Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #125 - Danhausen's WWE Debut, Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre, Brock Lesnar's WrestleMania Opponent

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Welcome to AskCVV #125! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about the fall out from Elimination Chamber, what might happen between Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre on Smackdown, who the WWE Champion will be heading into WrestleMania, thoughts on Danhausen's WWE debut, the promo between CM Punk and Roman Reigns on Raw, the tension between Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley, favorite finishing move of all time and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." - Henry Ford Please support our sponsors: HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide! COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off! BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF 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 Happy Friday and welcome back to another one here on InSight I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Great to see you.

Thank you for spending some of your Friday with me and thank you as always for helping to make insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a fisherman suplex on that follow button wherever you're listening

so you don't miss out on any new episodes that we have coming up interviews every Tuesday and Thursday, and as you know, because you're here, ask CVV every single Friday. Speaking of Fridays, what a live show last Friday in Chicago. Thank you to everyone who was there for that sold-out show. If you haven't seen it or heard it yet, that interview with Chicago's own Mustafa Ali was uploaded yesterday.

That story about The Undertaker. it's so good and the delivery too like when he's talking like the Undertaker he does such a great impression but so many great stories in there

so many laughs thank you for sharing those laughs with me and I just think that the last part like the very last few minutes when he was talking about like that we get to try

if you've listened to the episode you know what I'm talking about if you haven't just listen to even just that part and it's hard not to be inspired by that. But thank you again for coming out to the live show. What a blast. We have two new live shows that were just announced.

I will see you in Tampa, May 8th, the day before backlash. I will see you in New Orleans, September 5th, the day before Money in the Bank. Money in the Bank's a Sunday. And also in September, it's the latest money in the bank they've ever done. And, of course, the next live show is the Thursday of WrestleMania Week at Circa Resort. Casino, Las Vegas. Tickets for all of those are available right now at CVVTICS.com. That's CVVT-T-I-X.com.

Welcome, my friend, to Ask CVV number one, two, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, W-CW Champion Edition. I did it last time with Ask CVV-1-15, AskedV-C-V-115, I had to do it around this time when it came back around for 125. I might even do it in 10 weeks for Ask CVV-135. Booker T. What a legend. I've said this so many times before, but Booker T ticks every box. He has the ability to work as a baby face as a heel. He can be a singles competitor. He can be a tag team wrestler. He can be a commentator. He can be a manager. He can do serious stuff. He can do funny stuff. Love it. What a legend. Booker T. Love them. So good. If you've got a question for next

week, if you've got an idea for Ask CVV number 126, leave a comment on Spotify, send it in on the newly revamped, chris vanfleet.com. Of course, you can always send it on social media using that hashtag AskCTV or shoot me an email, CVV at chris vanvlet.com. So much to get into here. We'll start with Elimination Chamber. And also, so great to see so many of you guys in and around Chicago, very, very warm when I got there on Friday, like, like unseasonably warm. It was like 60 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday. And then by the time Saturday evening rolled around for Elimination Chamber, it was like real cold, like 20-ish degrees. And I, yeah, it was like one of those where it was like, try to get into the building as quickly as you can to avoid,

to avoid the coldness because this is so silly. I forgot to pack my winter coat. I thought for sure that I had packed it. I didn't. I was like, well, this is an unwelcome surprise. It just slipped my mind. My flight was early, and that's not an excuse, but I went the whole weekend just hoping

that I wasn't going to be too cold, and I was okay with that. I was okay with it. We'll kick off, Ask CVV number 125 with this one from Tim McKay on Facebook who says, What's up, CVV? What did you think of the elimination chamber winners? I got to say it. Two for four on my predictions.

I got both elimination chamber winners wrong, but I will say that as soon as Rio, Ria Ripley and E.O. Sky lost the tag team titles on SmackDown. I'm like, oh, I see what they're doing here. Ria Ripley's going to win Chamber. And if I could have 16 hours later gone in and revamped my predictions for Elimination Chamber, I would have gone in and said, actually, it's not going to be Tiffy time.

It's going to be Ria Ripley. But I was on the fence, right? I said it's either going to be Ria or Tiffany, and it's either going to be Cody or Randy. Ria Ripley, it's so interesting. They keep saying that the winner of Elimination Chamber that did the same thing at Rihanna or at Roy, a Rumble. They keep saying the winner gets a main event at WrestleMania. I'm like, how many main

events are they going to be? I understand you get a title shot at WrestleMania, but I don't know why they keep saying the winner of the Rumble gets a main event shot. It gets a main event at WrestleMania. The winner of Elimination Chamber, main event at WrestleMania, unless we're doing four main events or six main events or whatever the case may be. But Ria Ripley wins Elimination Chamber, but my goodness Raquel Rodriguez what a standout performance she's such a badass what a performance by her

and I feel like this is the beginnings of like I think she's just diving into the character this is the beginnings I think of we're going to look back on this maybe in a year or two or something like that when she is a world champion and we're going to go oh remember that standout

performance that she is had at Elimination Chamber. Stacking them up, eliminating two at a time. So good. So good. Great way to kick off the show, too. I think that A.J. Lee versus Becky Lynch went exactly how we thought it would. I think that C.M. Punk versus Finn Ballard, great match, both of those. But I think that one went exactly how we thought it would go. Fantastic intro for C.M. Punk in the United Center with the Bulls theme song with the Bulls announcer announcing him. That was really cool. And I've heard a lot of people say that this may be the last time that CM Punk wrestles in Chicago as a world champion. Maybe the last time he ever defends the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in Chicago. And it just makes you think,

like, how much time does someone like CM Punk have left? How much longer does he want to wrestle? I think it comes down to that. Is it one, two? three, five more years. Really interesting, but that was a special entrance, especially since this was the first WWPLA that they had done inside the United Center. I think it was in 30 years, which is just wild. Typically, they're done in the Allstate Arena, which is the arena where CM Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2023. Fun fact, I'm sure you already know this, but if you didn't, the United Center, where Elimination Chamber was last weekend, that was the same building where CM Punk. made his return to wrestling when he returned to AEW.

