Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #143 - CM Punk's Surprise Champion Win, What Happens To Sami Zayn?, Kenny Omega Beats MJF For The AEW World Title

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

See you at the next Insight LIVE! Get your tickets at https://cvvtix.com Welcome to Ask #143! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about CM Punk returning on Raw in Chicago and winning the WWE Championship, what is next for Sami Zayn, who will CM Punk face at SummerSlam, is Brock Lesnar really Mr. SummerSlam, Kenny Omega beats MJF for the AEW World Championship, what the main event at AEW All In will be, the most important traits to become a star in pro wrestling, who would be the most interesting interviews if we went back in time to 1998 and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Don't let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours." - Flex Lewis 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

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And salutations, my friend. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's me, the three numbers on the back of your credit card, CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope you had a great week. Thank you for keeping me company on this Friday. And thank you, as always, for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If you've ever enjoyed any episode of the show, could I ask you to hit a GTS? on that follow button, that is the best way to support the show. Well, I mean, along with listening to

the show, but you've already crossed that off. You're obviously doing that right now. So if you could hit that follow button, that'd be amazing because I want to make sure you don't miss out on any episodes that we have on the way. New interviews every Tuesday and Thursday. And of course, ask CVV every Friday. And I will say that I just sat down for an interview yesterday. And I want to say too much about it here. But it was pretty phenomenal. And, I can't wait for you to hear it in a few weeks when it goes live. I also can't wait to see you guys next week in New York City at Fanatics Fest. We are doing a live show Insight Live at Fanatics Fest on Saturday, July 18th.

The lineup of WWE superstars that are going to be at Fanatics Fest is crazy. I mean, the lineup of just celebrities in general across sports and entertainment is wild. We're going to be announcing that guest any day now. But if you have tickets to Fanatics Fest, you can just stop by. It's free to check out Inside Live 12.30 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, July 18th. If you haven't grabbed your tickets yet, Fanaticsfest.com for that. I'll go over just like a handful of the people who are going to be there. Like this lineup is just silly.

It is a massive lineup. If we're looking at just WWE, it's John Cena, Roman Raines, Ria Ripley, Cody Rhodes, Undertaker, Danhausen, Penta, Nikki Bella, Bree Bella, Alexa Bliss, Bronbreaker, Jacob Fatt, too, Obafemi, Charlotte Flair. We're only in the F's alphabetically here. Joe Hendry, Mark Henry, L.A. Knight. Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, Dominic Mysterio. I mean, yes, I suppose I could go through the whole list here, but it's a long one. I'll add a few more in here. Trish Stratus, A.J. Stiles, J. Uso, Tric Williams, Tiffany Stratton, C.M. Punk, Seth Rollins. It's a huge, huge list of people that are going to be there. And on top of that, you've also got stars like LeBron James is going to be there. And Aaron Judge, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz. Like, it's just a stacked, stacked, stacked event.

and I am honored to say that we're doing Insight Live at the world's number one sports fan festival. So I will see you in New York City for that one next week. And I will see you in New Orleans for Money in the Bank. So Money in the Bank is happening in October in New Orleans. We're doing Insight Live the day before that. Tickets are on sale now. I believe tickets are on sale for money in the bank as of today. So if you're planning to buy those tickets for money in the bank, also hop on over to CVV ticks.com to grab tickets and I'll see you in NOLA for that one.

Welcome, my friend, to Ask CVV number 140 Tank Abbott and three count addition. Three count. I was a huge three count fan in WCW. Get up on your feet. Put your hands together. Welcome, my friend. to ask CVV number 140. It doesn't matter if the rock counts to three. Edition.

And also, ask CVV number 143. Yeah, you know me. Edition. Send in your questions for next week. If you're listening on Spotify, leave it in the comments on there. You can also send them in on chris fanfleet.com or on social media using that hashtag ask CVV.

