Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #131 - WrestleMania 42 Bold Predictions, Pat McAfee, Most/Least Anticipated Matches

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

See you at the next Insight LIVE! Get tickets here: https://cvvtix.com Happy WrestleMania week! Welcome to AskCVV #131! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet gives his bold predictions for WrestleMania 42, and answers questions about which match has the potential to steal the show, who should be on the show that was left off, what is the Mount Rushmore of WrestleMania main events, when might Rey Mysterio retire and against who, Darby Allin becoming the new AEW World Champion and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: “We don’t stop training because we get old. We get old because we stop training” - Georges St. Pierre 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, my friend, to another one here on Inside. It's me, the three numbers on the back of your credit card. CVV, Chris Van Fleet, happy WrestleMania weekend. Thank you for spending some time with me on this Friday. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Throw your phone up into the air right now.

and hit a super kick on that follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever it is that you're listening right now. I am in Las Vegas, Nevada right now as I record this. We had the massive Insight Live last night with special guest, Maven. What a guest. He's hilarious. He just tells the best stories. I mean, you probably already know that because you've seen his videos on YouTube. But a huge thank you to Maven for being our amazing guest. A huge thank you. you to everyone who came out to the show. There's just something so special about being there together in a room full of real, real, real ones. So thank you for making Insight a small part of your WrestleMania week here in Las Vegas. So, so much fun. And like, I can tell you how great it is.

I can explain it to you, but you really don't know unless you're in the room. And if you know, you know. The next Insight Live is May 8th in Tampa, the day before backlash, then September 5th in New Orleans, the day before Money in the Bank. We've also got Fanatics Fest, July 18th in New York City, the Javits Center. The lineup for Fanatics Fest is unreal. Like if you go to FanaticsFest.com, you'll see the lineup there. And by the way, Insight Live is a free stage show as part of FanaticsFest. So if you have a ticket for Fanatics Fest, you can check out Inside Live for free there. We've got a huge guest,

which I'll be announcing in the next month or two. But if you take a look at the lineup of all of the WWE superstars who are going to be at Fanatics Fest, and it's like a massive list and like all huge names, one of those huge names will be joining me on stage for Fanatics Fest. So FanaticsFest.com to grab those tickets,

CVV ticks.com to grab tickets for Tampa or New Orleans. And there's also CVV merch.com. If you want to grab that badass new Insight T-shirt, or if you want to grab a micro-brawler or a signed micro-brawler, go to CVV merch.com for that. Do you remember the interview I did earlier this year with the Hardy Boys? The first time that Matt and Jeff were on the show together, what a great conversation.

and I asked, I asked Jeff, I'm like, this is going to be a weird question, but you smell so good. Like when you came to the ring last night, I did that interview in Albuquerque, T and I had a show the night before. And I was like, when you came to the ring, you gave me a quick hug on the way to the ring. And I was like, man, you smell great. How do you smell so good? And like, I don't know, we're unprompted. He's like, oh, Matt and I, we wear this cologne called Gender 2BU, which is just like a cheap knockoff cologne he said it was a knockoff of ckb i got the coolest email this week from the company who makes that cologne from the company who makes that fragrance called again gender the number two and then letter b you gender to be you and they said we just want to thank you for mentioning our fragrance

on your show we've seen an uptick in fragrances soul as a result of that and like for us as a small company. It was so cool to have a viral moment like that. So I just thought that was so cool because it was a little throwaway comment in this hour plus long interview. We talked about it for, you know, just a few seconds. And Jeff was like, man, those Hardy Boys smell great. And there was like this, this thing going on for years that the Hardy Boys always smell great. But I thought that was so cool that this small company in upstate New York, like has had an uptick in sales because of this quick remark from one of the interviews. So if you're looking to smell like a hearty boy,

gender to be you, which is available at Walmart, I also think available at Amazon, but this is not an ad for gender to be you, just a cool thing that a comment like that can help out a small company. I love it. That's so fun. Welcome, my friend,

to the special WrestleMania edition of Ask CVV, welcome to Ask CVV number 1.30, put those ones up in the air, OTC edition. Also, Ask CVV number 130, the one Billy Gun edition. I've got it all. He's actually going to be a guest on Thursday's edition of the show. If you got a question for next week, Ask 30. Ask CVV number 132 if you've got an idea for what AskCTVV132 could be. Send it in on Chrisfanfleet.com.

Send it in on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV or leave a comment if you happen to be one of the many people listening on Spotify. Let's dive into this with this one from Danimal underscore strength on Instagram who says, Hey, CVV, happy WrestleMania week. What match do you think will steal the show? Oba versus Brock has to be a favorite. Finn and Dom is a dark horse as well, in my opinion. I think if you were to ask me, and you didn't ask me,

but if you were to ask me, what's the one match? If you could only watch one match this weekend, and you couldn't watch any of the others, what would it be? And my answer would be Oba Femi versus Brock Lesnar. The build to this has been great. It's monster versus monster. monster. It's like the guy who's been there for 25 years and the young hungry guy who's coming in there trying to get that top spot. I love it. I'm pumped for that match. I actually put a poll up

on my Instagram yesterday. I put a poll up and said, what is the match for WrestleMania 42 that you are most excited to see? I put all 13 matches on there. Leading the way by a mile is Obafen versus Brock Lezor. It has almost five times the amount of votes over the second place one here. Number two, what do you think is the second most excited match that people want to see?