The men's elimination chamber match. So many things happened there. As I predicted, I thought there'd be some shenanigans in the end. We got shenanigans. We now know who the masked man is. The identity of the masked man revealed Seth freaking Rawlins. I feel like I heard someone predict that. I feel like someone.

recently was saying it's going to be Seth Rollins and maybe these other figures have just been a placeholder. I think not only a placeholder, but I think also like so smart how they worked it into the storyline where like they unmasked the masked man on SmackDown and it was like, wait a second, we've never seen that person before. Of course, fans very quick to do research. Oh, that's someone who Seth Rollins trained. Wait a second. let's connect the dots here. I love the mind games being played there. I love that we have the ability to put this together and go,

oh, that means Seth Rollins is probably behind all this, which means Seth Rollins is probably coming back soon, which is something that we were talking about recently on AskCV. I still think that Seth Rollins cleared, obviously, to compete. They wouldn't have been letting him do the things he was doing at Elimination Chamber if he wasn't cleared to have a match. So Seth Rollins is back. I still feel like we've got, what, six, a little over six weeks to WrestleMania,

which is crazy. I feel like we just had WrestleMania 41, and now we're about six weeks away from WrestleMania 42. But I feel like the plan was originally, Seth Rawlins versus Brom Breaker. I still feel like there's a way that we're going to get there. I feel like Brom Breaker could be ready to go in the next month or so. Although it seems like what they may be setting up for here, in addition to that is Seth

Rollins versus Logan Paul. Maybe that's WrestleMania, maybe that's somewhere else. We've seen that match before. Will we see it again? It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Drew McIntyre also there like I predicted he would be. In fact, I predicted that he would affect the finish of the match, which he did.

And my goodness, that RKO to finish the match was one of the smoothest. RKO's I think I've ever seen. They were floating. Maybe it was partly due to the camera angle. It was like the camera angle was above. Also due to the fact that like you've got two greats in there, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton pulling this off.

But man, it's so smooth. Like Cody's body was facing one way when he went into it and facing a completely different way when he landed. Oh man. I love that it's Randy Orton. And I said like it's either going to be Randy or or it's going to be Cody. I feel like Cody finds his way

to this WrestleMania main event in some way, shape, or form, and that still might be the case. We'll talk about the match tonight between Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre in just a little bit. But Randy Orton, I feel like now he's one step closer

to winning that 15th championship. I think he gets it. I think that at some point during this calendar year, Randy Orton wins number 15th, Randy Orton is the WWE champion. Maybe the world champion, but I feel like Randy Orton will be the WWE champion.

I also appreciate how the show spilled over into the post show. And it made the post show feel so important. Like Nick Aldous and Drew McIntyre going at each other, or Nick Aldous just getting like so heated. And then like, he's like, you know, I have no choice but to make This match is Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship this Friday on Smackdown. It made the post show feel like it was just an extension of what we had just seen on an elimination chamber.

And that's the first time that they've done things before that play into storylines. But this one in particular felt like it was just a continuation of the show. And there's a lot of people I know that don't, like when the credits roll, when the copyright comes up, That's it. They turn off the show and they call in a night. I understand that. I'm sure you've been burned a few times, like, for example, the CM Punk return like we were talking about. But I appreciate that it continues in and makes it just one long show there. Actually, when you think about the pre-show, into the show, into the post show, just like an evening, or I guess it depends on the time zone you're watching in. It's a good chunk of time just devoted to wrestling. But elimination

Chamber, I think, as a whole, had some surprises like we talked about. We'll get into the big surprise with the cratehausen, the Boxhausen, and just a little bit here, too. But this leads us into this next one here from Reese Jones 8 on Instagram. Hey, CVV, it looks like it had a blast at Elimination Chamber. I did, in fact, have a blast at Elimination Chamber Reese. I've got another question for AskCTVV number 125. Do you like the PLEs with more or less matches or the PLEs of the attitude error where there's seven or eight matches and multiple title matches? It annoyed me how long each entrant had in the chamber. And then it took 35 minutes out of the show. They could have used that time to put in the U.S. or the I see title on the show. Love what you do. Reese from Shrewsbury, England. You know,

I like that the matches have a chance to breathe. I like that things don't feel right. rushed ever. And we've heard so many stories from the Vince McMahon era where matches are getting cut. Complete, like, there's stories of complete matches getting cut. There's stories of like, I know we told you 20 minutes curtain to curtain, which is like 20 minutes from like the first entrance to like the last person walking through after the match, you're down to like 12 minutes now. Oh, I know we just told you 12 minutes. It's actually six. There's been so many. There's been so much stories of that. You haven't heard really any of those stories over the last three-ish years or so. So I appreciate that the matches get a chance to breathe. I appreciate that the matches have a chance

to tell the full story that they were planning to tell. If we look at Elimination Chamber this past weekend, the shortest match was A.J. Lee versus Becky Lynch, 15 minutes and 40 seconds, so almost 16 minutes. The women's elimination chamber match, 24 minutes. CM Punk and Finn Ballard, almost 21 minutes. The men's elimination chamber, 25 and a half minutes.

