Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #122 - Masked Man Spoiler, Cody vs. Drew, Bron Breakker Injury, ECW Mount Rushmore

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Welcome to AskCVV #122! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about whether we will see a match between Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42, who will win the upcoming Elimination Chamber qualifying matches, what happens now after Bron Breakker's injury, who is the new masked man that we saw at Royal Rumble and this week on Raw, ECW Mount Rushmore, dream match of all dream matches and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "What is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?" - Hunter S. Thompson Please support our sponsors: HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide!BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream PowderDELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT  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 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://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 Go! Welcome back to another one here on InSight. It's me. It's me. It's CVV. Chris Van Fleet.

I'm honored to spend a little bit of your Friday with you. Thank you for hanging out with me on an AskCTVV episode. And as always, thank you for making Insight, the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit an RKO out of nowhere on that follow button wherever you're listening to this. right now. If you're one of the many, many people who listen on Spotify, could I ask you to leave a

rating on there? It'll take you like four seconds, and we're so close. We're at 15.9,000 ratings. A few more from anybody who's listening on Spotify right now will push us well over 16K, which is a massive number. I can't believe it. So just thank you in general for being on this adventure with me. If you're one of the many, many people who listen on Apple, could you leave a rating or a review on there, and the review can just be a few words, could be a few emojis, could be a few words and a few emojis.

But all of that helps the show so much. And I say this all the time, but it's true. The bigger the show gets, the more people that find out about the show, the bigger the guests can get as well. So share this with a friend. That's probably one of the most helpful things you can do.

If you enjoy the Ask CVV episodes, or if you've ever enjoyed any interview, any conversation we've ever had on the show, share it with a friend, and hopefully they will become a real, real one as well. And I know it's going to be tough to top these last few months. The guests have been huge,

but I will say this. We've got some big plans between now and WrestleMania, and then let's see who we can line up during WrestleMania week. You, of course, know that we're going to, We have the live show in Las Vegas during WrestleMania Week, the Thursday at Circa Resort and Casino. It's Thursday, April 16th.

Those tickets are on sale at CVVTix.com. And we are also, as of right now, exactly two weeks away from the next Insight Live happening the day before Elimination Chamber in Chicago. That's Friday, February 27th. Grab those tickets as well at CVVTicks.com. I was in Ontario, California on Wednesday night. I went to AEW Dynamite there. Great to see so many of you real ones there,

awesome hanging out with you and chatting about wrestling. But man, this match between Tomaso Champa and Kyle Fletcher for the TNT title was unbelievable. What a match! Like, I can't believe that I was there live for this match. if you haven't seen it yet, look it up. And I'm not going to spoil it for you. I'm not even going to tell you who wins

because there are so many amazing, fantastic false finishes that you might not even be able to guess who wins this match. Tomaso Champa defending his TNT title against Kyle Fletcher. But man, what a match that was. And I guess the next live wrestling show I'm going to be at is Elimination Chambers. So I will see you in, I'll either see you two weeks from today at Insight Live,

or I will see you 15 days from today at Elimination Chamber. But, man, I can't wait. It's already starting to come together, the Elimination Chamber card, and I'm pumped about it. Before we dive into all of that, welcome to Ask CVV number one. two, two, two, sweet edition. I guess there's some other ones we could do here. We'll leave that.

Some people wrote in some really great ones here, but if you have an idea for next week, the Ask CVV-123 edition, the one Michael Jordan edition. It's funny. It will mark exactly 100 episodes since we started naming them the something-something-something edition. Just randomly at AskCV-Cv-V-Novem.

number 23. I was like, ah, it's the Michael Jordan edition. And then we went, oh, okay, well, 24, okay, that's, and then we started building on it from there with all the jersey numbers. So we didn't do. Ask CVV1 through 22. There were, they were not additions. They were not dedicated to any idea or any person who wore that jersey. So, wow, it's about a hundred episodes next week. A hundred Asked CVVs of these being the something, something edition. So if you have an idea for next week, the one, two, three kid edition, seems like a real easy one. Send them in. Send them in either by email, CVV at chrisfanfleet.com.

Use that hashtag on social media, ask CVV. Leave a comment on Spotify or my new favorite one also seems to be the favorite one of a lot of people sending in questions. Fell out the form on chris fanfleet.com. The newly redesigned chrisfanfleet.com. Let's kick this off with this one from Charlie Frank on Spotify who says, What's up, CVV, big fan and the realist of real ones here. Are we getting Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre

at WrestleMania after that promo that we saw last week on SmackDown? Well, it sure seemed like that's what they were teasing. And what a promo? Like when Cody Rhodes gets angry like that, I see a lot of dusty roads in him. I see a lot of dusty roads in Cody Rhodes to begin with. It seems like a pretty obvious thing. But when he gets really mad like that,

it just reminds me of, like, certain promos that Dusty would cut. But that Rahim line, that came out of nowhere. I was caught off guard by that. And that thing blew up online. What a line. And I just, I love that they allowed Cody to go there with that.

But there's just, there's some real intensity. and what we've got going on with Cody Rhodes right now, and I feel like Drew McIntyre has never been better. Like he is just, he lives this character. It's amazing to see how he can be this, he's this heel, and he's saying healish things. But man, it's so hard not to smile or even cheer him or just want to cheer him.

It's so good. Drew McIntyre so deserving right now to be the WWE champion. And I'm very interested to see where this thing goes. But yeah, it sure seemed like they were teasing that. It's going to be the winner of Elimination Chamber who gets the opportunity

to face Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania. So this isn't just like because Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre cut a promo together, cut a few promos together, it's not like this match just automatically happens. It kind of feels a little bit actually like last year.