Yeah, you got it right. The Intercontinental Championship ladder match. Penta versus Javoneman, versus Dragon League versus Jady McDonough versus Rusev versus Ray Mysterio. A close third place, Demon Finn Baller versus Dirty Dom Mysterio.

Isn't that interesting? None of those are the world title matches. None of those are the main events, but those are the matches that according to at least my very informal poll on Instagram are the matches people are most excited to see. You can go vote for that.

If you go to my page, it's called the CVV feed. It's my broadcast channel on there. If you go to the bottom here, certainly no disrespect to these people or to these matches, What do you think of the matches that people are least excited to see? Or at least the matches that are at the bottom of this poll.

I was a little surprised by this. And again, this is extremely informal. But I think it's a little telling since many thousands of people voted for this. The match in last place here, the match with the least amount of votes, I should say, Sammy Zane versus Trick Williams, which is surprising to me because Trick Williams is a fan favorite. he's going to have one of the most memorable entrances this weekend. But I guess it's just that this story just kind of came together, or at least considering the U.S. championship,

kind of came together the last minute. Then we get the vision and I show speed versus the Uso's in L.A. night. And I think that just has a lot to do with this celebrity fatigue that seems to be happening. It's like, couldn't we just have the vision in somebody else versus the Uso's in L.A. night? And of course, I mean L.A. night. Yeah. But I think it's that idea of like, what is I Show Speed doing here? And this happens almost every WrestleMania.

Why is Snooki in a match? Why is Maria Minunos in a match? Why is Bad Bunny in a match? Oh, that's why Bad Bunny is in a match. Oh, man, that was really good. Oh, wow, he's amazing. I want to see another match with him. Maybe we get something like that from Ice Show Speed.

my speed was not afraid to take that disgusting spear from brahm breaker i think that speed probably has something else up his sleeve i think we're going to see another viral moment like that with him and i guess this officially makes him a professional wrestler with his w wwe debut there charlotte and alexa versus bailey and lyra versus the bellas versus the irresistible forces the women's tag team championship match. That is the number three match at the bottom there. And all the other ones kind of mixed in between. I just thought that was very interesting to see that.

I think for everything that's being made about the buildup to WrestleMania 42, it really seems like this storyline with Pat McAfee is leaving a bad taste in people's mouth for WrestleMania as a whole. Even though, may I remind you, that is just one of the 13 matches. I still think that that match. is going to be amazing. Like, how can you go wrong with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton?

And I understand the idea here of like, this match didn't need anything else. I get it. It's what I said last week on AskCTVV. Storytells itself. It's been written for 19 years. Cody Rhodes debuts against who? Randy Orton.

Cody Rhodes gets mentored by who? Randy Orton and also John Cena, but Randy Orton. story just makes so much sense here. Pat McAfee coming into it doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe it will make some more sense after this weekend. I guess we'll see. But I think that so many people are going, oh, the buildup has sucked because of this Pat McAfee thing. And it's like, can we look at some of the other matches here too? Because with that out of the way, I think if we look at the big picture of what is WrestleMania

42 all about here. What's going to be the main story coming out of WrestleMania 42 if we zoom out a little bit? If we look at this five years from now, 10 years from now, what's the story going to be? I'll tell you exactly what the story's going to be. This WrestleMania is going to be remembered for ushering in a new wave of stars.

Obafemi, making his WrestleMania debut in again, one of the most anticipated matches of WrestleMania 42 against Brock Lesnar. Stephanie Vakere, making her WrestleMania debut and putting the WWE Women's World Championship on the line against Liv Morgan. Trick Williams, making his WrestleMania debut. Dragon Lee, Lash Legend, Javon Evans, J.D. McDonough, a lot of young, up-and-coming talent. The people who are going to carry WWE into the future, 5 and 10 plus, you. years from now are making their debut at this WrestleMania. And that's going to be a big thing

that gets talked about in the future. Maybe we can't see it right now because we're in it, but I think that's going to be a really big thing when we look back on this. Javon Evans also has the opportunity this weekend to become the youngest ever W.W.E. Intercontinental Champion. Jeff Hardy right now holds the record at 23. Javon Evans is 21. So Javon Evans could win it a year from now, a year and a half from now, and still be the youngest Intercontinental Champion. Not crazy? That just goes to show how young he is. And also just how bright the future is for him. I posted this fun thing on social media this week. Ray Mysterio and Javon Evans obviously are in the same match together, the Interkina Championship ladder match. Fun fact here, Ray Mysterio made his

WrestleMania debut at on March 30th, 2003. That's WrestleMania 19. So March 30th, 2003, Ray Mysterio makes his WrestleMania debut. Javon Evans was born on April 29th, 2004, over a year later. Like, that just puts things in perspective. That crazy? I also posted this one. Brock Lesnar made his WrestleMania debut at that same WrestleMania.

WrestleMania 19, March 30th, 2003. Obafemi was born on April 22nd, 1998. He was four years old when Brock Lesnar made his WrestleMania debut. It just goes to show like the future is bright. And that's, I think, what this WrestleMania will certainly be remembered a lot for. But let's go through these matches.