Like, all of those matches had a chance to really breathe. The entrances weren't rushed. The matches weren't rushed. And then if we look just randomly at a PLE from the Vince McMahon era, so, like, let's look at Elimination Chamber 2014.

Eight matches, including one on the pre-show. Cody Rhodes and Gold Dust, defeating Rybaxil on the pre-show. We had, I'm just going to go through the matches. I'm not going to list them all here, but we had a match. It was 10 minutes, 11 minutes, 8 minutes, 8 minutes, 22 minutes, 4.5 minutes, 7 minutes, and then the men's elimination chamber match, 37 minutes. So, like, so many of those matches, like, you got a 4-minute match on a PLE.

You got Batista and Alberto Del Rio having a 7-minute match at a PLE. It just doesn't feel like it has time to really breathe. Let's look at another one here. Elimination Chamber 2013. Eight matches, including one on the pre-show. Four minutes. 13 minutes. Eight minutes.

31 minutes. 14 minutes. Three minutes. Three minutes. 20 minutes. I just don't see the purpose of putting a match on a PLE just for the sake of putting a match on a PLE if it's going to be three minutes and 55 seconds.

Dolf Ziegler defeating Kofi Kingston is that particular match I'm talking about. I would much rather have longer matches that have a chance to tell the full story, especially in an era now where, and when I say era, I specifically mean like, things have shifted here in 2026,

and I've talked about this a few times, but we just saw Penta win the Intercontinental Championship on Raw. We've seen, we saw Drew McIntyre win the WWE Championship on Smackdown. We've seen, we saw the women's tag titles

change hands on Smackdown last week. We're in an era now where weekly television matters. So I don't know if it really matters if the match happens on a PLE or not. As long as there's a story that's being told here, just because a match is on a PLE,

I think it's a great thing to have. But if the match is going to be three, four, seven minutes, I would much rather have a match that has a chance to tell a story. Four might not be enough matches. I think I might prefer five or six, but I get when you have a match

like Elimination Chamber, there's a lot that goes into that. Same with the Royal Rumble. Like, I get why Royal Rumble only had four matches when two of those matches take an hour or a little bit over an hour. But I think I prefer

a little bit less, and I've been to enough indie shows, to tell you that less is more. And if you've been to a lot of indie shows, you know what I'm talking about. Sometimes you're like, there's six matches in, and then they're getting to the intermission. You're like, oh my gosh, how many matches are they going to be after the intermission? Five more? Oh, my goodness. So I feel like less is sometimes more, especially when you have a chance to like really sink your teeth into it as an audience member and as the performers who are in the match.

Plaquinator. What a name on Spotify says, what were your thoughts on the CM Punk promo on Roman Raines on Raw? Well, it was not just a CM Punk promo. It was a Roman Raines promo as well. So much tension building here. And this is where CM Punk is at his best. When you truly believe that CM Punk doesn't like the person that he's landing across from in the ring, whether that's a promo or it's a match, that is where

CM Punk is at its very best. That's where wrestling in general is at its best when you're like, oh, there's some animosity here. Oh, these two people, they don't like each other, but they're finding a way to make this work. And I like that. I also like that we're getting this now. Like I said, still six weeks to go before WrestleMania. and tensions are building.

This is going to get to a point over the next month and a half where this boils over. I love that this is where we're at right now. And there were some things on both sides that were said during that promo

where you're like, ooh, did they talk about that beforehand? Did they maybe cross a line here? And those are those like viral moments that end up getting shared online as well. I think it was fantastic. And also like a nice reminder why I like those are two of the biggest names in WW.

There's a lot building up for what looks to be the night two main event. I still don't know what we're doing with the night one main event. And we'll figure out if that has, is that the WWE championship? Speaking of tensions, they're boiling up here with now Ria Ripley and Jade Cargill. If you saw any of the stuff that went on online this week, it feels like there may be some, like, real animosity there, like, some real issues outside of, like, character work here. Or they're just working us all.

But, like, things got real interesting with the WWE Women's Championship real quickly this week. 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 Clarenberg. 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 Henco. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Joseph sent this in on the wonderfully new revamped

Chrisfanfleet.com, where you can, of course, get recaps of all of the interviews. You can watch them. You can listen to them, and you can subscribe to my mailing list on there,

and you'll never be out of the loop about what's going on. Hi, Chris. How awesome was it, and how happy are you to see Penta win the Intercontinental Championship? The pop at the arena

sounded great. I love his entrance, and he's amazing in the ring. Cheers, Joseph. Could not agree with you more, Joseph. what a moment for Penta. I actually shared this on social media this week

that Penta made history. He's the first Mexican-born wrestler to ever win the Intercontinental Championship. And so funny how, like, people online are always trying to be right. They're like, what about Ray Mysterio? Well, why do you think Ray Mysterio calls his move the 619?