John Cena doesn't win the Royal Rumble. John Sina wins Elimination Chamber. It's like, oh, what's the path to get John Sina in the main event at WrestleMania? It kind of feels like where we're at right now. What's the path to get Cody Rhodes that title shot? Because I, this isn't official yet,

but I feel like CM Punk versus Roman Rains is the night to main event. It's the Sunday night main event of WrestleMania. It feels like, feels appropriate. That match feels, feels like big, feels really big, which I guess would leave us with Drew McIntyre versus the winner

of Elimination Chamber, which I would have to think would be Cody Rhodes being the night one main event. But if that's the case, why did Michael Cole keep saying so many times? He reiterated so many times that if you win the Royal Rumble, you get a main event shot or main event match at WrestleMania. He said it so many times, especially at the Royal Rumble. I wrote it down. I was making notes. I'm like, why does he keep saying that? Because that is not the case. It was very clearly not the case last year. Neither of the winners of the Royal Rumble got the main event last year. So why did they keep saying it this year? And they're not doing that by accident. That's not just like a slip of the tongue. That was a very purposeful thing. So I don't know.

it's also very clear that like if we are if we are going to do that if it truly is the winner of the royal rumble gets to be in the main event well then live morgan's in the main event and roman rains is in the main event but i don't know if that's where we're headed here as of right now as we look at elimination chamber we know randy orton is in we know that l a knight yeah he's in they have both qualified on the women's side. Tiffany Stratton and Ria Ripley, they have also qualified. We're getting Julia versus Alexa Bliss

versus Zelina in an elimination chamber triple threat qualifying match tonight on SmackDown. And we're also going to find out if Cody Rhodes is even in the elimination chamber match because he has a qualifying match tonight. It's Cody Rhodes versus Sammy Zane versus Jacob Faw too. And I feel like,

any three of those guys could easily be in the elimination chamber match. I'm going to guess Cody Rhodes wins this elimination chamber qualifying match tonight. I'm going to guess that Cody Rhodes wins elimination chamber. It just seems like the path of least resistance to get Cody Rhodes into elimination chamber, by winning elimination chamber into the main event or into that title match at WrestleMania. But let me throw a wrench into all of this. And I've seen some talk about this online. And I think it's for a good reason.

What if it's a triple threat match for Drew McIntyre's WWE Championship? What if it's Drew McIntyre versus Cody Rhodes versus Jacob Fatou? And it would make sense. There's already tension there. There's already a story. there. The whole reason that Cody Rhodes lost his championship on Smackdown was because Jacob Fattu returned, there's tension there, there's

hatred there, it could make sense. I don't know how we get there, especially with this qualifying match involving Jacob Fattu and also Sammy Zane, which I guess maybe there could be a story there as well. I don't know how we get there. But what if, and this is just wild, this is just crazy talk now on a Friday. What if Jacob fought too?

wins this qualifying match. What if Drew McIntyre comes out and screws Cody again? He already screwed Cody at the Royal Rumble. What if Drew McIntyre comes out and screws Cody again? Jacob Fattu wins that match. Jacob Fattu goes into the elimination chamber. What if Jacob Fattu wins the elimination chamber and then we create some story around Cody Rhodes

like rallying behind him to even put him in this match? I'm just spitball in here. But I feel like we've already had this very brief road to WrestleMania so far, but I feel like if we were to have talked about predicting matches a month or two or three ago, they wouldn't have looked like the matches that we have right now, or at least, like, I don't think we would have thought we'd be getting Roman Reigns versus C.M. Punk. I thought it was definitely going to be Cody Rhodes versus Roman Raines again. is I feel like there's already been some interesting surprises.

What if this is one of them? What if it ends up being a triple threat match? And I guess we'll find out a lot more after these qualifying matches tonight, but I just can't stop thinking about that. Gregory 14 on Instagram says, Van Fleet. What happens now after Braun Breast? is out with his injury.

Yeah, this is a, it's kind of came out of nowhere. It's a very serious injury here. He had a hernia that required surgery. And kind of sounds like something he's been dealing with for a while, although nothing that had been made public here, which might explain why that Royal Rumble appearance was so brief. Michael Cole announced on Raw that Breaker will be out indefinitely. Who knows what that means is that,

A month, two, three, six, who knows? Is it longer? I saw something online that said six to eight weeks. I obviously don't think there's any validity to that. That seems like just a complete guess. But if that's true, if we're to go with that number, and again, I don't think that that number is accurate at all. But let's just play along with this.

If that number is true, if six to eight weeks is the actual window for him to to come back, that would have him back in time for WrestleMania. The reports were that we were going to get Seth Rollins versus Brom Breaker at WrestleMania. What a match that would be. Seth is apparently expected to return from his injury relatively soon. He's expected to be cleared soon. So if this all lines up, maybe we still get Seth Rawlins versus Brom Breaker at

WrestleMania, but since all of this is speculation, since all of this is just guessing, wishing wishing them both a speedy recovery, and time will tell with that one. Kieran Meaney emailed this one and said, K from Toronto here, do you think Dirty D will turn on live and align himself with Stephanie Vakere to form a Latino heel faction? My spidey sense is alluding to this possibility. Maybe. I just can't... I feel like Dirty Dom and Live. I can't see him doing that to her again.

But I guess, you know, if he broke her heart before, and he said, Dirty Dom is just dirty. Dirty Dom has broken a lot of hearts here. Look what he did to Ria Ripley, too. I guess it could be possible. Possible for sure. But then your other question here. Who is the masked man?