Let's take a look at what we're looking at here for this WrestleMania in no particular order of matches here. We're going to look at the odds here on MyBooky. When you sign up at MyBooky, use my code. CVV, you'll get a very nice, very healthy 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Liv Morgan versus Stephanie Vaccare for the women's world championship. Live Morgan, the favorite there. I think Liv Morgan wins this one. I think Stephanie Vakare has been a great women's world champion. She's held this for a while ever since Russell Paloosa. She's had some amazing matches in there. My favorite.

favorite is actually when she won the world championship against the O. Sky at Russell Paloza, I think Liv Morgan wins this one. And I also think that this golf ball growing out of her head and then the appearance she had on ESPN this week, like proving to everybody that wrestling is in fact real, although we already knew that, I think that continues to sell this match. Live Morgan, my pick for that one. The women's intercontinental championship, A.J. Lee, putting her title on the line against Becky Lynch. Becky Lynch, the favorite here. I'm actually going to go with A.J. Lee continues to be the champion here. I think there's more stories for her to tell. I also think if you listen to the interview that I did with Becky Lynch that came out yesterday,

there's just so much more that she has going on right now. She doesn't need a title to continue to tell great stories. And it was interesting to hear. hear her say that like what's most important for her in her career right now is telling great stories and working with people she's interested in working with. And I don't think that she needs a championship, whether that's a world title or whether that's the intercontinental title. She doesn't need a title to get over. She's already over. So I'm going to go A.J. Lee on that one. Jacob Fattu versus Drew McIntyre in this unsanctioned match. This one is going to be This has the potential here to steal the show and, man, Drew McIntyre over the last, let's call it,

three or four years, bangor after banger. Maybe he stole it from his friend Seamus, but he just continues to go out there and show off and show out every single time. Jacob Fattu is, I think, a future world champion. And this storyline is going to really help to elevate him to that main event level. I'm going with Jacob Faw too on this one. Seth Rollins versus Gunther, which I think has the potential to be one of the best

just technical wrestling matches. When you've got both of those guys in there who are so good, no matter who their opponent is, but when you put both of those guys in there together, I think we're going to see something really special. I don't see any situation here where Gunther doesn't continue to dominate, where Gunther doesn't continue to win.

And I know that there is not a career on the line here, He is the career killer, but I don't see how he couldn't continue this momentum, especially when we look into the horizon here, and there are some potential people that he could retire. Brock Leisler is obviously one of the biggest names that gets thrown around. Ray Mysterio is another one as well. Although I feel like whenever Ray Mysterio does decide to retire, I just think it's going to be Ray versus Dom.

And I think for obvious reasons, that one writes itself. And I think that a lot of people are thinking, oh, if anybody retire, tires within the next year or two, it's got to be now a match with Gunther because he retired so many legends. Goldberg, AJ Stiles, John Cena. I think it's actually going to be Ray versus Dom whenever that happens. Maybe it's WrestleMania next year. Maybe it's Summer Slam this year. I don't know. I hope Ray Mysterio gets to wrestle for as many more years as he wants to wrestle, but I actually think it's not going to be Gunther that's going to have that match with Ray Mysterio when he's ready to retire.

The women's tag team championship, Bailey and Lyra versus the Bellas versus the Irresistible Forces versus Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair. Bailey and Lyra, the favorites here. And that's who I think I would go with on this one. Although this one could kind of go, I think the Bellas have the potential to win this

and maybe it becomes one of their last championship runs together as a team, but I'm going to go with Bailey and Lyra on that one. the Uso's and L.A. Night L versus the vision and I Show Speed. I think we're going to be in for some some shenanigans in this match. Like I said, I think I Show Speed does something here

that becomes a viral moment and something that gets talked about well beyond WrestleMania. People are still showing clips of him getting that spear. That was over a year ago. They'll be showing clips of that for, I think, a long, long time. I think the Uso's and L.A. Knight. Yeah, take this one.

Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes for the undisputed W.W.E. Championship. This one feels like it could go a lot of different ways. I think there's a lot of different stories that could be told here. But I predict Randy Orton walking out as the 15-time WWE champion. He is the favorite in this match. and I'm going with Randy Orton,

but I think a lot of things could happen here and Pat McAfee is obviously the variable. What ends up happening with this story? What is the payoff? Because it just doesn't make sense to me right now as we sit here on the Friday before WrestleMania 42. Why is Randy Orton,

who is considered by many, as one of the greatest of all time, why is he walking into this match with Pat McAfee? Will he be walking? out of this match with Pat McAfee. Maybe all of this is being done to continue to push Randy Orton as a baby face. I know he had the heel turn, but think about this. What if we get towards the end of this main event match?

Pat McAfee's doing Pat McAfee stuff, and Randy Orton's just getting fed up and frustrated. And we finally see that punt that he's been teasing for, what, five years? last time he did a punt five years, six years ago? And how fitting would that be? That Randy Orton punts the punter. It writes itself. Could you imagine the reaction inside Allegiance Stadium if that happened? Randy Orton is going to get cheered no matter what. Randy Orton can continue to be a heel. He can continue to do the heel things. People are going to sing his entrance theme. People are going to continue to cheer him. I wonder if he gets It's cheered here and we see a double turn.

Is that a possibility? But I think that Randy O'Rton winning this for me is a foregone conclusion. Going with Randy Orton on that one. Then we go to Ria Ripley versus Jade Cargo for the women's championship. Ria Ripley, the favorite here. And I like Ria Rippley in this match. I think that Ria Rippley has the potential to make this her best championship run yet. if slash when she wins us.