Where do you think the 619 area code is? That's right. It's in San Diego. Whoa, so Tito Santana never won the Intercontinental Championship? Yes, Tito Santana certainly won the Intercontinental Championship, but he was born in Texas. Penta, the first Mexican-born professional wrestler to win the Intercontinental Championship. It's so interesting that in the time that it took some of these people to write that comment,

it's like you could have just Googled, oh, actually, oh, wow, I thought, I thought Tito, I thought Ray, oh, interesting. Oh, that Google search, well, really, really learned a lot from that. But I love seeing this. Penta's been in WWE a little over a year. He has it all. Like, you talk about aura. Penta is just oozing with aura from the entrance theme to the entrance to the walk to, you know what you can really tell when someone's over.

And I was talking about this with John Morrison. There's a little sneak peek as to who the guest is on Tuesday. John Morrison just recently lost a hair versus hair match in CMLL. CMLL. So John Morrison is bald and may be bald for the rest of his career.

There's luscious, long hair, gone. Don't worry, we talk about all of it on Tuesday. But he was saying, you know you're over when the crowd's not just chanting, this is awesome, when they're chanting for like you. So when they're chanting,

Zato, meado. That was his, example because he worked with him, obviously, in Lucha Underground. When the crowd's chanting, Zaddo, meado, it's like, not only are you so good, but like, we expect this greatness from you in these matches, and we appreciate it so much that we're going to chant for you specifically. I love this for Penta, and I'm very curious where this leads to. Like, what's the WrestleMania match from here?

We're eventually going to get brother versus brother. We're eventually going to get Penta versus Ray Phoenix. I don't know if that's this year. I don't know if this is a WrestleMania match. It's happening at some point in time. It's a match that's happened many times in many different places around the world. It's a match that hasn't happened in WWE yet.

And when that happens with the correct build, oh, my goodness. Because Penta does some things in the ring where you're just like, oh, it's so smooth. It's so effortless. And it's the same thing with Ray Phoenix. Ray Phoenix does some things that are like, like he's one of few humans on earth that can do them, and he does them and makes them look so easy.

Put those guys together in a match. Wow. But I'm curious to see who Penta's next big feud is, and is that the feud that takes us into WrestleMania. But what a pop for Penta. And I love how it tied Danhausen into this as well, which brings us right to this question from Jason Dean Martin on Facebook. Do you think Danhausen's very nice segment on Raw erases the bad taste left over from his debut

that many fans had? Keep up the great work, always excited to see who's next. I feel like the work he did on Raw is a wonderful introduction to what the Danhausen character is all about. And I know there's a lot of people who may be familiar with Danhausen,

they may like, they recognize him. Oh, yeah, I've seen him before, but maybe they may be there. don't know his work. And I feel like the segment on Raw with Adam Pierce was like this great introduction to who he is, what he's about, his very specific brand of humor, which I think is so good, and just give it a few weeks. And you're going to be saying Hausen at the end of everything. Like it's so, he's such a lovable character. And like everything about that segment on Monday with the list of demands, Danhausen's been talking about a blimp,

for years. I loved that his list of demands was on a wet piece of paper. Everything about that. Him like, I don't know if he caught it, but the very start of the segment, calling him, what do he call him Cold Steve Austin?

The funny names he has for everybody he calls CM Punk Pepsi Phil. He has all of these great names for people. You're gonna love him. The thing I always ask from wrestling fans, and I know that this is a huge ask,

but I always ask is just have a little bit of patience. Have a little bit of patience. Stop being so quick to judge. And I'm not just talking about Danhausen specifically. I'm talking about storylines, finishes. Some of them don't pan out. I get that. But a lot of them do.

And it just takes a week or two or three for you to finally see, oh, this is what the thread is. This is what they're going for here. Okay, let's see how this plays out. With Danhausen, it's impossible not to love him. And I feel like we got such a warm welcome to him on Monday. On Sunday, it was interesting because I don't feel like it was a good display of what Danhausen's all about.

Like, coming out with the dancers, which, like, that's not part of what Danhausen does. Yes, he's a little bit out there. He's a little bit zany. His character's almost like otherworldly. the dancers were like they were a bizarre part of that entrance and I think it added to like the strangeness of the Danhausen character

but I don't feel like it was a good introduction of like to new fans of what Danhausen's all about honestly I feel like they should have just done a backstage segment with the box the box should have like been pried open like it did

and then Danhausen even if you'd like continue the segment there with Nick Aldous and Adam Pierce. Maybe, like, they pry open the box. He comes out, and he just, like, says, oh, hello, Colt Steve Austin, nice disguise with the glasses,

and then says something to Nick Aldous and then walks off, and then they both look confused, and then it sets us up for Monday. I feel like that might have been, and maybe he curses both of them, I don't know, but it would have been a nice introduction

of, like, to just how out there this character is. The teeth will end up being a big part of what Danhausen does, just be patient, on that. It'll be really interesting to see how it gets worked into his WWE character. But they instantly made the Dan Housen character feel important on Monday by cursing Dom, actually cursed all of Judgment Day, and then we see the payoff not long after. He curses Judgment Day. They laugh it off. Dominic Mysterio goes to the ring for what he thinks is just another

intercontinental title defense. Boom! He loses the title. Not only does this put Penta over as the new Interconnell champion, it also puts Danhausen over because as Dominic Mysterio is losing, you're thinking, oh, is it because of the curse from Danhausen? I love how that all tied together there. And I'm very excited to see where this goes. If you want even more of an introduction to Danhausen, he was a guest on my show like a year and a half ago.