I think Seth is far too obvious. Is it Dean slash John? You mean Dean Ambrose slash John Moxley? I don't think that's the case. And it's interesting because after Raw on Monday, we saw a lot of the people who were being talked about as the possibilities to be the masked man. We saw them all together.

So we now know it can't be Logan Ball. It can't be Austin theory because the mass man was attacking Logan Paul in Austin theory, so it's not even possible at that point. But I think there was a spoiler online. So I'm going to give you fair warning here, but the identity of the masked man was revealed this week through some very eagle-eyed fans online. I saw some screenshots that show when the masked man was doing his thing on Monday night, his pants. His pants were. pant leg, kind of swooped up for a brief moment.

And fans saw an ankle tattoo that looks an awful lot like the ankle tattoo of Grayson Waller. I also saw another post that was comparing the exact shoes that the masked man was wearing, and they were being worn in a photo that had Grayson Waller in it. So again, this raises the question of, is the person who was doing the attacking in the mask? Is that the actual person that is going to be revealed as the masked man?

Like, right, there could be a bait and switch here. It could be, oh, we were going with this one person, but actually we're going to change our mind and go with this other person. Guess what? It's horn swoggle. But if things are aligning here, and we do know that the masked man that made the attack at Survivor Series, it was Austin Theory the whole time. There was no bait and switch there.

It was Austin Theory from start to finish. If that's the case again here, again, this is the spoiler online, but it sure seems like it's Grayson Waller. And it would make a lot of sense. There's history there. Grayson Waller and Austin Theory, there's history. And this also kind of like, it's the same type of subject we were talking about last week. with like if you could take somebody who they don't really have much going for them right now

and you could just hivit their gimmicks slightly, give them just a little bit something else or something more, what could it turn into? This is a perfect example of that. Grayson Waller, yeah, he had a little thing going on with the New Day, but like he wasn't part of the New Day, he was just kind of like hanging out with them. It was just kind of like, hey, let's put these heels together and see what happens. And it was fun.

It was great. and Grayson Waller so good on the mic, a guy looks like a million bucks down, like dialing in his nutrition, dialing in his workouts. But this is the type of thing that I feel like could really have Grayson Waller take off. I'm excited to see where this thing goes.

If it is, in fact, Grayson Waller, no guarantees there, but it sure seems like every single sign is pointing to it being Grayson Waller. 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 Seekek

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 Seekekek 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 deal. Look for the green dots. Green means good, red means bad. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And of course, I have a code for you guys. You can use the code CVV for 10% off your next set of tickets at Seekek. That's 10% off any tickets

with the promo code, CVV, and make sure to click the link in the show notes to download the app and have that code automatically apply to your account so you can use it later. Big shout out to Seekek for sponsoring this episode. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity.

All the guys are wanting to really see. 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. James Williams on Facebook says,

Hey, CVV, real, real one here from your old home, Cleveland, Ohio. Ah, CLE. Love Cleveland. I randomly came across you hosting a TV show the other day with some fancy cars. What was that? It's always so weird and also awesome, seeing you do stuff outside of wrestling. Keep up the great work, and thanks for keeping me company on my drive to work every single day. Well, James, hope you're having a safe drive to work right now.

Anybody who's driving right now, working right now, working out, whatever you're doing. Hope you're having a great day. So I hosted this show. Man, I can't believe you saw this show. That's so cool. I hosted a show called My Dream Purchase. I was the host of it for one season. I got this show when I first moved to Los Angeles in 2020.

So we filmed the first episode, like November of 2020. We filmed a few more episodes like six months later, and then we filmed the rest of the season in 2022. So it took like almost two years, like a year and a half, two years to film the whole show. The idea of the show, And it's on the AWE network. Aw.

I still can't believe you saw this. I've actually been tagged now in a few screenshots on X. Actually, and a few screenshots on Instagram, too, being like, what's this show? So here's the answer. It's called My Dream Purchase. The idea is the guest on the show.

I'm the host of the show. The guest on the show has come into some money. Maybe they've retired recently or they came into money somehow. maybe they won some money, whatever it is, they finally have the money to buy their dream purchase, whatever that may be. So I'm the host there, and I'm walking them through, all right, well, here's your three options. Option A, option B, option C. We did an episode where the guest's dream purchase was an air stream. We did a classic Porsche. That was a fun episode. We did an electric bike

episode. We did a, like a basketball, like a Kobe memorabilia. That was really cool. Like, there was, um, Lakers, like, NBA championship rings. This person was, like, looking at as an option to buy. They were also, like, like, super rare Kobe Bryant autographed jerseys. There was one that was houses, mid-century modern houses in Los Angeles, and they were, like, multimillion-dollar houses, like really cool stuff all across the gamut. Like, some, some stuff was like, yeah, like a dream house, that makes a lot of sense. Some stuff, like I said, with the Kobe Bryant stuff, like, just unique and like, like, really one-of-a-kind things.

So that's it in a nutshell. And it's just funny. This is kind of a little bit like the LA night. Yeah, the LA Knight, like, where you, universe, where you would see him in, like, a random episode of, like, Brooklyn Nine-Nine or. like a random commercial. It's the same type of thing. I've done so many random little things.

Like, I've had little roles in films. I've been background in lots of films. I've talked about it before, but you can see me a lot in The Love Guru. I have lines in a movie called Criminal Activities with John Travolta. I play a reporter. I'm in a movie called The Bronze with Sebastian Stan.

