?

Like, as I continue to get older, can I add new songs on that I like? Forever's a long time. But Brian, I'll take the tunes. I'll take the wrestling entrance themes for the rest of my life. That's it. That's our final question.

on this. Ask CVV 118. Ask CVV. One WrestleMania 18 edition and Ask CVV. Number one, shake the hand of the person who wins number 18 edition. Send in your questions for next week. Let me know what you have for Ask CVV number 119. Leave a comment on Spotify. Also leave the comment banana on Spotify. Even if you're not going to the show tonight, although I look forward to seeing some people just randomly come up. Banana. Ah! Yes. Leave the comment, banana, if you're still listening on Spotify. Because if you are still listening right now, that officially makes you a real, real one. Because you're a real one for hanging out with me on a Friday for click and play on an episode that is not The Miz or not Raven or not Todd Grisham in that fantastic conversation that was or John Cena. You're just hanging out with me. me and you, whatever you're doing right now, heading to work, working, shoveling snow in one part of the country,

mowing the lawn or another part of the country, walking the dog, whatever it is. Working out, I love that we're hanging out on a Friday. So leave that comment, banana on Spotify. Send in your questions, CVV at chris fanfleet.com or send them in on social media using that hashtag, ask CVV. I saw this quote on the inside of my,

Viori's shirt the other day. And I just, I even, I liked it so much, I took a picture of it and shared it on Instagram. Stay close to anything that makes you feel glad you're alive. I love that so much. Whatever that is for you, whether it's a thing, whether it's a feeling, whether it's a person, stay close to anything that makes you feel glad you're alive. Be great. And be great. Be great. Grateful, my friend. We will see you on the next one for some more inside. Have an amazing weekend. Banana.

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