Go on with Rea Ripley on that one. Obafemi versus Brock Lesner. Obafemi is the favorite here. He's a minus 300. How does this match go? That's the most interesting thing here. Because one of the prop bets on my bookie is the over-under of how many total F-5s will be hit.

the number is 0.5. So they're basically saying, will one F5 be hit during this match? That's interesting, because I feel like it's a Brock Lezor match. Of course we're going to see an F5, but will we? And I think the most interesting thing about this match is going to be, what's the story that's told here? How is this story told?

Because I'm going with Obafemmy to win this match because I don't think Brock Lezzer gains anything by winning this. Brock Lezzer could lose his next five matches, and we'd still go, yeah, he's Brock Leser. His legacy is cemented. He has a Hall of Famer. He's done everything he could ever possibly need to do in this industry. But how does this story get told?

How do we get there? Does Obafemi just squash Brock Leser? Do we get just an all-out brawl? Is this a 15, 20-minute brawl? I think the fact that it's on ESPN, and this is one of the matches that's free before it moves over to the app, tells us it can't be that long. Maybe this is 10 to 12 to 15-ish minutes.

But I think Obafemi has a dominant victory here. Like, I don't think this is any sort of funny business. I don't think this is a cheap victory. I think that this is Obafemi with a clear win. And it's kind of like, who's the king of the jungle now? Going with Obafemi on that one. Trick Williams and Sammy Zane for the U.S. Championship this is what's interesting here.

The odds are dead even. Dead even. This is a complete coin toss here. I'm going with Trick Williams. I think that this is a moment to solidify Trick Williams as one of the future stars of this generation. He's going to come out there to a massive, massive reaction. An incredible entrance.

Everybody in there, whoop that trick. Woop, that trick. I know Sammy Zane just won this U.S. title, but does Sammy Zane really need this? Like, are we going to get back to that storyline that we had a few months ago with Sammy Zane where he still hasn't won the world championship? That's the one thing he wants to make sure that he does as a dad, show his kids that he's become the WWE World Champion. Feel like we're getting back towards that.

I think that this match is a great match no matter what. two guys in there who can go. The fact that the U.S. title is on the line here, I think you give it to Trick Williams, but very interesting that the odds there are dead even. Demon Finn Baller versus Dominic Mysterio. This is the demon's third appearance in a WrestleMania match. He is right now one in one in WrestleMania matches as the demon.

He had a win over Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 3rd. 35. He had a loss to edge inside Helen Acela at WrestleMania 39. That was the last time we saw the demon Finn Baller. Will he be victorious at WrestleMania 42 against Dominic Mysterio? A match that definitely has the potential to steal the show and a story that has been brewing for a long, long time. The odds heavily favor Finn Baller. I'm going with Finn Baller on this one and can't wait for this match. And that brings us to the night two main event. CM Punk, Roman Raines,

who will leave WrestleMania as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion? Roman Raines is a slight favorite over CM Punk here, and I just think that it's going to be Roman Raines night. like when you think about Roman Raines you think about WrestleMania main events like he's become

the new generation's Mr. WrestleMania like he's become the person that like oh it's it's WrestleMania time how's Roman Raines going to be part of this thing quite a lot of prop bets in here total Superman punches for Roman Raines over under

3.5 I think there was one other it was total GTS performed by CM Punk. 3.5. Are we going to see more than three GTSs? I don't know.

Seems like a lot. First finishing move performed. Will it be the spear or will it be the GTS? The odds right now favor the spear. Total number of spears performed by Roman Reins.

Over under is two and a half. I think we'll see more than two. I would go with the over or that one. And then another interesting prop bet here. First submission move performed. Will it be CM Punk's anaconda vice or will it be Roman Rain's guillotine? The odds favor CM Punk's anacone of ice. I think that makes sense over the guillotine. Very interesting odds here. Again, use the code CVV to sign up for a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. I can't believe WrestleMania is already here. Maybe it's because I was in this exact hotel last year for

WrestleMania 41, but it feels like we were like just doing this thing a few months ago. I don't know. There's a lot of the same events going on in the city this week that happened last year during this same week. But WrestleMania, my friends, is here. Man, WrestleMania is here. I'm looking at the seat geek gap right now. And for all the talk of expectations, Offensive tickets, you can sit on the floor right now for less than $300. $292 is what I'm seeing right now. Use the code CVV. You'll get an extra 10% off your next set of tickets from Seekek.

And that's why I want to give them a huge shout out as the sponsor of today's episode. With over 35 million downloads, Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app. There's more than 70,000 events listed on Seat Geek, including WrestleMania, concerts, sports, festivals, and more. And Seatgeek has your back. Every ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 so you know if you're getting a good deal. Look for the green dots.

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so you can use it later. 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 Klinemberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster.

There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henco. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. him. Mike Weiss on Facebook says, what's your overall vibe on if Pat McAfee's stuff is actually leading to something larger and more expected, such as a new age version of the corporation or the authority? Are we going to see Shane, Vince, the Rock? Thanks, Mike in Fort Collins, Colorado. Well, look, the big surprise last week for Smackdown. Pat McAfee said he had a massive surprise for Smackdown. Those were his exact words. What was that massive surprise? it was that tickets are on sale from now until Monday for WrestleMania.