Also, send in your ideas for Ask CVV number 140 for Horseman edition or any of the other ideas. You might have 140 figure four edition. There's a lot of them. Send them all in. A ton happened this week in the world of wrestling. I also feel like this was a big week for the podcast. Like, this was a big week for insight, both figuratively and literally, kind of like last week. We had the great collie on Tuesday.

That episode got more than 200,000 views in the first 48 hours, which is a bonkers number. So thank you to everyone who checked that out. And then the episode yesterday with Finn Baller, man, that might be one of my favorite conversations I've had in a long time. Like, I just appreciate how open he was. And we covered everything, but you can tell how passionate he is about wrestling, just the way he speaks about it. And when I asked him, close your eyes,

what's that moment that your mind goes to? What's that moment that you think of? And he started to get emotional, talking about how much that moment meant to him in Belfast, being in front of his family, it was his mom's birthday. So a huge thank you to Finn Baller for being willing to sit down with me,

being willing to open up, also being willing to extend the interview. Right around the hour mark, I went to wrap it up. He's like, oh, what are you doing? Let's keep going. And then we chatted for another, whatever it was, 20, 25 minutes. And also, thank you if you checked out that episode or if you checked out any episode.

If you haven't checked out this episode with Finn Baller, I highly recommend it. When this episode's done or if you're looking for something to do this weekend, something to listen to this weekend, that's one. I would definitely recommend that you put on. But like I said, big week in wrestling. so a ton to dive into here. So we'll kick this off with Josh Jennings underscore fan page on Instagram. What's your opinion of CM Punk ending Sammy Zane's nine-day title reign?

Got a ton of questions in all various different forms about this. This is the huge news of the week. The summer of Punk, 2026 is upon us. This was completely unexpected. Yeah, sure, there were reports that CM Punk was going to be on Raw since it was in Chicago. But I don't think anyone expected this. Like, we all expected Cody Rhodes and Sammy Zane to have the match. Cody Rhodes earned that number one contender spot.

That's what we were expecting here. I don't think anyone expected Cody to be taken out of the championship match with Sammy. Our replacement to be found that night, CM Punk dropped in. And I think we especially didn't expect that because CM Punk is supposed to be on Smackdown. But I know that brand allegiances don't really matter anymore. As I pointed out, the draft was very silly. And maybe that's a reason why there was no draft last year. Because there really aren't any more allegiances to the blue brand or to the red brand.

But storyline wise here, come with me on this journey. How is Nick Aldus able to find a replacement when he was placed on administrative leave because of his issues with Gunther? But I suppose that's a whole other topic completely, which may end up leading to a SummerSlam match. Man, I would love to see Nick Aldous get back in the ring. But I feel like this whole story here, Sammy winning the championship in Saudi from Cody, CM Punk winning it in Chicago from Sammy. I feel like this has been in the works a lot longer than people think. Do you remember when CM Punk planted this seed?

The last time we saw him was the Raw after WrestleMania. He had that promo segment with Cody Rhodes. Do you remember when he said, you never know when a championship opportunity is just going to fall out of the sky? Well, guess what happened on Raw? a championship opportunity fell out of the sky. And I hope on Monday that this has explained, I hope that CM Punk is there on Monday,

and we get a promo explaining how this all came together because especially when we're talking about the undisputed championship, there has always been, I can't say always, but there has been a lot of like, all right, you want this title, all right, there's going to be a story leading up to this.

There's going to be a number one contender match. that leads up to this, there seems to be a lot of paths that like, this is why this person deserves this title shot. We talked about how Seth Rollins is basically just saying like, yeah, hey, Roman Raines, brother to brother, let's have this match. And we were questioning last week of like, hey, wait a second, there was nothing done to earn that opportunity. And I feel like with the undisputed title, there has been that. There has been the, for example, number one contender match. J. Uso versus Cody Rhodes last week.

The winner of this gets a shot at Sammy Zane on Monday. All right, great. We see a clear path to how you get that title. So I would love an explanation as to how CM Punk got in line for this. Because I feel like there's, like he was vying for the other title. Like if CM Punk had just stepped up to Roman Raines and said, hey, yeah, you beat me at WrestleMania. I want my rematch, we all would have gone, well, yeah, that makes sense.

