Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #129 - Chris Jericho Returns, Tom Brady In WWE, Most Underrated WrestleMania Ever

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

See you at Insight LIVE on April 16th at Circa Resort & Casino Las Vegas with Maven! Get tickets at https://cvvtix.com What's up Real Real Ones! Welcome to AskCVV #129! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about Chris Jericho's return to AEW, the most anticipated match of WrestleMania 42, the best sellers of all time, whether we will actually see Tom Brady in WWE, the most underrated WrestleMania of all time, who will be the next AEW World Champion, best top rope moves and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still." - Chinese Proverb 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. Oh, here we go. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's your friendly neighborhood CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thanks for hanging out with me on this Friday. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a Claymore on that follow button if you haven't done so already. Although, I'm assuming since you're a real one, since you're hanging out with me for an AskCTVV episode,

you already did that months ago, perhaps even years ago. So I will thank you for doing that. Thank you for helping to grow the show. Thank you for all of the massive guests that we've been able to land. If you're listening on Spotify, it would be super helpful if you took four seconds to leave a rating for the show on there. So when you're on the show's main page, click the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, then click rate show and the stars will pop up.

We are now less than two weeks away from the biggest insight live of the year. 13 days from now. Special guest, Maven, will join me at Circa Resort and Casino, Las Vegas for a massive show. So if you're going to be in Las Vegas, you don't want to miss this show during WrestleMania week. It's Thursday, April 16th. Maven's also going to be joining us for the meet and greet after the show. So it's a photo and autograph with both me and Mayvents. The guests so rarely stick around for the meet and greet.

So this is big. Anyone that has a VIP ticket will be part of that meet and greet and also part of the Ask CVV that happens before the show. So grab your tickets now at CVVTX.com. CVVTX.com. You can also grab tickets for the shows in Tampa and New Orleans. And Fanatics Fest. We're doing Insight Live at Fanatics Fest in New York City in July.

that show is free with the admission to Fanatics Fest. So if you have a ticket for Fanatics Fest, you'll be able to see Insight Live on the main stage there on the Saturday. We'll be announcing a really big guest for Fanatics Fest soon-ish, like month or so. But I will say, look at the lineup of everybody who's going to be at Fanatics Fest,

and it is a stacked lineup. And the guest is going to be one of those people, which doesn't really tell you. much. There's like 15 WWE superstars who have already been confirmed for Fanatics Fest, but you'll see. It's going to be a big, big guest. Also, have you seen the new Insight t-shirts that just came out? Oh, baby. Juan from of the dead designs absolutely crushed it with this. So grab those shirts at CVVmerch.com, or you can also get one at the live show in Las Vegas. We'll have all of the merch there, the many t-shirt designs.

the micro-brawlers, and also some exclusive pins as well. So I can't wait to see you there in Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas till we record the episode, and then it goes up like a week or two later. Welcome, my friend, to Ask CVV number one, to ninth Wonder of the World China edition. Also, Ask CVV. number one, two, nine-time intercontinental champion Chris Jericho edition.

And oh, yes, we will be talking about Chris Jericho's return that happened on Wednesday night. Lots to dig into on this one. If you've got a question for next week, if you've got an idea for Ask CVV number 1.30. Maybe it's number one, Russellmania 30. Although that doesn't really seem fair, because then we would just do that for the first AskCV. 1 through 101 through 142. Would just be a WrestleMania edition? I don't know.

But if you've got a question, send it in. If you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment on there. You can also send it on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV. Or my favorite way, send it in on the newly revamped

the beautiful chris vanfleet.com. Let's dive into this one from Richard Cowan. He left this on Spotify and says, yo, CVV, you called it. We got a ton more matches announced for mania. So which WrestleMania match are you most excited for right now? Yeah, after Smackdown last week and Raw earlier this week, we now have 12 matches announced for WrestleMania 42.

And I don't want to pat myself on the back too much here, but it feels like I own a crystal ball or something. A few weeks ago, I predicted almost all of these. matches that are now on the card. It's like, it's like, yeah, there's a wrestling crystal ball here, all the way down to many of the people that are in the Intercontinental Championship ladder match, which I can't wait for. Also, the first Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania in 10 years, the last one, 2016, WrestleMania 32, the one that Zach Ryder shocked the world and won that match. I love it. But like there were a lot of these where, like, we were looking at this

almost a month ago. We were just like, oh, yeah, well, this person versus this person's lining up, or, you know, it really feels like we could get this versus this, the one I was dead wrong on. And I am totally okay, admitting I was dead wrong on this one. Gunther versus Seth Rollins, which is now a match I am pumped for. And I'm very interested to see how the story ties together for this one. And I know there's a lot of people going, what's the story here? Give it some time. All we saw right now was just an attack and a

WrestleMania match. There's going to be a story. I don't think they're just throwing this match together because they're two great wrestlers, which they are. And the match is going to be phenomenal. But this, I think, ties into what we had been talking about before as Gunther is the career killer.

We get it. He's retired three legends, three Hall of Famers. But that can't be the only thing he does. He needs to continue to do. other things because there's only so many wrestlers that he can retire. There's only so many people that are at that stage of their career. So it'll be interesting to see another layer added on to Gunther's character to see where it goes from here. Before we get into the other 11 matches, my prediction here for Seth Rollins versus Gunther is Gunther can't lose. I don't think he can

lose, especially with all the momentum he has and the rumors of it's going to be Brock Lesnar versus Gunther at SummerSlam in Minneapolis. What I think, and I've been saying for a while, I think Bronbreaker will be ready to go in time for WrestleMania. I was intending that Bronbreaker would have a match, but now what I think is going to happen is Bronbreaker returns, screws Seth Rollins or costs him the match. Gunther wins.