Doesn't, I mean, putting tickets on sale seems like a very kind gesture, but it just doesn't seem like something a heel would be doing. Like a heel saying that tickets are on sale, I got ram trucks to sponsor this coupon code. It wasn't even a code. It was just like go to Ticketmaster and grab the tickets for 25% off. That doesn't seem like a heel thing to do. do. The heel way to do this would be like, man, I know Randy Orton is going to beat Cody Rhodes

so bad that I want as many people to be in there to see this happen live. And to make that happen, what I'm going to do is I'm going to put tickets on sale because I want every single seat in there filled to see Randy Orton the greatest of this generation beat. Beating. We're beat that wannabe Cody Rhodes, something like that. That feels like heel behavior. I just can't believe

the massive surprise was, oh, by the way, WrestleMania tickets are on sale. We've gotten to a point with wrestling where when someone says massive surprise, we're like, oh, who's the return?

It's got to be a return. Or it's got to be maybe, I can't even be a heel turn because that's not a surprise. You wouldn't tease that as a surprise. It's got to be a return. Tickets are on sale. Hmm.

Wrestling is such a funny thing in general, though, because Pat McAfee is getting unequivocally booed. He is a heel. He is playing the heel role. He is saying all of the things that have been said online on the internet wrestling community for the last year-ish or so. He's saying all those things.

I said this last week, and I'll say it again now. It's right message, wrong message. there was so much build up to who is randy on the phone with and it's like it's pat maccafee well that doesn't even really make a lot of sense i will say though the promos are great like he's cutting great promos he's doing great heel work he's getting booed but wrestling's funny where it's like he's getting the reaction but it's like it's a heel reaction but it's not like the same heel heat and i just find that really

interesting to look at that like he's a heel saying heel things getting a heel reaction people are going yeah it sucks it's like i get it and that like there's just a disconnect here and i i wonder is this leading to something else or does it just all end on saturday night at russomania like is this is this just a build to get more attention from espn to get more mainstream attention and then like i said does Pat McAfee get punted by Randy Orton? Or does this continue to build? Is this, like I said, this is the TKO corporation?

Do we have that faction that kind of comes out of nowhere? I just don't know where that would, how that could work into this, because Pat McAfee is talking about how TKO has kind of ruined wrestling. TK.T. Picket prices are up. You've got people putting on matches that don't look like wrestlers, matches with no bill. He's not just talking about WWE.

He's talking about wrestling as a whole, how the industry has changed so much. It's not the wrestling that I watched when I was growing up. So he's as a heel character saying this, and there's so many people talking about TKO is this heel corporation. Well, Pam McAfee's talking about them.

He can't be part of that heel faction. So I don't know how that works. Like, he's not saying, saying, yeah, man, TCO's been doing all of these great things. Look at the amount of revenue that we made last year. Look at the stock price. It's up. He's not doing that. He's saying these are actually the things that are wrong with it. So I don't know how this turns into a corporation type of faction unless Triple H becomes involved as an on-screen character again like he was with the authority. But that's something I'm going to be watching really closely. And I,

would have to think that a big lesson was learned from WrestleMania 41 in this same city, in this same stadium when you had an outside celebrity with Travis Scott involved in that main event match, and it just left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. There was no payoff there at all. And the expectations were through the roof that the Rock was going to be coming out, and he didn't. And we still haven't seen the Rock. The last time we saw the Rock was Elimination Chamber last year, so well over a year since we saw The Rock. Does the Rock get involved in Russellmania in some way, shape, form, or fashion? Possibly. There's got to be more surprises. I don't think that they reveal the surprises that they've already revealed,

like Ray Mysterio being in the Intercontinental Championship ladder match, or Finn Baller coming out as a demon. I don't think that they revealed those surprises without some sort of plan here that there's even more surprises on the way. There's got to be at least one or two. I don't know the level of what these surprises will be, but there's got to be some more surprises here. There has to be. That is, it's inherent with WrestleMania. There's always something like what's going to happen here, whose music's going to hit? How is someone else going to get involved here? Paulo Fontana on Spotify says, hey, CVV, real, real one here. I have a question for Ask CVV. Number 131.

What is your Mount Rushmore of WrestleMania main events? It's a good question. So we're just going with main events here. Not WrestleMania matches. WrestleMania main events. I'm going to kick it off with WrestleMania 17's main event. Stone Cold Steve Austin versus the Rock. It is by far their best match together.

It is to this day. the WrestleMania that people point at as being just the best WrestleMania start to finish, the most complete WrestleMania, it's the peak of the attitude era as well. And you've got two of the biggest stars ever in this business at their absolute best. Add onto that just how incredible that crowd was in Houston. And then this ends with the shocking heel turn

that changed WWE history, Vince McMahon, Stone Cold embracing. That's my number one. I know I don't usually rank matches during or rank anything during Mount Rushmore, but I'm going to go Stone Cold Steve Austin versus the Rock. Cody Rhodes versus Roman Raines from WrestleMania 40. That's one of those matches that you show to a new wrestling fan and you go, this.

Because it's multiple years, multiple decades of storytelling all coming together here. it's that Avengers end game done right. Like it's run-ins done right. And so emotional. Like every, you went through every single emotion during that match. And you just had the story of Cody Rose trying to finish the story here.

He could never do what his father, he was trying to do what his father could never do. And up to that point, he'd come short. Everyone thought Cody Rose was going to win at WrestleMania 39. Little did we know. that if we just had a little bit of patience, all that did was continue to add to the story to WrestleMania 40.