It actually started popping up as a recommendation for a lot of people on YouTube. It's Danhausen completely out of character. So you'll see what he looks like, what he sounds like. Out of character, we spent a ton of money to give him human-looking

CGI, human-looking makeup for that whole interview. But go check it out either on YouTube or here on the podcast, and you'll get a really good feel for what this character is all about. He says that his biggest inspiration

is Conan O'Brien. And now that I've said that, and now that you continue to see this character over the next many weeks and months, I think it'll all kind of make sense for you. J.P.W. KER. J.P. Wicker on Instagram says, hey, Chris, long-time listener, I got an ask CVV question that I'd love to hear your thoughts on. At the chamber, Danhausen made his debut, and after the segment, fan video footage showed him and his entourage. going under the ring. My question, do you think that they have something under there to keep them comfy

until the end of the show, or do you think that they sneak them out at some point later in the show? We've seen a number of wrestlers either enter or exit under the ring over the decades, and I always wonder what the setup is, and do they have, what do they do to look after talent?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Keep up the great work. It's a great question. So I think it's dependent on who the wrestler is. I think it's dependent on a lot of things. Hornswagel has told many stories that he would spend the entire show under the ring. He would have snacks under there,

and he'd have water under there, and they'd give him a monitor to watch the show so he would know when his cue was. Or sometimes they wouldn't give him a monitor, and they would give him like the same type of earpiece that the referee would wear, and they'd be talking to him like, I'm imagining they're saying,

Oh, you're 10 minutes out. You're five minutes out. All right. 30 seconds out. Wait for this cue. Okay, then go out. But I think in most cases, a lot of times they're bringing people out,

like in the dark. So like the lights go out. When you're at a show live, the lights go out and they'll play like something on the screen, a promo, a vignette, a commercial. And a lot of time, you're most of the people in the arena, their attention is drawn to the screen. And it's black in the arena.

So there's, sneaking in somebody usually in like in the middle of like 10 security guards. So it's a little bit of like a magician's trick where it's like, slight a hand. Like you're looking at this thing over here and oh, this thing is other things happening over here. I've also seen where people get snuck in in like a big equipment of crate or something like that.

Like they'll push it down and then someone will like get out like a trapdoor on the side and sneak under the ring. again, like while the lights are out and people are being distracted by watching a video on the screen. So I think that in this situation with Danhausen and all the other performance there, I don't know this for a fact,

but I imagine that they were probably only under the ring for a few minutes before they got them out of there while everybody was looking at something else. But then you've also seen situations where like, here's a good example. Remember when Randy Orton on the Raw after

WrestleMania when he was under the ring for John Cena's entire promo to open the show. I think he was like snuck out there like right before Raw went on the air. So he's hanging out under the ring for 15, 20, 30 minutes

and then waiting for his cue and then going up there and doing his thing. But like you, I'm always interested in how they pull stuff off like that. I'm always like, especially certain matches like money in the bank last year when Art Truth made his return

during the main event I like the whole main event I was just like there's got there's something else going on here there's something's gonna happen I just kept looking at the crowd looking at the crowd sitting next to my buddy Zeus and then eventually when it happened I like kind of hey look at that

look at that he's running in and like you saw Art Truth running in from like quite a ways back and then into the ring I'm always so interested in how they pull that stuff off. I'll give you another example. Remember the street fight between, this was like a year and a bit ago,

there was a street fight between Big Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman? Actually, excuse me, Bronzstromen versus Jacob Fattu. Last Man Standing match, this was in the Allstate Arena. They were just talking about. I was standing over by one area, chatting with someone on the floor.

And security came over and they were like, you're going to need to move out of the way because they're going to be coming through here soon. I was like, oh, oh, it's interesting. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, that's exactly where they were. They were in that exact spot and that's where you saw like the suplex

and everything they were doing on the outside. I was like, oh, okay. So I always just love seeing like how that stuff all happens behind the scenes. Rye Thys, underscore 13 on Instagram, R-Y-T-H-I-E-S-S-E-U-S-E-U-S-E-U-S-E-U-R-T-T. What are your thoughts on what they'll do now

for Cody versus Drew? So we've got Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre on Smackdown Tonight. Man, this is interesting. We are on the road to WrestleMania and a match like this, I feel like,

just makes things so interesting because we know what the other three title matches are going to be. WWW. Women's Championship, Women's World Championship, and then the World Heavyweight Championship. We know those other three matches. They're locked in. We really don't know what's going on with the WWE Championship here. We don't even know who the WWE champions are going to be going into WrestleMania.

And I feel like WWE is always looking for a way to get Cody Rhodes, involved in that WWE title picture, especially around WrestleMania, which makes me, it kind of makes my spiky senses tingle as we head into Smackdown tonight with the WWE Championship on the line. This is probably the last time that the WWE championship gets defended between now and WrestleMania. That's at least what I would think here. I think we've got like four possible outcomes tonight.

Number one, Cody Rhodes could win this match after Jacob Fawtu comes in and interferes. Jacob Fawtu, obviously a big part of this whole title picture here. He's one of the reasons that Drew McIntyre is a champion right now. He's got issues here. He's got issues with Cody Rhodes. He's got issues with Drew McIntyre. There's a lot going on here. He could come in and he could upend this whole match.