That was a fantastic main event. I'd love to see a rematch there. That one makes sense. That adds up. But here, just like being dropped in, it feels like it's just being done for the element of surprise. And I'm okay with that. Because I love how Chicago has always been this wild card for CM Punk, whether it's

WWE or AEW. You're like anything can happen in Chicago, and it's great that that can play into the story when CM Punk is active here. I also love the throwbacks to what CM Punk did in that same arena, the Allstate Arena after he won the title from John Cena at Money in the Bank, 2011, blowing the kiss to the camera, posting the photo of the championship in the fridge like that. It truly is the summer of punk. This is CM Punk's third world title.

in the last 11 months, or I should say his third world title win. I guess it's the same thing in the last 11 months. I've seen the comments online. People calling back to what CM Punk said about part-time wrestlers. And I've seen the comparisons to the rock when CM Punk called him out. But if you think that CM Punk is a part-time wrestler, I say this with the greatest amount of respect for you. But you are out of your mind.

You think CM Punk's a part-time wrestler? CM Punk took a vacation after WrestleMania, and then he came back in his hometown for a surprise return and a huge pop to win the championship. If you think this is a part-time thing, you're crazy. Let's look at the numbers, shall we? When the Rock was calling CM Punk, a part-time wrestler, the Rock had worked at that point three matches four matches in nine years I guess the fourth

match was the one where he beat CM Punk so in the promos leading up to it the rock had worked three matches in nine years now if we look at what CM Punk's been up to this year well how many matches has CM Punk worked this year should we include the one want on Monday or not. I don't know if it really matters. If we look at it here, CM Punk has worked 13 matches this year. And then if we look, man, there's a lot. I'm scrolling. I'm still scrolling here. CM Punk worked something like 35 matches last year. Like I understand it's fun to draw those comparisons. And I saw a bunch of graphics with fake tweets on them and fake outrage from other wrestlers that turned out.

to not be true at all. If you saw that graphic where it was like CM Punk holding up the championship and then it was surrounded by all of these tweets from people

calling out CM Punk for his part-time comments, those weren't real tweets. Like a quick Google search may surprise you. That's been my favorite go-to line.

A quick Google search may surprise you here. CM Punk is very much still a top guy in the world of pro wrestling. for him to be the WWE champion makes a lot of sense. For him to be in that match doesn't really add up that much. But I'd love to see where this goes,

and I'd love to see how this whole thing ends up adding up. But I'm all for moments in wrestling, and that pop that C.M. Punk got when he came out was huge. The pop when he won the championship, and that was a complete shock. it was even bigger. And I feel like that's the type of moments. Like when we think about this moment in five or 10 or 20 years,

I don't think we're going to go, well, yeah, he won that championship, but he hadn't wrestled since WrestleMania and he's normally a smackdown guy and he came back. I think we're just going to go, man, what a huge pop that was. What a huge reaction that was. But I have faith. Can we just pump the brakes on this for, A few days.

Can we just see how this plays out? I'd like to have some patience, which I always like to have with wrestling. Can we see how this plays out? Can we see where this goes? Because this is very clearly leading to something at SummerSlam. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion.

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Hey there, hi there, ho there, CBB. I love CM Punk as champion, but Sammy Zane's title reign felt way too short. Now, I've got three questions for you. Why am I reading this like a promo? I've got three questions for you. Does Sammy Zane get his rematch at SummerSlam? Does Punk finally go full heel?