It sets up Seth Rollins versus Bronzer. Backlash or maybe SummerSlam or perhaps both. but this card is shaping up now. I'm thinking we'll get 14 matches. That seems to be what we've got in previous years. So 12 of those 14 have been announced. Two more. Maybe it's tonight.

Maybe it's next week, but two more on the way here. So let's run down the card here. We've talked about quite a few of these, but we'll announce some of the new ones here. So we'll go with the new ones. AJ Lee versus Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship. Sammy Zane, the new WWE United States champion. putting that on the line against Trick Williams in his first

WrestleMania appearance. And I said last week, I'm like, that match is probably going to happen. Now it's official. But Trick Williams will have the entrance of the weekend. And like the roof is going to get blown off Allegiant Stadium with that entrance. Can't wait. Jacob Faw 2 versus Drew McIntyre is now official. It's an unsanctioned match.

Finn Baller versus Dominic Mysterio. We predicted that one. The fatal five way. The ladder match here for the Intercontinental Championship. This has all of the makings of a show-stealing match. Penta, putting his title on the line against Javon Evans, who you know is going to do something absolutely insane. Dragon Lee, Jady McDonough, and Rusev.

I just have this feeling, especially since it's two weeks till WrestleMania, 15 days right now, as you're listening to this. I have a feeling they're going to add one more. Fatal 5 way doesn't sound nearly as exciting as a six-man match, maybe a seven or eight-man match. I just don't think that we're going to be left with five here. And there's definitely a lot of people who aren't on the card right now that you could slide them right into this match and it would make sense. I'm looking at you, El Grande Americano and OG, El Grande Americano, although I think there's a lot more to talk about with those two. but you could slide them right into this match

and it would make perfect sense. Then we've got Nia Jacks and Lash Legend versus Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss versus Bailey and Lyra versus the Bella Twins. I feel like we predicted that one as well. And then, of course, the matches we already talked about, CM Punk versus Roman Rain, Stephanie Vakere,

making her WrestleMania debut against Liv Morgan. Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton, Jade Cargill versus Ria Ripley, Obafemi, versus Brock Lesnar. Cards really coming together here. What are those other two matches? I don't know. But the match that I'm most excited for, my answer has still not changed here. I can't wait to see how Obafemi versus Brock Lesnar comes together. We're talking about people

who are making their WrestleMania debuts, Obafemi making his WrestleMania debut. And another prediction there for just a great entrance. I think Obafemi's entrance is going to be something. special. I don't know what it is, but they're going to do something that makes it super memorable. That's the match I'm most excited for. And if I was the one who had the pen and I was booking WrestleMania, I would kick off the night. I would kick off the weekend. Night one, Saturday, that would be my first match. Set the tone for like, this is what you could expect from the rest of this weekend. I don't know where it's all going to fall in together, but WWE has announced like the full cards, probably about a week out. Like, here's the matches on Saturday. Here's the matches

on Sunday. That's how I would put this together. I'd put Oba versus Brock Lesnar, and my prediction is still Oba Femmy for that match. And he is still very much the favorite on MyBooky. And when you sign up at MyBooky, MyBooky.orgie.orgie. Use the code. CVV. You'll get a very nice welcome bonus, 50% welcome bonus when you sign up there. I'll run through very quick. here, all the favorites. I went through the matches here, but as of right now, the favorites. Roman Raines, Ria Ripley, Liv Morgan, Randy Orton, man, they're predicting a title change for every single one of those matches. Becky Lynch, Jacob Fatu, Trick Williams, Javon Evans, the slight favorite in that match, Finn Baller, Gunther, and the Irresistible Forces.

Boy, a lot of title changes for to believe the odds here. But I think it's really starting to come together here, and I think the storytelling for especially the matches at the top of the card, really coming together. Jack Pruitt left this one on Spotify, said, Hey, Chris, real, real one here. Thanks for being my go-to podcast on the road. I'm curious how the vision goes into WrestleMania

with the tag team titles. Are they going to throw speed into a match with them against the Uso's in L.A. night? Or do we get to see Danhausen's in-ring debut versus speed? Feels weird getting him involved in this, but clearly the vision has been a lot of audibles. I'm curious as to what you think. So another tag or another title change happening on weekly television, and I just love pointing out that this was not a thing. A year, two, three, four, five ago. The amount of title changes that have happened on Raw or Smackdown in 2026 alone, is a lot.

And I think it's just a reminder of like, things are not set in stone until the PLE. That had been the way that it was for a long time. You don't really need to watch Raw or SmackDown because the titles aren't going to change. And that is certainly not the case anymore. Like, no title feels safe. So on Raw, we saw the Vision, Logan Paul and Austin Theory,

beating the Uso's for the WWE World. old tag team championships. I think when we're talking about two more matches that are going to be announced at WrestleMania, that's going to be one of them. Whether it's a two-on-two tag team match or, like you said, whether it's a three-on-three match here, there's definitely something that they're cooking up here. And I think that this is the match, for obvious reasons, that Tom Brady is going to get involved in.

There's been so much just trash talk going on. over the last little while with Logan Paul and Tom Brady, I think it leads to this. I don't think it's a match. I don't think it's Tom Brady getting involved in a match, but I think it's Tom Brady maybe being ringside or Tom Brady being part of this in some sort of way. And maybe he's taking a move, maybe he's given a move,

but he's going to be factored into this match in some sort of way. Because when you take someone who has the celebrity of Tom Brady, it's going to make headlines the next day. And that's what WrestleMania has always been great about. Yes, of course we're talking about the WWE championship match or the world title or the women's world title. All of those matches matter within the wrestling sphere, within the fandom of being a pro wrestler. But there's those moments that go beyond wrestling, that bleed into pop culture. And Tom Brady doing something in a WWE ring, that's absolutely what you get here.