Cody Rhodes ended up getting a win because of that. Number two, option number two. Drew McIntyre cheats and retains the WWE championship. We've seen Drew McIntyre do heelish things in the past. Wouldn't put it past him to do it again here. Option number three. Cody Rhodes wins the title clean. Could we see Cody Rhodes just pick up a clean victory here,

go into WrestleMania with no strings attached? It's just like one, two, three, I beat you clean. And this is interesting that Cody Rhodes even has a title shot here, because wasn't there a clause that was supposed to keep him from challenging for the WWE title while Drew McIntyre was the champion? And I know that, like, Drew McIntyre pushed Nick Aldous so much that, like, he had no choice but to make this match happen. And we'd just like to point out, because this never gets talked about. Roman Raines never got a rematch

after he lost the championship two years ago at WrestleMania 40. It's a storyline that's never brought up. It's not even a sentence that's even said. I just wanted to point that out just because it's like never talked about. Roman Raines lost the title and just kind of like held the title

for 1,316 days, lost it in spectacular fashion and one of the most talked about main events in the history of WrestleMania. And then he just kind of moved on and went, all right, well, I'll just do some other stuff then. Option number four. We get interference from Jacob Fatu,

which creates a no contest. The match gets thrown out, which I feel like this is what I'm leaning towards. I think that there's going to be a multi-man match here, whether that's three or four, I don't know. It's a fatal four-way match. Is it a three-way dance?

I'm not sure where this goes. And that's why I'm so curious. And again, I've said this so many times before, but like something shifted in 2026 where Raw and Smackdown matter. Because there was a point in time when it was just like PLE to PLE to PLE, you didn't even really need to keep up

with what was going on on Raw or Smackdown because you knew that like nothing, really important what's going to happen because the titles were going to change hands only at PLEs. That is certainly not the case anymore. So is this a match where it's Drew McIntyre versus Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes? Is this Drew McIntyre versus Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes versus Jacob Fattu? I'm not sure. It's like, and I love that we are in this unpredictable spot. right now. And for everybody who last week was saying, oh, what do you mean? It's unpredictable CVV. Clearly Cody Rhodes is going to win Elimination Chamber. Well, we saw how that all shook out.

So it's going to be really interesting here. Cody Rhodes doesn't win the Royal Rumble. So there's that one chance gone for him to go to WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes doesn't win elimination chamber. Boom. There's another chance gone for him to go to WrestleMania. this is like the last glimmer of hope here. Whatever ends up happening in this match here, I've heard some people say, maybe it ends up being, maybe Cody wins the championship back tonight,

which would make him a three-time WWE champion. Maybe Cody wins the championship back here tonight. We get Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton, which is something they've been teasing for a long time. It's a match we're definitely going to get this year, I think. Maybe that's the match we get. And then we get Drew McIntyre versus Nick Aldous because Nick Aldus has been so heated, especially in these last few weeks.

And Nick Aldous has gone on the record. He said it on my show the last time he was a guest that like his in-ring career is not done. And Nick Aldus is a wrestler's wrestler. Go back and watch any of Nick Aldous's matches, especially when he was the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. What a wrestler. Go back, actually, and watch the match that Nick Aldous had with Cody Rhodes for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship. Like, what a classic match.

A match that, like, every year on the anniversary, people always tweet about it, people always post about it on social media. Nick Aldous is not done in the ring. 39 years old, still clearly in incredible shape. Nick Aldous, I'm sure, will have another match at some point in time. maybe. Maybe it ends up being Nick Aldous and Drew McIntyre. Again, really interested to see how this one shakes out and then where that takes us from WrestleMania. But I guess after tonight, after front of night smackdown, we're going to have a really clear picture on the world title and the WWE title. So those four matches will be locked in after tonight.

If it's going to be seven matches on Saturday, seven matches on Sunday like they've been doing previously, what are the other 10 matches? And I know there's a lot of people saying like, oh, where's the build for WrestleMania this year? This isn't that uncommon. Like, Elimination Chamber was just last weekend. There's still six weeks to go here to WrestleMania.

We will have such a clearer picture of what those other matches are going to be. Tag team matches, U.S. titles, intercontinental titles, those will also. start to shake out over the next few weeks and like there's no other PLEs there's no other Saturday night's main event like we are full force now full steam ahead on that road to WrestleMania those other matches will start to all kind of fall into place and who knows

even by next ask CVV by next Friday ask CVV number 126 we might even know one or two more of those matches maybe not solidified but like some of those will be like abundantly clear, I think. And actually, these just keep leading into each other. The way we stack these questions together, I like this. This one is from Chris Toscano. Tuscano, who sent this in on

Chrisfanbley.com. Never met a Chris I don't like. Hey, Chris, I'm Chris from New York. Congratulations on your episode number 125 time, five-time show. You only wrote five times twice. I appreciate that I'm not saying it all five times again. I've been listening since episode one. You've been listening since episode one.

Man. I appreciate that. I really enjoy your show. My question is, who do you think Brock Leser's opponent will be for WrestleMania? I'm thinking Obafemi or Gunther, but I'm thinking it might be Gunther for SummerSlam.

That's exactly what I'm thinking as well, my fellow, Chris. We know that Brock Lesnar has put out an open challenge for WrestleMania, which I also think it's an interesting storyline that we get for the next handful of weeks leading into WrestleMania because I don't think this is going to be one of those situations where it's a mystery opponent. I don't think it's going to be Brock Leser going to the ring not knowing who his opponent

is going to be. I think this is going to be solved in the next, I don't know, a handful of weeks, two, three, four weeks. I think it's going to be Brock Lezzer's out there. Paul Heyman's cutting a promo on his behalf, and I think that somebody's music interrupts him. Whose music do I think that will be? I think it's going to be Obafemi.