And most importantly, when do we get heel Cody? Because the day Cody snaps, everything changes. Three very good questions here. I think I'll answer question number two first because I think that punk being a heel as a champion could be very, very interesting, especially since he's been mega baby face. I guess there were some tweener points there, but like definitely leaning baby face since he returned

to WWE. I would love to see CM Punk O'Hill. And maybe that's the explanation here. Maybe it's this idea of like, maybe he starts going in on Sammy Zane. Ah, you're not championship material. You didn't even deserve that title. Let's give it to a real champion like me. I don't know what it's going to be, but I feel like he could turn this very easily.

into a heel run. Does Sammy get his rematch at SummerSlam? I don't know. I feel like where we stand right now, we've got weeks to go to SummerSlam. I feel like it's going to be Cody Rhodes versus CM Punk at SummerSlam. And again, it's interesting because he's a Smackdown guy. CM Punk's a Smackdown guy holding this title that he won on Raw. And I get it. It's just, I think he's going to bring this title over to Smackdown. And who's on Smackdown? Well, Cody Rhodes is on Smackdown. Of course you could make a strong case for this needing to be a triple threat match.

CM Punk has the championship. Well, Cody Rhodes got taken out by Gunther. He couldn't be in this match. Cody Rhodes has a claim of like, yeah, I deserve to be in there. That should have been my title. And then Sammy Zane, of course, can make the claim. man, give me another match here. Could be a triple threat match.

But you know who else could make a claim for that title shot, someone we haven't heard from in a while? If Randy Orton popped up out of nowhere, Randy Orton could also make a claim for that. He was so close that main event night one of WrestleMania. And we haven't seen him since. And this is the interesting thing. if Randy Orton were to pop up right now and insert himself right into a title picture,

I don't think anyone would be going, oh, man, part time or what the heck? And I get it. I guess it's the idea of these hypocritical comments. But I'm just saying, I feel like CM Punk has worked a lot more matches than Randy Orton over the last 12 months. But I digress. What I'm saying here is there's a lot of people at the time. of the card that could make a claim.

Drew McIntyre, he isn't part of the discussion right now, but he certainly could be. He was a WWE champion just a few months ago. But I just think, I think we're getting Cody Rhodes versus CM Punk, but where does that leave Sammy Zane? And maybe the story here is maybe it's Cody versus Gunther again. Like, Gunther's the one who took Cody out, but I think that that was just a distraction to get,

CM Punk into this match, I really do think we're getting Nick Aldous versus Gunther at SummerSlam. And man, I hope we do. I hope the world can finally see what Nick Aldus is capable of. Like if you didn't watch him as Magnus in Impact Wrestling or you didn't see his incredible run as the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, oh man, I hope that we get a chance to see that. But I just don't know where this leaves Sammy Zane. I don't think this is Sammy Zane's only championship run. I don't think so. I don't think it was to give him the title for a week and never have him hold it again. I think the Sammy Zane finds his way back into the title picture relatively quickly.

And I'm really interested to see how that goes. But I think when you really look at this whole thing, Sammy Zane won the championship at Night of Champions to have a big moment at that event. CM Punk won the championship in Chicago on Raw to have a big moment on Raw. I think that's it. And I also think that the idea was CM Punk's going to be the champion going into SummerSlam. But very interested to see how that plays out. Like Sammy Zane had, did you see this social media crash out this video that he cut like

right after he lost the championship? It wasn't even a promo. It was like, he came backstage and just like lost it on the camera that was back there. And he raised a lot of really valid points. And I think that he could continue to play into that and be like, I was robbed. I think Becky Lynch even put something out on Instagram that he was robbed. There's a story there. And I think that Sammy Zane chasing that championship.

We talked about it last week. It makes for a feel good moment. So I don't think this is the last we've seen of Sammy Zane as a champion. But at this point, I don't think he's in the Summer Slam picture. And if he is, it's not a one-on-one match. Maybe it's a three-way, maybe it's a four-way match. But I'm really interested to see. Brian Dowie on Instagram says, Chris, would you rather be a one-time nine-day champion

or never be champion at all. Hope you are all doing well. We're doing well, Brian, hope you're doing well. Yeah, I mean, if I'm a WWE superstar, if I'm someone who has dreamed to be a pro wrestler since I was a little kid, yeah, I'll take being the WWE champion for any length of time.