And then you've got the added element of I Show Speed in here. And then I Show Speed getting attacked by L.A. Knight. Yeah. On his feed. I think there's a lot of elements that are coming together here. So it's maybe not a match for the tag team titles. Maybe it's just one of like a showcase match, kind of like we saw it with Jelly Rule at SummerSlam.

But I think you're on to something here. I think it's the vision plus. someone versus the Uso's plus someone, like I think that that's what we get here. Three on three with just the ability here to like really bring together some eyeballs from outside of the world of wrestling. And in fact, since the first hour of WrestleMania is going to be available on ESPN, like not the ESPN streaming app, just ESPN itself. This might be one of those matches that they'll show on there.

This might be one of those matches to like really draw people in and make them go, oh, man, that match was great. And it featured some people that I don't, that I'm aware of. And I'm a casual wrestling fan or a lapsed wrestling fan or maybe not even a wrestling fan at all. I just happen to be watching ESPN. Maybe that's the match that gets them to go, hmm, yeah, I want to see what the rest of WrestleMania looks like. 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.

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The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Pete Gowser sent this one in on Chrisfanli.com and says, yo, CV double. What do you think is the most underrated WrestleMania of all time? For me, and this is just my opinion, I don't think people talk enough about

WrestleMania 31 as a whole. I think there's moments from WrestleMania 31 that get brought up. Of course, the RKO to Seth Rollins out of the stomp. Oh, my goodness, so clean, so perfect. But I think that as a whole, WrestleMania 31, like, is pretty stacked. I think there's the obvious ones people talk about,

WrestleMania 17, WrestleMania 18, WrestleMania 40. I think a lot of people also talk about WrestleMania 38. But in terms of like underrated, underappreciated, WrestleMania 31. Daniel Bryan winning the Intercontinental Championship.

John Cena bringing the U.S. title back. Sting's first WWE match. Undertaker, casually returning, and then beat Bray Wyatt, like an epic dream match. The cash in at the end, obviously another moment that people talk about, but the whole, the show is a whole. I think that for me, that's the one. Rusev with the tank entrance. How could we forget about that?

This is fantastic. But I think that there's just so many moments there. There's also the face off of NWO versus DX. I think for me, when you're talking about underrated WrestleMania's, WrestleMania 31, crazy to think that was 11 years ago. Man. Scott Farrow on Facebook says, do you ever feel like there is such a thing as too much buildup to a match?

Almost like they're treading water too long and then it becomes predictable that something will happen on raw and you can, pretty much assume how it's going to go. I see exactly where you're coming from here, Scott. I was never a fan during the attitude era of the go home show being what it was. And like this was before SmackDown. So like this is when there was just raw

and then the next show you would see was the pay-per-view. And there would always be a segment where, and I'm going to just make up names here, this is not a specific example, but if Rock and Austin had a feud and they were meeting each other at the pay-per-view that weekend. There would be something that would happen where Rock and Austin would face off and then two other people on each side, two baby faces would run in, two heels would run in and you'd be like,

oh man, we're going to get a six-man match tonight. It's like not even going to mean anything. And that would happen like month in and month out. And it almost got to the point where it's like, why do we even need to watch the go home show? Nothing's going to happen here. And like, that's still, the case kind of to this day. Like the title's not going to change hands on Smackdown the day before the PLE or on raw five days before the PLE. But I see what you mean because when you're really building towards something big, how many promos can they cut on each other? They can do it maybe one week, maybe another week. But when you're talking about week after week after week after week, it has to keep building to a boiling point.

And I think that you have to have it where this week adds on to last week rather than just like a lateral move. How many times can they do the pull apart? That's what they call them. That's where the wrestlers brawl and then the indie wrestlers dressed up as security guards run in and break things up. How many times can you do the promo and then the pull apart? Like you can only do that so many times before you go, yeah, we've seen this before.

So I'm with you. I think that there can be too much buildup, but on the flip side of it, you get a lot of people online, and this has happened over the last month or so. We're a month away from WrestleMania. There's only four matches announced. What's going on here? This is exactly what we're talking about. Because you have to continue to build things up.

And I've enjoyed the slow build, the simmer here, like we got, say, with Sammy Zane and Trick Williams. They'd been teasing towards this. There had been some animosity there. Sammy Zane wins the United States championship. Then boom. Trick Williams versus Sammy Zane. It makes sense.

I'm sure we'll continue to see how this will build over the next week or so. But yeah, I think there can be too much, a thing as too much of a build-up to a match. And every year you've got that long chunk of time between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania. And Elimination Chamber is the last PLE before WrestleMania. You've got seven weeks there to build up, to tell stories that seven raws, seven Smackdowns, 14 shows in total. But it's like you're building for a while. So if you know what the match is going to be right after Elimination Chamber, how do you continue to keep it interesting leading up to

WrestleMania? And I think when you look at this card right now, some of those matches have done a really good job of maintaining that interest. And some of them, it's like, okay, we get it. And I kind of, I'm super excited about Roman Raines versus CM Punk, but I don't know how they can continue to sell this match. It's already been sold. Like, I'm ready to go. Give me this match on Sunday night this weekend and I'm locked in. I don't think there's any, anything more you can continue to build on this. But with that said, I would love to see where it goes from here. Is there another layer you can add to this? Can you can you peel off another layer of that onion? Guess we'll find out. Real cousin Henny on Instagram says, Chris, what's the AEW title match at

all out going to be in your opinion? We are way ahead of this right now. That's not happening until August. So we're looking at this like quite a ways in advance here. August 30th, all in London. But if we were to make a prediction now, for almost five months out, if there was ever a time for Will Osprey, it's going to be Wembley. The story writes itself. Will Osprey coming back against all odds, a double-neck fusion, and it's Will Osprey, MJF, the third time they'd be facing off against each other. And I just feel like AEW is an end. a different place just in general here. And this wouldn't just be about like the U.S. versus the U.K. MJF versus Will Osprey here. I feel like MJF's character has evolved quite a bit.