And I think it's going to be like kind of a passing of the torch moment of like big man to big man. And like, what a match that's going to be too. Obafemi can go. Brock Leser can go, put them together. It's going to be great. And if we're to believe the whispers online or the sentence that John Sina said when he was a guest on the show, it sounds like Brock Lesnar may be retiring at SummerSlam in Minneapolis. So if that's the case, I think that the only person that's most fitting right now is the career killer.

I think that that's what we're going to get. We're going to get Brock Lesnar versus Gunther for the first time. And Gunther has ended the careers of Goldberg, of John Sina, of AJ Stiles, man, if Gunther's also the man who's going to be the last match, the final opponent for Brock Lesder, he was already a made man.

Gunther's already a made man. What a career already, but just another feather in his cap, if that ends up coming to fruition. But yeah, Chris, that's how I see this playing out as well. Vell from Cleveland sent this

one on the website for Ask CVV number 125, the WCW champion, Book a T edition. Got a hypothetical scenario for you. If the Montreal screw job never happens and Brett leaves WWE with the title, which I know would never happen, does WCW have a better chance at winning the Monday Night Wars? Vell from Cleveland.

I love these hypothetical situations. And we've talked about how the Montreal screw job is such an inflection point in the history of just pro wrestling. Like what it did for WWE, what it did for WCW, what it did for the on-screen persona of the Mr. McMahon character. Like, that created the Mr. McMahon character. Up to that point, he was just Vince McMahon, like, you knew him as the chairman.

You didn't know him as like this evil boss character. So you're saying if the screw job doesn't happen. So like, if Brett Hart does the unthinkable, does exactly what Vince McMahon hoped would not happen. So that match just ends up becoming just a, like, I think it was supposed

to be a no contest, it was just supposed to be a bunch of stuff happening at the end of the match and the match gets thrown out, no contest. Brett Hart retains the championship in his home country in Montreal and then loses it the next day on Raw. That's what he wanted it to be. So you're saying he retains the championship

in Montreal at Survivor Series 1997. But then takes the championship and then goes to Nitro with the championship. I don't know if that has a huge effect on the Monday Night Wars as a whole. I think that I think the Monday Night Wars still would have played out the way that they played out.

I think it would have been very interesting. It would have been another big moment in history, but I don't feel like the tide would have shifted that much for WCW over that event. They were still getting Brett Hart. Like that wasn't going to change at all, and that was public information. Everybody knew that. So WCW is already getting a debuting Brett Hart fresh off of just what was going on in WWE. I don't think him showing up with the title changes that much in the grand scheme of the Monday Night War.

This is 1997. The Monday Night War has continued for three plus years after that. I'm actually looking at the numbers right now, Raw versus Nitro. And at that point in time, November 1997, Nitro was way ahead in the ratings. This is part of the 83 weeks, way ahead in the ratings. It's not until, let me see if I can pinpoint it here. It's not until May of 98 that Raw starts winning. some weeks.

And then it's like back and forth for a little while. And then it's not until... Let me pinpoint it here. It's not until October of 98. That Raw takes the lead and then starts blowing Nitro away

and then it's funny. Right around the... like January, February of 99 is when Raw takes off, and nitro starts dipping. But up to that point, like, they're both pretty close. Like, the ratings are, like, neck and neck. And then the start of 99,

Raw just starts blowing nitro away. I don't know if Brett Hart showing up with the WWF championship in November of 97, I don't know if that continues the ratings to, like, continue to climb with just all of the other ridiculous stuff and terrible booking that was, going on in Nitro from that point and beyond. Yeah, it might have helped a little bit. Maybe they

want to want a few more weeks, perhaps, but I don't think it changes that much, but I love these hypothetical situations. And I, like, when people ask me, like, what's the one of the biggest moments in wrestling or, like, what's one of those inflection points that, like, what if, what if this happened or what if that happened? It's the screw job. Like, the domino effect, the butterfly effect that happens from the screw job. It's like there's so many things that end up happening as a result of it. So I love playing that what-if game when it comes to, especially that iconic moment in wrestling history. Glenn Smith on Facebook says, if you could go back and change the result of one WrestleMania match, which one would it be? For me, it has to be Booker T versus Triple H. That is

100% the correct answer. WrestleMania 19. For sure. That is the right answer. I don't know how Booker T didn't win that match. It doesn't make any sense. Triple H goes into this match as the World Heavyweight Champion. Rick Flair accompanies him to the ring. He leaves the match as the World Heavyweight Champion. It just feels like that was a moment where Booker T should have won.

Booker T goes into this, the five-time, I'm not going to do the whole thing. You get it, the five-time WCW champion. He ends up winning. Booker T ends up winning the World T. a few years later. But this was a moment. And I just think it comes back to this idea that, like, Vince McMahon didn't like putting people over that weren't homegrown WWE talent. And I think it, like, there's only a handful of people that were WCW stars that were able to make it and become stars in WWE. And, like, Ray Mysterio is, like, really one of the only other examples. Like, Ray Mysterio wasn't the

star that he was in WCW that he became in WVE. Like, cruiserweight, like one of the best cruiserweight's, like, mid-card guy, for sure. But, like, when he goes to WWE, he becomes main event talent, like a main event player. Booker T was already made man. And then going into WWE, like, you just couldn't ignore his talent.