Do you remember how upset people were? The Monday after WrestleMania 39, I can't believe Roman Raines won. All right, what are they doing here? Roman Raines is still the champion. I can't believe this. A terrible decision. I know it took a year and a lot of story along the way,

but it all paid off at WrestleMania 40. And it also ended one of the greatest title reigns of all time, 1,316 days came to an end at WrestleMania 40. I think we got to talk about Hulk Hogan versus Andre the giant WrestleMania 3. Like, if you think about it, that's probably the most important WrestleMania main event ever. Like without this match, modern WrestleMania doesn't exist,

or it certainly doesn't exist in the way that it does now. and you've got that incredibly iconic moment with the body slam Hulk Hogan slamming that giant like this was legitimately a myth-making match it makes perfect sense

that this match is being honored at the Hall of Fame and that's the match that turned WWE into a global powerhouse I think you have to when you're talking about WrestleMania moments when you're talking about WrestleMania main events.

You got to talk about WrestleMania 3, Hogan versus Andre. Then our final spot here. And I think we, it's hard to argue against those first three. I just think because of historical significance. I think the fourth spot here can be open for kind of personal preference.

So your answer may be different from mine, but I'm going to go with WrestleMania 30. Daniel Bryan versus Randy Orton versus Batista. Because the yes, movement wasn't planned. Like fans made this happen. Fans will Daniel Bryan into this main event.

Fans made Daniel Brian the champion here. And what a moment to end WrestleMania 30, especially to end WrestleMania 30 on a real high note when an hour-ish earlier, we were all shocked and you could hear a pin drop inside there when the streak ended. But this organic, fan rebellion actually won.

And it was like a nice reminder that like, they do hear the fans. They hear you guys. And it was like it's the hero's journey told perfectly. And one of the most, in my opinion, emotionally satisfying WrestleMania endings ever. So there's my four. I think if we were to do a main event or we were just talking main events here,

if you were to do a Mount Rushmore of just. matches. I think the list looks quite different, but if we're just talking main event matches, yeah, that's my four. James Billings sent this one out on Chris Vanfleet.com. James says, what's up, CVV? I just grabbed the new Insight T-shirt and it got delivered this week. It's awesome. Thanks. My question is, who do you think wins the Andre the Giant Battle Royal on Smackdown? I'm glad that you grab the shirt, James. I hope that you love it. You would. will see me wearing the shirt on Tuesday's episode of Insight. I've got Giovanni Vinci on the show. His first interview since he got released from WWE last year. He had his last match in December of

2024. He got released not long after that, I think February 2025. We didn't, maybe it was March 2025. We didn't see anything from him on social media for like a year. Came into the studio. He looks great. He's excited about what's next. So I can't wait for you guys to check out that episode on Tuesday. And I'm wearing the new Robot Skull Insight with CVV t-shirt on that episode. When it comes to the honor of the giant battle royal, I just think that this match needs to mean something.

Like, do you remember who won the Onda of the giant battle royal last year? Yeah, exactly. It was Carmelo Hayes. And what did it lead to? What did it mean? Nothing. And that's not to say Carmelo Hayes didn't have a great year. He was so good as a United States champion.

That had nothing to do with him winning the Honor of the Giant Battle Royal. I think that the Andre the Giant Battle Royal needs to have some sort of payoff. It shouldn't just be the guy who wins it, stands with his arms crossed next to this statue of Honor of the Giant, and then that's it. It needs to earn them a mid-card title shot. How about this? the winner of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal gets a intercontinental championship match at backlash or gets a U.S. title shot at backlash.

Like something. Because the honor of the Giant Battle Royal, even though it's never amounted to anything, it used to mean something because it gave 20 to 30 superstars who weren't on WrestleMania the chance to say that they were on WrestleMania, even if it was just part of of this battle royal, even if you didn't get an entrance at WrestleMania, you were in the ring, in the stadium at WrestleMania. Now it's a match

that happens on the Friday before WrestleMania, and again, it doesn't mean anything. Like, let's give this match some substance. I think the other part about it that doesn't mean anything is the trophy's not something

you can carry around. Like, it's not like when you win king or queen of the ring and you can make this part of your gimmick and you become King Booker or something like that or like King Barrett. Like that's become such a great gimmick

where you win King of the Ring and you become this pompous heel from it. You got this giant trophy that's, you know, six feet tall. You can't be carting that around with you to every match to remind people you won this. And I'm not saying that they need to change what the prize is.

Like I think the trophy looks cool. It does make for a great visual when you stand next to it. But what next? like where does it lead to? So if you're not going to like build a storyline from that, if you're not going to make it like, this person eliminated 19 other superstars,

they are a force to be reckoned with, you better watch out for them, which is what it kind of has been hinted at, but it just feel like it loses this momentum so quickly, I think you've got to make it mean something. Intercontinental title shot, U.S. title shot. my pick to win

Andre the Giant Battle Royal this year is Royce Keys so dominant in his Smackdown debut against Berdo let's make this mean something like give Royce Keys this win

and let's build on it let's see where it goes from here Royce Keys looks like a beast let's do something with him so that's my pick and I feel like he will win and should win but then like where are we four weeks from now?

Where are we six weeks from now? Are we still talking about him winning that battle royal? Does it actually give him like a push into what's next? Because that's what this should be. Adam Jennings left this one on the newly revamped chrisfanfley.com. Greetings and salutations, CVV. Who do you wish was on WrestleMania that isn't on the card this year? Thanks for being awesome, Adam in Coconut Creek, Florida.