This version, this iteration of Will Osprey also feels different. And I just think that when you put all of the pieces together here, Will Osprey, London, Wembley, it just all makes sense. And I know we've got quite a bit of time between now and then, but I would be surprised, number one, if MJF isn't still the AEW world champion by that point. And number two, I'd be surprised if it's not Will Osprey in this title match. And then I'd be just shocked if Will Osprey doesn't get that moment. So that's what I'm going to go with now and like, well deserve. Like, I think Will Osprey should have been the world champion a while ago. I understand with the neck injury, maybe they already saw the writing on the wall and they

knew that he was going to be taking some time off. But, yeah, Will Osprey is everything that he needs to be to be the world champion. And all in feels like the perfect time to make this thing happen. Lee Davies sent this one in on ChrisFambley.com and says, Hey Chris, long-time listener from Liverpool in the UK, and I thought I'd send in a question for Ask CVV number 129 on the newly revamped Chrisfanfleet.com. With all the Jericho and WW rumors,

do you think it was clever business from AEW and Jericho in keeping us waiting and chatting about a possible WW return only then to have him returned to AEW on Dynamites so close to WrestleMania? I thought it was a great move, although it would be interesting to know how much longer he has on his AEW contract. Thanks for all you do, Lee. There are so few actual surprises in wrestling, and this was one of them.

I think when you put the pieces together in hindsight, maybe it makes sense. It's Winnipeg, Chris Jericho's hometown. Him being there, him making his return makes sense, but I don't feel like anyone had this on their bingo. card. I don't feel like anybody who was going into the arena that night in Winnipeg or anybody watching Dynamite live on Wednesday night was thinking Chris Jericho's going to return here. What a moment. What a moment. And it's an interesting move because there was all this chatter about the Royal Rumble. Chris Jericho's definitely going to return to the Royal Rumble. Then when the crate was first announced, Dan Housen's crate, when that was first shown on TV, well, maybe Chris Jericho's in this

crate. And there was all these whispers of, is Chris Jericho going to be involved in something at WrestleMania? How would, how would he fit into the current landscape of things going on in WWE? I think it's unclear right now what Chris Jericho's status is in AEW, what his contract looks like. But I will say that AEW has been really good about not having people on their website if they're not under contract. And that was the thing that kept getting pointed to during Royal Rumble weekend, during everything that was going on around Elimination Chamber. Chris Jericho remained on the roster page of AEW's website,

which led everyone to go, well, he's not going to be on their roster page if he's not under, like, if he's under contract, he's on the roster page. It makes sense. So how could he possibly appear in WWE if he's under contract with AEW? We haven't seen Chris Jericho work a match since April 6th, 2025. So almost exactly a year. Chris Jericho's been off TV. It's not an uncommon thing for Chris Jericho to take time off.

He's done that plenty of times in his career. He has a lot of different outside interests, wrestling being one of the many things he does on top of Fazi, on top of his multiple best-selling books, on top of his crews, on top of his podcast. he's got a lot of balls in the air. He's doing a lot of different things from the reports that I've been seeing online. It's unclear whether he had a deal that was frozen or if some time was added on for anything like that

or if maybe a new agreement has been reached. But I can't see Chris Cherico going out there for just a pop in Winnipeg if there's not a plan with this. And I'm just making up numbers here. but if Chris Jericho only had three months left or six months left, which would take him through double or nothing and all in, I can't see him coming back to do that and then leave. My gut tells me that he signed a new deal.

My gut also tells me, just based on what we're seeing here, he didn't just return to return. He returned and interrupted the contract signing here. which kind of feels like if you're interrupting a contract signing between MJF and Kenny Omega, kind of to me suggests that he's going back to his roots as an AEW world title contender. And I think that when you look at what he was doing a year-ish ago, and we did last see him on AEW television and Ring of Honor television, he's doing quite a bit of stuff with Ring of Honor. It was a learning tree gimmick.

And Chris Jericho is an absolute wizard when it comes to gimmicks and reinvention and all of the different nuance that he puts into all of his characters, the learning tree just didn't hit. All of the other gimmicks he got over. Learning Tree just, it got stale quickly. And I think that what we're seeing now is either a reinvention or it's him rebooting one of his other characters and putting a new spin on it. And that's kind of what it looks like now. But man, he looks like he's in the best shape he's been in in a long time. And if Chris Jericho only has a handful of years left and he has not made it public, how many more years he wants to wrestle for, but he's 55 right now. Does he want to wrestle till he's 60? Does he want to wrestle into his

60s? Or is it maybe a year or two or three left? If he has signed a new AEW deal, is this the last AEW deal that he signed? I think we'll get a lot of answers. to all of these questions over the next few weeks. But great to see Chris Jericho looking healthy. Great to see Chris Jericho back with Judas as his entrance theme. When he was a heel with the learning tree, he had changed his entrance theme. Great to see him back getting the reaction that he got in his hometown. And I guess this also just goes to show that not everything you read online,

especially when it pertains to wrestling news, is true. there were so many people convinced he was going to be at the Royal Rumble. And then when he wasn't there, there were so many people convinced that he was going to be doing something around Elimination Chamber. Guess you can't believe everything you see online. I think the other big question that comes out of this is, does Chris Jericho now ever return to WWA? or does he, did he take a big money deal to stay in AEW and essentially end his career there, which seems to be the same thing that Dustin Rhodes did. Like Dustin Rhodes seemed very happy being an AEW signed a multi-year contract extension there.