I also play a reporter. I'm in a movie called Love Fines You in Sugar. Creek, and I play... You guessed it, yes! I play a reporter. I have, like, two scenes in that movie. I still get residual checks for, like, 13 cents to this day

from a few of those roles. Wrestling has always been the passion. It's always been a huge interest of mine since I was growing up. Obviously, broadcasting was also a big passion of mine. But, like, I've done so many different types of things. I've been a

news reporter in a small town. I've been a radio host. I've been a board operator at a radio station. I've hosted a few different TV shows. I've been an entertainment reporter. I've reported from the Oscars and the Grammys and the Cannes Film Festival. I've been a film critic. Still I'm a film critic for the Critics Choice Awards. I've been a lot of different things. But wrestling has been there through all of those jobs. Like, no matter where I worked, I would always find a way to weave wrestling into it. although I guess we didn't weave any wrestling into My Dream Purchase. But if you get the AWE network,

or if you stumble across it when you're flipping channels, I think it's only here in the U.S., and you see a show called My Dream Purchase, take a screenshot. Tag me. It'd be nice to know that there's other people watching this. Again, it's so funny because we've stopped filming that in like 2022, and people are just starting to like find the show now.

It's so funny. So thank you for seeing that, James, and for sending in that question. Fazzolino, Anthony Fulino on Instagram says, Hey, Chris, real, real one here. Thank you for all the content. I'm such a big fan of what you do. I got a question for you.

Do you think Seth Rollins could be considered one of the greatest heels of all time? he's always worked better as a heel and he's had some big moments being a heel such as betraying the shield and the two money in the bank hasions and all of his heel work in between. For me, I'd have him at least

top five, possibly top three. What are your thoughts? It's always so hard to look at someone's career when their career is going on. But when you look at like heel moments, he's had a lot of them. He's had a lot of great heel moments and I

completely agree with you. Seth Rollins, works so much better as a heel, it just, I don't know, it's just, there's something about, it just comes natural to him. But I think, and this might be recency bias, but when you think of the ruse of the century, that

cash in at SummerSlam is like one of the ultimate heel moves. I know it's not a heel turn. I know it's not like a Hulk Hogan Bash of the Beach. I know it's not like a John Cena elimination chamber, but like just as a heel doing a heelish thing, What a moment.

What a moment that was. And like you said, the shield betrayal, like the chair shot to Roman Rains and Dean Ambrose, all-time, he'll turn, instant heat, what a shot, changed, like, the trajectory of where things were going at that point in 2014. The authority Golden Boy Run, how he's like, slimy and cowardly and very protected. under Triple H and, like, played that corporate chosen one so perfectly. Also, the fact that, like, he doesn't just talk to talk, like, in the ring, Seth Rollins can go.

To rank this, I think it's tough, again, because he's, like, doing his thing right now. Well, I guess not the second because he's injured right now, but he's still active. But I think it's, like, it's tough to, like, rank top five when you've got people like Roddy Piper or the Mr. McMahon character, Triple H, 2009, Randy Orton, Hollywood Hogan, because there may be people that are too young to remember it or just like didn't watch WCW. It wasn't just the heel turn.

It was everything that came after that with Hollywood Hogan and the NWO, and he was a fantastic heel. Rick Flair, like, Rick Flair was a heel for, like, the majority of his career and incredible promos, dirtiest player in the game. I think it's tough. I think it's tough to like, when you're talking about these people who like, redefined eras, especially as heels, whereas like,

Seth Rollins' heel or baby face, he's just fantastic. So I don't know. I think that we'll have to have this same conversation here, Anthony, when Seth Rollins' career is like completely wrapped up and we're able to like look back at it with clear vision of like, okay. Oh, the vision. I didn't mean to do that. We're able to look back on it, like start to finish.

This is what his whole career looks like. Okay, let's pit it up as objectively as we can be against everybody else. Charlie A.J. Ferris on Instagram says, Who is your dream match of all dream matches? It's a match that cannot happen anymore, but it's a match that I think we were really close to getting. Sounds like we were really close to getting this. but could you imagine if this match happened when both of them were in their prime?

Again, it doesn't feel like it'd be possible, but Kurt Angle in his prime, so like mid-2000s versus Brett Hart in his prime, which I would say is like late 90s? Oh, man. Give me like a six-hour Ironman match. Oh, it would have been so good.

And there was talks about this happening, I believe, 20-ish, I think was at WrestleMania 19, around that time. There was talk of this happening, and Kurt Engel was pushing for it, and I guess Brett Hart just was like, I want to be able to give you, like, I'm definitely paraphrasing here, but like, I want to give you the Brett Hart that you know and love, and I just, I can't do that for you. So, like, let's not, we can't do it. But Brett Hart versus Kurt Engel, just a wrestler's wrestler match.

a wrestler's wrestling match. That would be the one for me. How good would that be? And then, I guess the closest we got to this was there was a very early match in Kurt Engel's career. Kurt Engle had a house show match against Owen Hart. And apparently there is no footage of this that exists anywhere.

And Kurt Angle even put something out like a few months ago and was like, if there's any video this match that exists, like, I'd love to see it. There's a few photos of this match, and that's cool to see, but like, there's no video of this. And this is an era before people had cell phone cameras, this is an error before you could bring your camcorder into the arena and, like, bootleg the match. They would have confiscated that, I'm sure, as you're walking in through security. So, unless WWE filmed this, and the WWE vault on YouTube, says like we don't have it.