He has quite a few people that aren't on the card this year. Most notably, Solo Sacoa, Eoski, O'Ska, Carmelo Hayes, Damian Priest and his fellow tag team champion partner, Art Truth, Tiffany Stratton, Shamus, there's a lot. I'm not going to go through the whole list here, but there's a lot. Those are some of the more notable names. but who do I wish was on the card that is not on the card this year?

Matt Cardona. And I'll tell you why. The story of Matt Cardona coming back to WWE after being released for almost six years, willing his way back into a WWE contract, joining his wife who has just been crushing it. Chelsea Green is just unbelievable. She's so entertaining. But I think that if you put Matt Cardone,

into that Intercontinental Championship ladder match, it makes people go, oh, wow, could Matt Cardona do it again? Could Matt Cardona win this match kind of out of nowhere like he did 10 years ago at WrestleMania 32, the last time, by the way, that the Intercontinental Championship was up for grabs in a ladder match? I think that that one could just have a lot of people questioning.

And this is now also making me think, did I not give a pick for the Intercontinental Championship ladder match? I don't think I did. Oh, my goodness. So much going on this week. I didn't. No, I didn't. Oh, my gosh. All right, let's give it to you here.

Oh, man. Penta is the favorite to retain on my bookie. He's a minus 165. Javon Evans is a favorite as well. He's right behind Penta. then you got Ray Mysterio, Rusev, Dragon Lee, J.D. McDonough.

The thing I really love about this match is anybody could win this. Like truly, anybody that's in this match could walk away from this, and you could go, yeah, I could see that person being the Intercontinental Championship

or being the Intercontinental Champion and having a great Intercontinental Championship run. I'm going to go with Javon Evans winning this. and like I mentioned before, if Javon Evans wins the icy title in the next year and a half, he becomes the youngest

Intercontinental Champion of all time. I'm going to go with him winning this, and of course, you know he'll do something crazy. You know with Javon Evans and ladders is going to be something wild. It's going to be a moment that we're talking about for a long time.

He's my pick to win this, but I wouldn't be surprised of Penta Retain. I also wouldn't be surprised if Ray Mysterio gets one last championship before he decides to retire. There's been a lot of rumors about that, although Ray hasn't said anything specifically about wanting to retire, but I could see Ray Mysterio winning this. I could also see Rusev winning this. I could also see Dragon Lee winning this.

I could also see J.D. McDonough winning this. And that's what's so exciting about this match. And again, I'm sorry, I can't believe I didn't include this. know why I skipped it in my list here. But for someone that I would love to see on WrestleMania that's not on it, put Matt Cardona into that match. You could put Matt Cardona into that match tonight on Smackdown and it would still make sense. And he's always ready isn't just a catchphrase for Matt Cardona. He truly is always ready and he's always going to deliver. It'd be great. It'd be great to see him in that match.

Shubhankar Joshi. I hope I said your name right. On Instagram, we recently saw two wrestling retirements and both of them were completely opposite to each other. I think that we're probably going to see two more retirements soon, Brock Lesnar and Ray Mysterio. Now we know about Brock Lesnar and how he goes about business. He would probably want to go out with a sudden match. But what I want to ask you is how do you think Ray Mysterio should retire? Should it be the AJ Styles way or should it be the John Sina way?

I don't think we're going to see another John Sina way. I don't think we're going to see another year-long build to someone's retirement. I don't think we're going to see a farewell tour. I think that was done specifically for John Sina, like he said on my show, it was like three years in the making where they scheduled this all out, they figured it all out, planned out the dates. I don't think we're going to see that with anybody else ever again. I truly think that was a one-of-a-kind thing for John Sina.

What I do think we're going to get whenever Ray Mysterio decides to return, retire, as I think we're going to know this is his last match, or maybe his career is on the line against Dominic Mysterio. I don't think it's going to be like a surprise thing. Although, look, AJ Stiles' career was on the line against Gunther and nobody believed that he actually retired. There's still people to this day that don't think that AJ Stiles is truly retired. I think after you hear his retirement speech, well, we heard his retirement speech, I guess after you hear his Hall of Fame speech, which will also serve as like a final, I think, retirement speech. we're going to go, oh, yeah, wow, he's done.

And he seems really happy about it. And I'm happy for him because of that. I think we're going to have a buildup to Ray Mysterio's last match. That's what I think. I think he's meant so much to wrestling for so long that I think that they'll make a thing out of it. I'm with you on Brock Lesnar. whenever that final match happens to be, whether it is actually going to be happening

in Minneapolis at SummerSlam, like the rumors are saying, I don't know if that's actually the case, but I could see it just goes into a match. The match is what it is, and then we never see Brock Lezor again. Yeah, I could definitely see that being a thing. Christopher Langley sent this one in on chris fanvly.com.

Hey, Chris, first time messaging in and I've been listening for a year and a half now, and hopefully one day, if there's a show in the Seattle area, it would be great to go to a live show. My question is, what was your reaction on Wednesday night to Darby Allen winning the AEW World Championship

from MJF in Darby's hometown? How long do you think they'll keep the title on Derby? I was one of those moments where it's just so nice to see a genuine surprise. I don't think anybody thought that Darby Allen was going to win that match. I think that Tony Con announced that Darby Allen would be facing MJF for the World Championship just as kind of like a nice match to throw on because we're in Darby Allen's hometown 20 minutes away from where he trained to be a pro wrestler. It's like, this is cool.