I think that's the other question here. There's a lot of questions. One is like, did he, did Chris Jericho sign a new deal? Two, how long is that deal for? And then three, does he end his career in AEW? Does he ever have that run in WWE? I think we can all agree, and it's just a foregone conclusion

that whenever Chris Jericho hangs him up, whenever he does have his final match, in whatever company that's going to be, he is for sure, without question, a WWE Hall of Famer. It's just a matter of when is that last match and for what company is that last match for? Stephen Canto on Facebook says,

What is the greatest pop of all time? Is it Stone Cold coming out to help mankind win the title? Or is it John Cena returning at the 2008 Royal Rumble? Two huge pops for sure. I think that Austin pop was the quintessential pop of the attitude era. Mick Foley even joked about it when he was on the show in November. He said that Mick Foley winning the title, that him winning the title was the second biggest pop of the night.

Like, how funny is that? There was a huge pop when Austin's music hits, and he comes out to help Foley. But then when Folly, when mankind, it's so funny that, like, that's the one character we do that with, we switch back and forth. But when mankind won the title, yeah, big pop, but not nearly as big as the Austin pop.

There's a lot of just legendary Austin pops in general. And I think there's also some components to, the mid to late 90s pops, early 2000 pops that just like adds so much to it. There's something about just the grittiness of those shots. There's something about all of the signs and I'm so glad that signs are back. I was like, I was upset for a while. There was a period there in the 2010s when there just was barely any signs. I remember being at a show in 2019 and I counted and there was like six signs in the entire

building. Like, what? There used to be six signs in a row. I love signs. And I understand that, yeah, I can't see if someone's holding them up. They don't hold them up for the whole show. They hold them up for like big moments or entrances. But I think it's the signs. I think it's the flash bulbs. I think it's all of it put together. That just makes some of those returns, some of those pops, some of those entrances feel like they mean that much more. But I I think if we're talking about like big pops and you kind of gave me a false dichotomy here, Stephen, you said greater pop of all time and you just gave me two options. But I think that another huge pop nine years ago yesterday, the Hardy Boys were turning at

WrestleMania 33. And I think about this often. That pop was massive. And when we were talking about Jericho and we said that there's so few secrets still in wrestling, the way they kept the Hardy Boys a secret, the fact that they were. worked a ring of honor match the night before in Lakeland, Florida, and then they snuck them into the building. I love hearing those stories. I love the, all of the things that go into keeping the surprise a surprise. But I think often, if Camping World Stadium in Orlando had a roof,

that pop would have been even louder. If you can imagine that. If you can somehow wrap your head around that Hardy Boys return sounding even louder, just think about the fact. fact that there's no roof. It's an open-air stadium. Wow. Michael Irving sent this one in on Chris Vanfleet.com. He says, you are by far the most intelligent and engaging broadcaster in your conversations with WWE talent. Great job. Intelligent? I don't know. Engaging, perhaps. I think it would be awesome if you had Jim Johnston as a guest on your show. He's composed some fabulous music for WWE, and he should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Again, fabulous job and I wish you continued success.

Sincerely, Michael Irving. I could not agree more. Jim Johnston, not being in the WWE Hall of Fame just does not make sense. He was the soundtrack to our childhood, especially if you're around my age or if you're in your 30s or 40s. Jim Johnston, the soundtrack of our childhood. When you think about the most iconic wrestling themes of all time, Jim Johnston compose them. It's as simple as that. Stone Cold, Mick Foley, Triple H. One, two, is this one? DX, the brood, like, Ultimate Warrior, Razor Ramon, like, you could just name every wrestler from the 90s, early 2000s, and Jim Johnston put together their theme song. And also, they're like, even if he didn't say, it or or like he produced it. So like songs like like Triple H's song with Motorhead,

the game. He put that together. He wrote it and produced it and Motorhead performed it. Batista's song was saliva like all of this. There's so much that goes into it and he was so incredible at making these songs that fit these characters so well. And also I think the thing that Jim Johnston doesn't get enough credit for, although people talk about this, but he was so good at telling you exactly who the person was that was coming out within a second or less. The glass shattering, the gong, the, the first beat or two, the car crash of Mick Foley's theme, the first beat or two of almost everybody's theme song, Brett Hart with the guitar, so many things. Jim Johnston, an absolute

legend. Jim Johnston has been on the show before. This is one that I get asked about all the time. People are like, when are you going to have Jim Johnson on the show? And one of my favorite things is when I get a message or a comment and people are like, hey, when are you going to have Carmelo Hayes on the show? Oh, he was on the show two years ago. Oh, man, someone emailed me earlier this week. I would love to see an interview with Mark Jindrack. Well, here you go. Mark Jindrack was on the show four years ago. Enjoy the conversation. Here's a link to it. Jim Johnston is probably the one that I get asked about the most. And I get it.

It was an interview done over Zoom. It was done in 2021. So a while ago, like five years ago, but it exists. And it's a fantastic conversation. He was sitting in his studio when he did it. And he wrapped it up and he's like, do you want to play a song for you? I think I asked, I said, could you, as we end this interview, could you play one of your theme songs?

It's up to you. He goes, I think I got to play Undertaker. I had chills. He's playing Undertaker's theme song on his piano. Amazing. April, 2021, go check it out either where you're listening to this right now or go check it out on YouTube, a fantastic conversation, which also makes me realize we've got to get Jim Johnston back on for an in-person conversation.