So if they're saying they don't have it, they don't have it. I don't think they're just saying that. But that I think would be the closest that we would have got, man. Just knowing that that match existed, Brett Hart or Owen Hart versus Kurt Angle, just knowing that that match existed, I think's amazing. The fact that it's basically just like in wrestling lore, the only people that saw that match for the people that were there in the building.

I wonder if there's anybody listening right now. that watched that match. I'm going to look at, when was this match? Where was this match? Okay, here it is. May 10th, 1999, Orlando, Florida

at the O-Rena, and it wasn't a live show, it wasn't a house show. It was a televised, it was raw, and this was a dark match before. And what's crazy, it's 13 days later

is when we lost Owen. But I digress. The dream match for me. Bradhart versus Kurt Angle and then I guess as an aside we're all just hoping that there is some sort of video footage

this is a dark match. Before Raw they had to have filmed this. What the heck? Come on, WWVault. What's going on? Where is this thing? Michael A. Connolly sent this one in on

Chrisfanbleet.com. Thank you for using the new contact form on there to send this in. Hey Chris, Mike here from Worcestershire, England Worcestershire, England? Oh my gosh, I'd probably

mispronounce that. I'm so sorry, everybody. Question here for Ask CVV number 1-22. Listening to last week's AskCV, you were talking about how many WWE superstars are available right now and how many there are to pick from for the Royal Rumble

and fans being annoyed that some superstars are being left out. Is it time for the Royal Rumble? to be made bigger, being a 40-man Royal Rumble, instead, so that gives more room for superstars as there's so many to pick from. I don't think so. I think the beauty of the Royal Rumble is that it's 30 men, 30 women.

And it has been, of course, with a few exceptions, it has been since the creation. One of the big exceptions was 2011 Royal Rumble, and it was exactly what we were talking about. It was a 40-man Royal Rumble that was won by, Alberto Del Rio. Alberto Del Rio eliminated Santino Morella to win that Royal Rumble.

And 40 just felt like a lot. The match ended up like, it just went on longer than you would expect a Royal Rumble to go on. Then in 2018, there was the greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, which was a 50-man match. And I think we can all agree that the greatest Royal Rumble was most certainly not the greatest royal rumble. 50 was way too many.

Like, cool to see some nostalgic pops there, but 50 was far too many. And I just don't think 40 works either. Fun fact. Fun fact, there was a Royal Rumble that only 28 men entered. You know what I'm talking about? The 1998 Royal Rumble, because McFoley entered three times.

times. Cactus Jack, mankind, do love. So a 30 man, Royal Rumble, only 28 men entered it. I guess 30 characters entered it, but only 28 men. And then the 1988 Royal Rumble is the other exception. It was only a 20-man Royal Rumble. I think 30 is the right number. I just think that there is probably a, it's probably a difficult balancing act. And I'm sure that this is, is something they're talking about for months and months and months about like, all right, how many people from Raw, how many people from SmackDown, how many people get the call up from NXT, how many returns, okay? Are there any, is there room now for nostalgic pops? Okay, is there room for a big debut or something? And I think that it's like this fine balancing

act. And I'm sure that like there's a big list. It's probably, probably starts at 50, 60, 70 people. And then they're like crossing people off, then like, oh, man, that person, they were going to be right above the line. Oh, they're getting cut because this person's contract just came up and, you know, they're going to debut here, whatever the case may be. I think it's a difficult balancing act. Because especially when you're, like, let's take storylines out of this. Like, let's take the K-Fabe out of this when you're really looking at the Royal Rumble. it's a vehicle really for the person that wins, automatically in the, as Michael Cole would say,

in the main event of WrestleMania, but you're getting a title shot from winning this. So like the Royal Rumble is focused a lot on the person who's going to win, whoever the man or the woman is is going to win. And then there's some other storylines that end up developing from the people who are in there and whoever ends up eliminating them. So when you really break it down, the rumble like is a time for like five to ten people to shine.

And I'm not saying the other 20 to 25 people are unimportant. That's not the case. It's, I'm sure, a huge honor to be part of any Royal Rumble. But there's a lot of people that are just in there to just be in there. And this is where I think the argument comes from of like, well, if there was room for this person, how was there not room for Finn Baller? If there was room for that person, how is there not room for Finn Ballard? And I understand that.

But it's like, what was the storyline going to be? And what is the storyline going to be for Finn Baller here? Like, we get the championship match at Elimination Chamber, which I'm pumped about. And I also just love that CM Punk is a fighting champion with this World Heavyweight Championship. At least he has been since 2026 began. He didn't defend it at all in 2025. But since the New Year's come around, he's been a fighting championship. champion and I love to see it. But the idea here that we're talking about is like, you're putting more

people in there simply for them to be in the Rumble. And I just don't see the value from a like booking standpoint of doing that. Yeah, you get an extra pop here and there. And yes, you get to be able to say like, I was in another Royal Rumble or I was in a Royal Rumble, which I understand is a nice feather in someone's cap. But if you're just talking about this from a booking standpoint, the Royal Rumble is a vehicle to like, push the careers or push the storylines forward for a handful of people. Like Obafemi's storyline gets pushed forward. What a main roster debut. What a dominant performance.

And he just continues to just absolutely dominate with every appearance that we're seeing. Sol Ruka, again, like great appearance in there, like exceeded a lot of people's expectations. Javon Evans, like, so good was the Iron Man. for the men, Charlotte Flayor, the Iron Man for the woman. Like, there's these little one-off storylines, but really at the end of the day, it's about Roman Raines won the men's rumble, live Morgan won the women's rumble. And you could have more people in the rumble, but it doesn't change that the main focus of these is like, this person's going to win, and then we're going to make a few other storylines

here, like, oh, that person eliminated this person by surprise, or like, we thought this person was going to last longer and they didn't. I don't think adding more people makes the match better. And I think that that's the big question that needs to be asked. Like, does that make it better? So I, 30-man rumble for me, let's just keep it as that. 30-person rumble. Let's keep it at that.