You couldn't ignore his ability. You couldn't ignore how over he was. That is definitely. definitely the match where you got to go back and you got to change the finish of this. Booker T should have won his sixth World Heavyweight Championship there. And then if he doesn't end up winning the championship when he's King Booker. Years later, it doesn't even matter. He didn't need the championship when he was King Booker.

Although it was fantastic. The King Booker stuff, so good. And again, talking about what I was talking about earlier, Booker T can be great when he's serious. Booker T can be great when he's hilarious. Booker T. Just great. King David 0711 on Instagram says,

have you thought about interviewing football players who love wrestling? For example, George Kittle? Not only have I thought about it, King David. I sent a DM to George Kittle, and George Kittle got back to me and said, yeah, I'd love to be on your show sometime, talk a little bit of wrestling.

And if you don't know this, George Kittle is not only a huge wrestling fan, but also a close, friend of Penta. Like there's photos of George Kittle and Penta together, both wearing Penta's mask. Kittle celebrates by doing the Zetto meadow hand gesture. Love it. George Kittle recovering from that torn Achilles.

So I guess we'll see when this interview ends up happening, but he did say, yeah, I'm interested to do it. You know, who else would be a good one? Jason Kelsey. Jason Kelsey had a WrestleMania moment at WrestleMania 40. I'd love to chat with Jason Kelsey about his love of wrestling. Like, he's just like a wrestling character that happens to play football. So I would love to chat with him.

I'd love to chat with Gronk, Rob Gronkowski, who's had his WrestleMania moment. He's had lots of different moments within WWE. It's another one I would love to make happen. And then Tom Brady has made some comments about wrestling recently. And then at Fanatics Fest last year, Tom Brady, did an entrance to Cody Rhodes entrance theme. Like, Fanatics Fest, they have the WWE entranceway set up, and then you can do your superstar entrance

in front of everybody at the show at the convention, and Tom Brady had one that went viral. So I don't know if Tom Brady's a big wrestling fan, but there's clearly some mutual respect there, and there's been a little bit of, like, between Tom Brady and Logan Paul, there's been some jabs exchange, between the two of them.

And I know that they're promoting this flag football game that they have coming up in I don't know if that's a few weeks or a few months or whatever it is. But there's been some

some friendly jabs kind of given to each other. I also saw a report that Tom Brady might be part of WrestleMania 42. Not as a wrestler, but like part of a match

or part of just making an appearance there. So that'll be interesting. So yeah, of course. I'd love to talk to the goat, Tom Brady. Yes, we'd love to have some football players on who love wrestling.

Joe Tempsky the fourth on Facebook says, what is your favorite finishing move and why? I got to ask this question during the VIP Ask CVV at the Chicago show last week. And I think for me it just always comes back to the cutter. Whether it's the RKO, the diamond cutter, the Oz cutter that we'll always. Osprey does, the OG cutter. I love them all. Cody's cutter, the Cody cutter. I just love how simple

the move is. Simple yet impactful. I love that it's a move that you can do to anybody of any size. I love that it's a move that can be done out of nowhere. And that's not just a Randy Orton. That's not just an RKO thing. The way that DDP was setting this up in WCW, like, an Eddie Guerrero power bomb reversal into an RKO. Like, oh, man, Diamond Dallas Page. I love Diamond Dallas Page just as a wrestler and as a friend. Diamond Dallas Page was like revolutionizing that. And then Randy Orden took it and took it to a whole new level.

But I think for me it's the cutter. And there's just been so many great variations of it. I love the Sammy Gavara to cut. Cody Rhodes in AEW, the ladder to ladder cutter? Oh, so smooth. And when it's done right, like that RKO that I was talking about to finish elimination chamber, one, two, three, so, so smooth. So there's a lot of moves I love off the top rope.

I was heavily, heavily inspired by the Hardy Boys when I was doing my backyard wrestling as a high school student. I still do a pretty mean swan tom bomb if you get me near a diving board or you get me near a trampoline or you get me like at a at like one of those trampoline parks and I can jump off of something onto like the crash mats below or like the soft landing area below. A lot of moves off the top rope that I have like a huge amount of respect for, shooting star press, 450, Phoenix Splash. So many of them. But I think just the simple. simplicity and the beauty of a cutter. For me, it can't be matched. That's our final question on this. Ask CVV number one, two, five time, five time, five time, five time, five time, five time. WCW champion Booker T edition.

Sending your questions for next week. If you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment on there with what you think Ask CVV number 126 should be or what your question is for Asked. CVV number 126, visit chris fanvly.com, fill out the form with your question. Send me an email CVV at chrisfanvley.com or of course send it in on social media using that hashtag ask CVV. We're going to know what's happening with this WWE championship match at WrestleMania after tonight. And a man, going to be really interesting to see how that all comes together. What is the story there? How many people? are going to be involved in that

WWE championship match and who's the champion? Man, a lot of questions are going to be answered after tonight on Smackdown. Thanks for hanging out with me on a Friday. You are officially a real, real one

for tuning into an Ask CVV episode and hanging out all the way until the end. I will leave you with this quote from Henry Ford. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or at 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

Be great and be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. John Morrison joins us on Tuesday. We'll see you right back here for that one. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands, trying to make it in the world of rock.

But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them?

To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.