Even if we talk about a lot of the same stuff we talked about in the last one. Shane McMahon's entrance theme, Vince McMahon's entrance theme, Randy Orton's entrance theme. The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Funk O. Popper 6 on Instagram. Hey, when is the Chris Sharp interview coming? We were robbed. Yes, on Wednesday, April 1st,

I said that we were getting a Chris Sharp interview the next day. I put up the tomorrow graphic. an iconic photo of the 17-year-old Chris Sharp making his entrance in the HCW Backyard Wrestling Federation as the HCW champion, the two-time HCW champion. I even made up a thumbnail with Chris Sharp, me with the frosted tips on the left, and then current me on the right. A lot of people said that I look a lot like Chris Sharp. I don't know if I see the resemblance. Most people caught on to this, but there were a lot of people that didn't catch on to this

that this interview was being promoted on April 1st. I feel like I really got you guys with a good April Fool's joke. And it was something I meant to do last year. And I think it was like April Fool's was just, it came and went and I went, oh man, I forgot to put that together. Forgot to like pull this prank on you guys. But yes, it was a fun April Fool's joke, although I've seen the comments that you guys want one of those weird Al style videos, kind of like Kurt Angle on the Rock, where it's like me on one side and we're just splicing in answers on the other side. It'd be fun.

I just don't know if we could do that for an hour. And yeah, I know, I know. It could be two minutes. It could be three minutes. I don't think I want to dye my hair. I think I want to frost those tips. I don't know if it really works for a 42-year-old me to have frosted tips. Although I only had those frosted tips for like six weeks, seven weeks.

It just so happened that the shots that have been out there, I guess the biggest moments of Chris Sharp's backyard wrestling career. What a dumb sentence that is. Chris Sharp's backyard wrestling career. the two years that we were doing backyard wrestling, and you got to remember, we were doing this in my hometown, Pickering, Ontario, Canada.

There's a pretty short window of time when you can be doing things in your backyard when there's not either snow, cold weather, or frozen ground. So it was typically speaking April to September. It was kind of the backyard wrestling season, if you will. So when I was 16, we had,

one full season of backyard wrestling. And then when I was 17, we had another full season of it, including an appearance on JonoVision, which was a national talk show in Canada on the CBC, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation hosted by Jonathan Torrens, who, if you watched Trailer Park Boys, J. Rock. Yes, J. Rock was the host of not only Johnovision, he was also the host before Johnovision of a show called Street Sense. He was such a great host

and then had an amazing acting career in Canada. But the classic screenshot you see of me wearing like this blue button-up shirt with a tank top underneath and the puka shell necklace and the frosted tips, the most 2001-looking photo you'll ever see, that was on JonoVision.

And I think I still have a VHS tape of that. I should probably post some clips of that and put them online. It'd be so fun to see that. I was on there with my buddy Greg Cusack. His wrestling name, his backyard wrestling name was Rage. Our buddy Will White, whose backyard wrestling name was Danny Courageous. He was sitting in the audience, holding our mid-card title, the CWF title, the Canadian Way of Fighting Championship. I think it was made for another backyard wrestling company called the CWF. And I don't know how we ended up getting their title, but we did. So we called it the Canadian way of fighting was our midcard title.

So funny how this is all coming back to me here. But I don't think we'll be seeing a Chris Sharp episode. Maybe if you guys forget about this April Fool's joke, maybe in three or four or five years, I will tease it again that we're going to have Chris Sharp on the show. But it was fun to see the reactions. And also, just thank you for the love. It was such a short moment of my life, a short span of. of my life, two summers, really.

But here we are 25 years later, and people are still talking about Chris Sharp, so much so that I have been asked if I want to create a Chris Sharp micro-brawler. And the answer to that is hell yes. So this is the first time I'm announcing this. It's the first time I'm talking about this at all. But you will be seeing a very special Chris Sharp micro-brawler

in the next probably two months. We just started production on this. And yes, there will be a Chase version of the Chris Sharp microbraller that has the blonde frosted tips. But it's going to be complete with the HCW championship, the whole thing. And I just have a feeling that those microbrallers will sell far faster than the current ones, which are almost sold out of the Chris Van Fleet microbrallers. If you still want to grab one, you can either go to CVVmerch.com or come to a live show. We've got a ton of them at the live show.

I think there's, I'm looking at the pile right now in my office. I think there's four chase figures left. So if you're a micro-brawler and you're like a completionist and you need to have every single one and you really want that chase, you better go to CVVmerch.com, grab one up before they're completely gone. Because when the CVV micro-brawlers are gone, they're gone forever. You can maybe grab one on eBay from someone who's reselling them, but when they're gone, they're gone. So grab a CVV micro-brawler. Now, keep an eye out for the Chris Sharp micro-brawler in the next two-ish months.

Pat Taylor! You put a zero as your O here. Pat Taylor on Instagram says, for Ask CVV number one, not quite 30. Who is your Mount Rushmore of active sellers? I've got Dronov, Nemeth, McDunna, and Lyra. That's a great Mount Rushmore right there. I think if we're talking about great sellers in wrestling right now, you've got to have Nick Nemith slash Dolph Ziegler on there.

He is so good at like, it just looks like he gets hurt. It looks like he gets hurt selling some of these moves. And he was talking about this when he was on the show that like, it's one thing to convince a young fan in the audience. It's another thing to go through the back and like there's a 40-something-year-old man going, are you okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. What are you talking about?

Oh, wow, you got me, man. You got me. So Nick Nemeth, of course, I think on everybody's list of being just a great seller. And of course, you said active sellers. So we're just talking about people who are currently an active wrestler. You know who doesn't get enough love for being an absolutely great seller? seller, Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar is so good at making his opponent look amazing.

And there's a ton of examples of this. Like, there's one of, like, him going 10 feet in the air on a choke slam from the Undertaker. There's a lot of examples of him just, like, selling these moves and bouncing off the mat and, like, making him look amazing. But it's also the way he sells punches. Like, look at his debut with Spike Dulles. Maven and the Hardee's, the way that he's selling those chair shots, or I guess should say

no selling the chair shot, that chair shot from Jeff Hardy is one of the hardest chair shots you'll ever see. And just the way he flails his arms, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He does it on punches too. Go back and watch my favorite Brock Lesnar match, my favorite, one of my favorite rock matches. Obviously, my favorite rock matches, is WrestleMania 18, but if you go back and look at SummerSlam 2002 with Rock and Brock Lesnar, Brock just putting on a masterclass of selling. And who was it that I was talking to recently? I said, man, Brock Lesnar is such an underrated seller.