Another email on chris vanfleet.com. Lou sent this one in and said, hey, Chris, a real, real one here, fellow Canadian reaching out from oil country, Alberta. Amazing. Can't wait to hear your answer on this one on the next Ask CVVC, CVV episode 122, too, to to, all aboard the Ho! Train edition. I like that.

22-2.2. That was good. I was wondering, what is your Mount Rushmore of ECW stars? Also, do you think we'll ever get a CVV live if WWB would ever come to Alberta so I can soon become a real, real, real one? I never miss an episode including Ask CVVs till the end. Thanks for being a part of my everyday life, all the best, sweet Lou. Till the end should be another quote or a t-shirt, because that's where the real, real ones come in. You're a real one if you tune into an Ask CVV episode, but you are a real, real one if you listen all the way.

the end. So when I think about the ECW Mount Rushmore, I think about the people who years after ECW was no longer a thing, and I am not talking, of course, about WWE's version of ECW, after ECW is no longer a thing, these are still the people that when they come out to the ring, fans chant ECW, ECW, ECW. So when I personally think of ECW, here's the four people that I think of. And again, this is my opinion. It's so funny.

Every time I do a Mount Rushmore and we do one every single week, there's always inevitably someone that goes, what about so-and-so? How is there no mention of this person? Well, because this is my list. These are the people that I think about.

So when I think about ECW, I think about RVD. And you can even extend that into WWE, like the One Night Stand match with John Sina. Oh, man. What a great match. So RVD, Tommy Dreamer, who is through and through ECW. Tommy Dreamer could do a run-in now. He's working with TNA.

He could do a run-in now where he would go out to the TNA ring. And here we are 25 years later, they'll still chant EC-dub at Tommy Dreamer. who else do i think about when i think about ecbub i think about the late great saboo and like just the way that he transformed like what a completely different style we'd never seen this type of style in ecw and oh man i think his best work was in ecw for sure saboo absolute legend and then who's the final person on that list and i'm doing just wrestlers here because Paul Heyman goes without saying, like, you don't have ECW without Paul Heyman, but it's not a wrestler. So I think that RVD was actually the one who said this when we talked about on ECW Mount Rushmore with RVD a bunch of interviews ago with him.

And he said, like, he gave his four. And then he said, and then Paul Hamas just standing behind all of them. Like, because without Paul Heyman, there is no Mount Rushmore. He can't even build one. For me, the fourth head on my ECW, Mount Rushmore. Marshmore is Sandman. Like another one of those people that when you think of ECW and you think of like a career defined by ECW, it's Sandman.

And there's a lot of people who had a great start in ECW and then went on to do greater things elsewhere. A lot of people who had a handful of matches in ECW and then went on to be legends elsewhere. But when you think of people, and again, my criteria is, Years later, when they're coming out to the ring, are you chanting EC-dub? Yeah, Mick Foley was in ECW. But when he comes out to the ring, you're chanting, folly, folly.

Stone-co-C-Austin was in ECW. I'm not saying that these guys would be on the Mount Rushmore. Well, they could be on the, like, the wrestling Mount Rushmore when you talk about legends like Mick Foley or Stone-Cold Steve Austin, but, like, I'm talking about just, like, pure ECW talent. There's a few other names. that you could substitute here and there, but I feel pretty good about my ECW Mount Rushmore

being RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Saboo, Sam in with Paul Heyman, standing behind all of them. Stephen Meller sent this one in also on the newly redesigned chris fanfleet.com. Hey Chris, real, real one here. I've been listening to the pod for about a year now, and I love it. Feels like you were in the car with me when I listen, especially on the Ask CVV episodes.

So I'm glad to be in the car with you right now, Stephen. I have a would you rather question. Would you rather take five chops from Gunther every time you have pizza? The chops are to your bare chest after you have finished eating. Or, once a week, you have to be Brock Leisure's training partner, minimum of an hour a week. Suplexes, F-5s, submission holds. He won't go easy on you.

Are you trying to get me killed here? These are two terrible options. They sound very painful. Love the show. Stephen from Leak in the U.S. Well, I love pizza. So it's every time I eat pizza. Well, I don't eat pizza that often.

Although I did have pizza at the AEW show on Wednesday. I was like, it was pretty hungry. And I went to go order chicken fingers, like dirty dom style. I was with my buddy Zeus, who owns West Coast Creative Studio, the studio that I record all of the interviews in L.A. at. So I'm with Zeus. And he goes to order. I said, oh, yeah, I'll take one, too. Two chicken fingers and fries, two chicken tenders and fries.

I said, oh, I'm sorry, we only have one left. He goes, do you want to split? it? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, let's split it. Let's get something else, though. I don't feel like splitting two chicken fingers each is going to be enough. Two chicken tendies each. Let's just get one of these pizzas. I have to say, pizza was not great. Although I've never met a pizza I don't like in the same way that I've never met a Chris I don't like. But the pizza was subpar at best. But I don't eat a ton of pizza. I love pizza with my whole heart. I don't eat it like every day like Dom eating chicken tendies.