Like it's a nice thing for the hometown fans. Get a nice little hometown pop when he comes out there. Oh, he came so close. Now maybe he'll get him next time. For Darby Allen to actually win this match, it was shocking. And I think it's also because MJF has only been the champion for, what, three and a half months. He won it right before the end of the year. So like the last week of December, I think that this is when wrestling is at its best.

When you go in with this idea of like, well, this one thing's going to happen over here, wait a second. Oh my gosh, it actually happened. What's interesting is if you listen to the interview with Darby Allen that I did a few months ago, He was talking about how, like, championships don't mean that much to him. Like, he doesn't really care if he became the champion or not. And I think it's just because he has just this love for what he does. And he's like, I don't need a title to, like, make me feel like I've done something great. I don't need a title to make me feel like I've gotten over.

And Darby Allen also said, like, where else would he fit into the wrestling landscape if it wasn't for AEW? like he is one of the true homegrown AEW talents signed since day one and has like really built himself up in AEW. An amazing moment for Darby Allen. I've known Darby for a long time. I worked an indie show with him. I was the ring announcer, Blueprint Pro Wrestling, Deerfield Beach, Florida in 2018. It was 2018. And you could see at that point in time, even back then, eight years ago, like Darby had something special. And it's been amazing watching him continue to work at it, continue to grow. And now he's the AEW champion.

How long will he be the champion for? That's a great question. Because I think that all eyes now are on all in. And all in being at Wembley Stadium. it's like, well, who's the champion there? What's the title match there? We've got till August 30th for that one. So like four and a half months here,

there could be another title change between now and then. I would have to think that Will Osprey is challenging for the title at all in, and then it culminates with Will Osprey having, actually a very similar moment to what we're talking about here with Darby Allen, winning the championship,

front of the hometown crowd, especially here at all in in front of tens of thousands of people at Wembley Stadium. Like that's going to be a moment. That's going to be an iconic moment. Is it going to be Darby Allen versus Will Osprey then? I don't know. I could see Darby Allen being the champion for like two, three months. Maybe MJF gets it back.

We get MJF versus Will Osprey at all in. Maybe it's Kenny Omega. versus Will Osprey, that all in? But I could definitely see Darby being a fighting champion. I can see him defending it quite a bit. But if I had to make a prediction right now, I think that Darby Allen is not the champion going in to All In. Rodney's biggest fan on Instagram says,

what discontinued title should be brought back in to WWE? You know, I love the European title. I love that it gave us another mid-card title. And I love this stuff with like Kurt Engle being the Eurocontinental champion when he was both the European champion and the I-C champion at the same time. I would love to see that one back. I would also love to see the hardcore title back. Not the 24-7 title.

I'd love to see the hardcore title back because it gives people who don't have a lot going on on the mid-to-lower card. It gives them something to do. even if it's just a quick two, three-minute segment on a show, it gives them something. And also the fact that the 24-7 rules of the hardcore title allows it to break outside of the walls of Raw or Smackdown or PLE where things can happen on, for example, ESPN's first take. Things can happen on, I don't know, for example, an episode of Insight with Chris Van Fleet. like what if someone got pinned for the title while they're doing an episode of the show? Again, I thought that that always made it exciting.

That's also a really good way to bring celebrities into the fold because if somebody, if a celebrity wins the 24-7 title or in my example here, the hardcore championship for a few minutes, nobody gets up in arms about it. Nobody starts complaining about, oh, man, can you believe Gronk was the 24-7 champion? Oh, that's too many celebrities in wrestling. It's like, oh, it's a fun thing. We kind of expect that from the 24-7 title. And be cool to have that brought back.

If they could do the cruiserweight title right, I would love to see that. Like the way that Nitro, Monday Nightro did the cruiserweight division was so good. And I don't know if we've seen a cruiserweight division done that well since. The X division was great, but not a true cruiserweight division because the X division is not about weight. limits. It's about no limits. If we could see the cruiserweight division done right and not just done as like this throwaway thing like the speed championship, that would be cool. Although I do think that that unfortunately limits people, because if you're just doing stuff in the cruiserweight division, I don't feel like you're ever taken seriously for anything when it comes to like the Intercontinental

Championship or the U.S. title, certainly not the world titles. But if they could do the cruiserweight stuff, right. That'd be cool. All right, that was our final question. On this, our special WrestleMania edition of Ask CVV. On this, Ask CVV number 130. Put those ones up in the air. OTC edition and Ask CVV.

Number 130, the one, Billy Gunn edition. Send in those questions for next week. For Ask CVV number 132, we've got some fun ones next week. Giovanni Vinci joining me on Tuesday. The one Billy Gunn, Mr. Ass himself joining me on Thursday. I could have Billy Gunn on the show every few months, and it would be so entertaining.

Man, that guy is the best, and he is jih-j-jacked at 62 years old. It's amazing. I will leave you with this one. George St. Pierre, the legendary George St. UFC fighter, the goat, shared this on Instagram this week, and I love it. We don't stop training because we get old. We get old because we stop training. I love that.

It's a play on the famous quote of, we don't stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing. But George St. Pierre, who in these photos is looking so jacked in his mid-40s, I think he's on to something. We don't stop training because we get old. but get old because we stop training. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Enjoy WrestleMania weekend,

and we will see you on the next one for some more insight. 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.