And they're like, yeah, if he likes you, he'll sell for you. And it's like, oh, that's interesting. So, like, if Brock likes you, it's clear that he, like, goes out of his way to, like, do whatever he can to make you look amazing, like to put you over completely. We're seeing that with Obafemmy right now. Drew McIntyre told a great story about this recently of like he kind of got that same treatment of like when he was in that feud with Brock Lesnar leading up to WrestleMania 36. Like Brock was doing the most to make Drew McIntyre look like a worthy opponent, someone who could beat Brock Lesnar and win that WWE championship. So we got Nick Namath,

Barack Lesnar, J.D. McDona is another great one. I'm glad you put him on your list. He was telling me, go back and that's such a fun interview. Go back and check that one out if you're having from last year. He said that he wants to go as high as he possibly can on back body drops, that him and AJ Styles had this competition between the two of them on who could go higher on back body drops. J.D. McDonough's whole like M.O. when it comes to wrestling is how good can I make my opponent look? Like his whole job in there is just to like push the story forward and make his opponent look like a million bucks. And the fact that he's aware of that and the fact that he works hard to be a great seller. I love it. I'll give you one more here because that's how Mount Rushmore's

work. But it's so hard to narrow down to just four. But you know who else? doesn't get enough love for how great they are at selling. Austin Theory. Look at any Austin Theory match, and he's doing everything he can. I'll give you a perfect example of a moment. Austin Theory taking the choke slam from Jelly Roll at SummerSlam 2024 in Cleveland,

he got up so high. And like, jelly roll ends up doing it with the one hand, and that was a much bigger jelly roll at that time. He's lost like 200 pounds since then. But jelly roll with the one hand in the air and then giving the choke slam with the other hand. Man, so good. I love it. And the list can go on and on you.

Lyra is a great example of that. Ria Ripley is another really good one. I think that while I guess still active, Rob Van Dam. I think when some people think of active, they think about like week in, week out, but Rob Van Dam is still active. He hasn't retired. but I think that when you're so good of a seller, I think sometimes it goes unnoticed.

And I think that one of the really great things about Nick Nemes' career, Dolph Ziegler's career, is that people realize how good he is. And especially when you see him take like a brogue kick, oh my God. It's like he got shot. And he would actually say that he took some of his inspiration from,

he said he would like watch a movie and like how the second most important bad guy would, would die or would take a punch. He's like, oh, that's interesting. I'm going to note that. Or he would watch like MMA fights and see how someone would get knocked out. And he'd be like, oh, I'm going to put that into the vault here

and just like kind of remember that one for next time. Thomas sent this one in on chris fanfleet.com. Middle name is Christopher, though. Okay, well, I've never met a Chris I don't like. Hey, Chris, wanted to thank you for getting me back into wrestling after a 20 plus year hiatus. Well, welcome back, Thomas. Also, you have subsequently made my wife a first time and very avid fan. It's a birthday today. So I want to give her a surprise shout out since she listens to every Ask CVV. Well, happy birthday to Thomas's wife. We don't know what your

name is here because your husband, Thomas, did not tell us. So you, I guess, will just be Thomas's wife, Thomas with the middle name, Christopher. So Thomas Christopher, wife. Although your email here's maybe makes me think your last name is Smith. So Mrs. Smith, happy birthday to you. My question is, who are your four horsemen of top rope finishers? Macho man's elbow drop and Jeff Hardy's swanton are up there for me. Thank you so much. So you're doing like, instead of calling it Mount Rushmore, you're calling it the four horsemen. I like your style here, Thomas. Macho man's elbow drop is iconic. I think just an elbow drop in general from the top rope, iconic. No one did

it smoother than macho man. So I'm with you. Especially if you're a kid of a certain age, like if you grew up watching a certain age of wrestling, come on, every kid jumped off their bed or jumped off their couch doing the macho man. Oh yeah. Elbow drop. Also for me, swan ton bomb. I had such an introduction to trying to do the swan tom bomb off a diving board in the pool, then was doing them off trampolines, not off a trampolines, but on trampolines, sometimes on to friends on trampolines. Then it turned into my finishing move when I was a backyard wrestler. So the swan tom bomb was just one, I remember seeing it for the first time being like,

how did he do that? Because it felt like, especially when you were thinking about, about like early Jeff Hardy Swanton bombs. It was like he kind of paused in the air for a minute and then rotated. And I was just blown away by how he did it. And then very quickly it evolved from being a top rope move to he was jumping off any high object you could find. Man, just making it look so, so good. I love the shooting star press. And there's not a specific person for me that I'm like, oh, their shooting star press is better than everybody else's. I just love the shooting star press in general. And I've always been so impressed by people that can do moves that I don't have

the ability to do. I could do a gainer off of a diving board, but I never had the balls to jump off off of something and try to do it in a wrestling match or in a backyard wrestling match. So I've always been blown away by watching someone do it so smoothly, land so perfectly, because there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And I know that when you're watching TV, the top rope might not seem that high, but when you get into a ring and you start climbing up, bottom rope, middle rope, and then you're standing on the top rope, it's a lot higher than you think. And when you're doing something like a shooting star press where you're rotating in the air, you've got to land, not only one like landing on the target, but you've also got to land with enough room that you're not flattening

the guy. You're not pancaking the guy. So you're landing on your hands and your knees and giving enough room for that guy to like be okay with your landing that's coming from a lot of force off the top rope. So shooting Star Press to me has just always been, man, just such a beautiful move. And when you talk about beautiful moves, I love the 450. I just think it looks so clean. And there's so much room for error with a 450 because it's a rotation. and a quarter. It's a rotation. And then like we're talking about with the shooting star,