I'm probably like two to three pizzas a month. So do I want to take five chops from Gunther two to three times a month? Or once a week? An hour of suplex city with Brock Lesnar? Yeah, this is easy. I'm taking the pizza and the chops. Like five chops spread out every seven to ten-ish days. Yeah.

Yeah, that's okay. Because there's no reward on the other one. At least I get pizza this time. Like, every time I have pizza, I take chops. Cool. What happens after the hour-long Brock Lezard training session? Go home? That's it?

There's no like, hey, thanks for coming out. here's a here's some pizza here's some ice cream yeah going with the going with the pizza on this one it just better not better not be the pizza i had on wednesday pizza was just so you know it's not great when there's pizza left behind and there was only four slices we split that as well sam emailed this emailed emailed this one and said cv not of Mount Rushmore question, but what is your favorite use of pyrotechnics? Cheers, Sam from Salt Lake City. Oh, man, there are so many to choose from.

You know what one, like, I've always loved, and he didn't use it for, like, that long. It certainly doesn't use it anymore, but Randy Orton's pyro curtain, when he would pose on the top rope and, like, it would just, like, shower pyro behind him, man, that looked so cool, so cool. I think when you're talking about great pyro entrances, this will probably end up turning into a Mount Rushmore or a top five, even though you said it's not a Mount Rushmore, but I just love a great pyro-filled entrance.

Batistas, come on. Big boom. Oh, man, amazing. If slash when, I get the chance to have Dave Batista back on the show. I'm going to ask him about that fan that ran in front of him warming up backstage. We need to hear the full story. We've heard lots of rumors about this.

We've heard lots of, like, talk about what this is. Apparently, that was not just a rogue fan running through there. It was, I think it was a way of showing, like, Eric Bischoff was the GM, I believe, and he had kind of, like, lost control of Raw. And this was just, like, a demonstration of, like, how out of control Raw was. under Eric Bischoff and the way that he was running it.

That's all this was. It was like, but it's funny that years later people don't know the context of this. That's kind of the funny thing about wrestling clips in general. But people don't know the context of this and they just see this 10 second clip and they're like, oh my gosh, that's a fan. The security doesn't even look mad when they're running after him. The security's like 10 feet behind him like running at like 60% speed. It's very clear when you look at it.

that it's like a setup. But anyway, I want to hear the full story from Batista. I actually had it written down in my notes. It was a question I was going to ask Batista. And if you go back to that interview, I love that chat with Batista. It was such a fun conversation for the movie The Killers Game,

which Ger McIntyre was also in. And I got to chat with Drew McIntyre for that. The interview with Dave was like 30-ish minutes. If we had a full hour, oh, of course we would have got into that question. but Dave Batista, Batista's pyro, so good. Sean Michaels, with the pyro in the ring,

which I just thought made it so unique with like the fireworks shooting off behind him as he's flexing. It was so fitting for the Sean Michael's character. Love that. Kane, with the, like, we'd never seen this before with the pyro on the ring posts and him being able to like toss his arms down

and explosion. Also the explosion, just at the start of Kane's entrance, I think needs a mention as well. That would come out of nowhere. It would, like, there'd be no warning. Like, they'd come back for commercial and just like, so good.

So there's four, but man, we could talk about pyro for the next hour and, like, continue to, like, list off. Like, oh, man, Cody Rhodes has great pyro. There's a lot of great pyro. The fact that, like, the first time I saw Brock Leser jump up onto the ring, and the ring exploded or the ring, like, had the fireworks shoot off.

I thought that was so cool. A lot of great pyro. Isn't it so funny that there wasn't pyro for a good stretch of time? Do you remember that? Like, mid-2010s, no pyro. I think it's like just a cost-saving measure. Also, there had not been compensated. competition, at least had head competition for WWE for a long time.

Then do you remember this? There was a lot of chatter leading into the very first AEW show, May 25th, 2019, double or nothing. There's a lot of speculation of like, will they have pyro? Is AW going to have pyro? And they had lots and lots of pyro. And then not long after that, WW started having pyro as well. It was like, oh, that's really interesting that you didn't have it for years, and now you have it. So I think there's so many great uses of pyro, but those are a handful there that I love.

PPLS victory, People's Victory, on Instagram says, can we still try to get hardcore Bob Holly on the show? I would love to. I was a guest on my friend Joe Volpice's podcast recently. His show is called the Joe Volpus podcast. What a title. I actually think that's going to be a bonus episode tomorrow here on Insight with Chris Van Fleet. So tomorrow you'll hear that episode if you haven't already listened to it on Joe's show or if you didn't see it on YouTube. I actually collaborated with Joe on that.

So you might have seen it on my YouTube channel as well. But he asked me, like, who's the attitude era star that you would love to talk to? I'm like, oh, hardcore Holly. Like so many stories. that I would love to get into. And I, like, Bob Holly hasn't done an interview in years. And from what I understand, he is enjoying retirement and kudos to him. It's a well-earned, well-deserved retirement.

And I guess it doesn't want to do interviews. That's cool. It doesn't want to do conventions. It's very happy being retired. And that's amazing. If there's ever a chance to have Bob Holly, sneak out of the house, do a quick hour-ish interview. I would love to be that person to have that conversation with it.

Also, I'd love to do one with Heidenreich. Did you see this thing recently where he works at Walmart and someone recently posted a photo with him? This was posted by Wade Stratton on Facebook. I'm going to read you the whole post here. So I'm at work last week, and there's an older gentleman stocking. We would always say, hey, in passing. The other day, he was like,

did you ever watch WWE? I was like, as a matter of fact, I used to watch it all the time. Then dude said, yeah, I used to be a wrestler. I've wrestled The Undertaker, Booker T, Stephen Regal, The Rock. I met Steve Austin as a debut match. Used to hang out with Triple H and Tristratus.

Like, what? Wait, what? You're kidding, right? Dude was, in fact, not kidding, one of the nicest, most humble people I've ever met in a while. while. I bought his action figure and had him sign it and post for a picture with me. You could tell it made him happy to be able to be in the spotlight again, and things like that make me happy. Plus, now I can say I've been putting a headlock by a professional wrestler.

Edit, his wrestling name was Heidenreich. And then there's a photo of him at Walmart being put in a headlock by Hydenreich, who looks great, by the way. And then like this thing has now gone viral. It's been shared everywhere. I commented on this, and I said, what a great story. I'd love to do an interview with Hydenreich, if you can track him down for me. Wade responded.

I'm actually just seeing this now. I'm looking at Facebook right now. Wade responded to me and said, I'm going to give him your contact info. Oh, man. Amazing. I would love to interview Hydenreich. There's so much to talk about.

Obviously, the Michael Cole segment, and if you know, you know, that's something we've got to talk about. about, but there's so many things, the stuff with Snitsky, so much. But there's a few, like, hidden gems from the late 90s, early 2000s. I've talked about this many times, but the fact that I got the lethal weapon, Steve Blackman on the show, I think it was his first interview in, like, 17-ish years. Those are the type of interviews I just love having. That's, that is not to take away. from any of the other conversations we've had on the show.

But like, when you can find someone like this post about Haydnreich, where you can just tell, like, they just still love it. They're passionate about it, and they just, they're doing something else with their life now. And that's like, almost seems like it's a former life for them. It's really cool to hear them, like, reminisce about the good times, life on the road, their favorite matches, all that stuff. So here's hoping.

here's hoping that a Bob Holly interview could happen and here's hoping that a Hydenreich interview could happen and oh fair, Wade, if you're listening to this, thank you. Thank you for giving him my contact info and fingers crossed that something could happen here with us. Dion wrote this one in on Spotify. Question for AskCTV number 122.

If the only way that you could get an interview with Sting. I feel like this is becoming the new bit because Sting is the ultimate dream guest, the ultimate number one on that list, just because he doesn't really do interviews. Again, when we're talking about people who don't do interviews or maybe don't do conventions,

Sting does conventions, although doesn't do conventions with face pain anymore. But Sting hasn't done a long-form interview in, I don't know. Like he's done conventions like Q&As, like panels. I don't think he's done a like a sit down interview, I believe, maybe ever. So anyway, this is why he's now become the subject of like the,

would you do this for a sting interview? What would you do? Hoohoo! For a Sting interview. If the only way you could get an interview with Sting is by being chokeslammed off a Val in a Cell, Through an announce table, would you do it? Also, I'm a real, real one.

I listen while I shower, I ice fish, and I do homework at school. Love from Dion. Love you too. Also, love that you're ice fishing. What are you ice fishing for? Is it pike? Is it perch? Is it whitefish?

Lake trout? Maybe something else? Walleye? I always love, I love fishing. I just didn't do a ton of ice fishing. I just, I didn't have the friends with the setups. I would go like once or twice a year. Anyway, would I get, would I get choke slammed off of hell and a self through an announce table?

Like, are you, like, are you trying to get me killed? I know I do not want to get chokeslamed off of hell and a cell through an announce table. No, thank you. Okay? I don't, no, did you not see? Yes, you've seen Mick Fuller. get thrown off through the announce table. That didn't look fun.

Didn't look fun. Shane McMahon jumped off. Hell in a cell. Elbow drop through the announced table. Also did not look fun. Choke slammed?

Oh, you know how scary that would be? At least with the elbow drop, you're the one jumping. You're the one like guiding the fall. With Mick Foley, at least he could like, see where he was headed. And man, still,

that announced table must look so tiny as he was falling. The choke slam. Man, like, you're not in control at all. Like, talk about trusting your opponent to, like, pick you up and toss you off in the exact right spot, all. And, of course, anybody you'd be doing this with would be the ultimate professional.

I'm assuming, since you said, choke slam, it'd be the undertaker. What an honor that would be, but I'm going to say no thank you. There's a lot of things I would do for a Sting interview. I don't know if risking great injury, possible paralysis or anything more, would be worth it. I don't have an interview with Sting up until now, and I feel pretty good when I wake up in the morning. Nothing really hurts. I don't know if that'd be the case if I got choke slammed.

off of hell and a cell through an announced table. So I think I'll pass, I think I'll politely pass Dion on the choke slam off of hell and a cell through the announce table. Very much, I appreciate the offer. I'll take you up on the ice fishing offer, though, if that's a possibility. That, my friends, is the final question on this.

Ask CVV number one. Sweet edition. Send in your questions for next week. Go to chrisfanfleet.com and send them in on there. Email me, CVV at chrisfanveit.com. Leave a comment on Spotify. Send them in on social media using that hashtag. Ask CVV and give me your ideas for next week.

Ask CVV number one, two, three kid edition and all of the other ones. Ask CVV count one, two, three edition. All of that stuff. Send it in. I can't wait. We'll wrap this up with this quote from Hunter S. Thompson, which is going to have you thinking as we head into the weekend here. Who is the happier man?

He who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely unsure and merely existed. Be great and be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one. for some more insight. We've got Rusef joining us on Tuesday. You don't want to miss it. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see it back here on Tuesday with Rusev. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media. about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of Sports Smack.

Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.