you've got to land perfectly on your hands and your knees. You're not crushing the guy. And we've seen a lot of those go wrong. We've seen a lot of knees to faces. We've seen a lot of knees to groins. We've seen either the guy giving the move get hurt. More often than not, the guy taking the move can get hurt. But I've just always had such an appreciation for that super tight rotation, boom into a flawless landing when it is done correctly, which is why I just have such an incredible appreciation, just such an, man, my hat's off to Leon Slater. To combine two of the moves I've listed on this Mount Rushmore,

the Swanton 450, like he jumps off and it's a perfect-looking swan ton, then somehow rotates and it's a clean 450. Every single time I go, oh my goodness, I can't believe it. And I can't wait to have Leon Slater on the show so I can shake his hand, look him in the eye and tell him face to face what an unbelievable move that is. I've always loved the acrobatic stuff off the top rope. And there's a lot of different things you can do off the top rope. Honorable mention to AJ Stiles and the spiral tap.

Honorable mention to Yang time. and that's a, I already mentioned it, but Jimmy Wang Yang is going to be on the show. The way he did Yang time, it's so good. So good. So there's my four, but man, I've got a huge appreciation for, I'll call them like trampoline style moves. I'll call them like bounce house moves. Because when I was 15, 16, 17, 18 and there was a bounce house at a birthday party or a

bounce house at like an event at college that would get in there. and do moon salts and do 450s and do all the things that I would never be able to do off a top rope, unless there was a very thick crash pad inside the ring. Daibo.coma on Instagram says, yo, CVV, you seem like you have perfect discipline. So I must ask, other than pizza, what's a vice that you have? I'm glad that the outward appearance is that I have great discipline, but I would not say that is true at all. I would say I have okay discipline, slightly above average discipline, but I am a sucker

for pizza. I'm a sucker for chicken wings, which I talked about last week. I have a sweet tooth. That's probably the worst part is like if we go to a restaurant and there is literally anything on a dessert menu, I'm getting it. Like, I cannot say no to dessert. I also can't say no to cake. I love a great Costco sheetcake. And I know it serves like 48 people. But there's been so many times in the past that when my birthday comes around, Rach is like RVV, the beautiful, wonderful, incredible RVV is like, what do you want for your birthday? I'm like a Costco sheet cake. She's like, but there's only going to be like four of us eating it. I'm like, I don't care.

I'll have like six pieces of it, a Costco sheetcake. And then it like stays in the fridge for the rest of the week. And every time I open up the fridge, I go, oh, Costco sheet cake. I'll have a slice. I'll have a slice after lunch. I'll have a slice after dinner. Is it a slice of cake or is it a piece of cake? I feel like it's a slice of pie and it's a piece of cake.

I don't know. Interesting how that works. Slice piece. But desserts for me. And I think that if I went to a restaurant and they had like the warm baked cookie in the skillet with ice cream on top, I'm ordering that every time. Also, if they had pie, especially apple pie, I'm going to order that as well. Alamoid, sure. Give me some ice cream.

I love it. But sweets are. For sure, my vice. And I'm not as bad about it now as I once was. Like I was the guy who ate candy like every day. Like when I worked in Miami and Channel 7, WSVN, across the street from the TV station was a Speedway gas station. And almost every day I would either go there first and get some candy or I would go there

like midway through the day, like lunchish time and go grab. whether it was like gummy bears or sourpatch kids or love mambas. Oh, mambas are so good. Starburst skittles. I'm just naming every candy now. But gummies especially, I think, were of ice for a while. If they're in front of me, I will certainly eat them. But for me, it's more like baked goods.

I'm just such a sucker for cakes and pies and especially warm baked cookies. But it all offsets with I'm walking 11,000, 12,000 steps a day, starting most days, either on the treadmill or going for a walk with the kids, working out four or five days a week. Like, there's a balance, right? There has to be a balance with that type of stuff. But if you came to my house and knocked on the door and you had a pepperoni pizza, especially in New York style pepperoni pizza, and along with that, you, you know, you also had a sheet cake,

I would just tell you to move in. I'd be like, yep, bring the food and stay as long as you'd like. Well, that's it, my friend. That is the final question on this. Ask CVV number one to ninth wonder of the world China edition. And Ask CVV number one to nine

time intercontinental champion Chris Jericho edition. Sending your thoughts for Ask CVV number one. 30, send in your questions by leaving a comment on Spotify. Also, if you're still listening on Spotify right now, if you're still listening in general, you are a real, real one. The real ones click in and listen. They hit play on an Ask CVV episode. The real, real, real ones stick around all the way until the very end like this. And the real, real, real ones show up to live shows, Insight Live, CVVTex.com.

If you are listening on Spotify, leave a comment with the word cookie, maybe even your favorite type of cookie. And now I want to go eat a cookie. I went to dinner the other day. I went to dinner the other day in Santa Monica. It's a great dinner. It's really nice. Good company.

And then the dessert menu came and they had fresh baked cookies. It was like $14 for two cookies. L.A. prices, right? And I was like, well, I guess I know what I'm getting. Fresh baked cookies. and they brought them out in like three minutes. Like, how could they be fresh baked? If you brought them out in three minutes,

it didn't matter. They were delicious. But if you got a question, leave a comment on Spotify. Leave that word cookie on Spotify. Send in your questions on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV or send them in on the newly revamped

Chris Vanfleet.com. We've got a big one next week, my friends. A big, big guess because it's episode number 900. on Tuesday. I'll leave you with this Chinese proverb to wrap this episode up. Be not afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid only of standing still. Be great and be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one. Episode number 900 with a big guest, well, yes, Paul White joins us on Tuesday. Have an amazing weekend. Be great. and be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight.

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. Ticket banjov, 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.