Sure, I'll take being a champion for nine days, winning it on a PLE, and then losing it to a hot crowd in Chicago. yeah, I think I'd be okay with that. I'd be okay with the Finn Baller situation. And I just feel like that's got to stick. Right. He won the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. He knows during the match that his shoulders dislocated. He tells a great story about it on the episode that came out yesterday. He says like during the match to Seth Rollins, hey, buddy, I'm hurt. I know I'm going to be out for a while. You want to change the finish?

And Seth goes, no, no, let's keep going. You can have your moment. I'm obviously paraphrasing here. But he wins the championship, has that moment. What is it, 22 hours later, comes out, cuts a promo with a sling on, and has to vacate the title. Yeah, I'll take that moment. I'll take that moment for sure, wouldn't you? And, I don't think that everybody's cut out to be a three-time,

world champion, five-time world champion, 10-time world champion, never seen 17 champion. I think that if you have the opportunity to do it once, and I think that if you were to talk to any person on the mid-card right now and present this exact situation of them, they'll go, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll take the championship for nine days, no problem with that. And it's funny, I think we've gotten really accustomed to, I'll call them. longer title reigns, but I think we've gotten so accustomed to slightly longer title reigns,

100 days, 150, 200 days, that when we see a, and look, I get nine days is short. I understand that. It's the shortest one since the MIS, his last WB championship run was eight days. So like, I understand those are short. It's a week, right? But I think that when you look back at like, John Sina's, of course, won 17 of these. When you look back at some of John Sina's runs, yeah, I'm not saying they're short, short, like nine days, but we're used to like, you win the championship, you defend it at a PLE or two or three, and then you lose it. And there seems to be this new world that we've been living in in the last,

I guess it's like nine-ish months where the title can change hands relatively quickly and also the title can change hands on TV. When you think back to Jay Uso losing the title, again, relatively speaking quickly, when you look at Drew McIntyre's reign, like, again, relatively speaking quickly. But then when you look at a guy like, I don't know, The Rock, his first title reign was 44 days. By today's standards, that would be like so short. And I get that like the differences he defended the title a lot more times.

He was defending it like quite a few episodes of Raw. And like that's the difference here. Rock held it for 44 days, defended it six times as I'm looking at the stats here. But the Rock's second title run, two days, Rock's third title run, 41 days, Rock's next title run after that, 21 days. So like, relatively speaking, these runs now that are 50 days, 60 days, they don't feel that long because the person's not defending it as often. I understand that. But I guess when we're just looking at the days themselves, it's interesting how much it's changed.

Like, it's interesting to see what the difference is here now. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that last year, too. A round of Jameson, ginger, and lime arrives at a table. Smooth enough for kickoff, smooth enough for extra time. New friends pulling up a stool. Debates about whether that was a handball.

Cheers rising like a roar around the room. Because match days are about the shared moments. How did Jameson to your match day lineup? Jameson, it's what you bring. Please enjoy our products responsibly. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if?

Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. John Harvey on Spotify says,

Hey, CVV, is Seth versus Roman going to be a main event at SummerSlam? I believe so. They haven't officially announced this, but it really feels like Roman Raines is in that spot where almost every PLE he works, he's in the main event. But I pointed out last week that Seth Rollins did nothing to earn this World Heavyweight championship match against Roman Raines in SummerSlam. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited about this match.

I love Seth Rollins. I love Roman Raines. Seeing these guys where they're at in their career right now, I can't wait to see this match. But just the other day on Raw, I was so glad that L.A. Knight, pointed out this exact same thing. Like I thought his brother, brother, brother, brother, brother promo was hilarious. Like, he's pointing out like, who'd you beat to get this match?

Like, how is this coming together? And I just appreciate that that's being pointed out, especially from a guy who like, it's not like L.A. Knight can just go out there and be like, hey, Roman, me and you, SummerSlam, let's do it. We've got some history. And I get that there's way more history. with Seth Rollins and Roman Raines and the Shield and everything. And that's not to say I'm not excited about this match between Seth Rollins and Roman

Raines. I'm just saying that in order to have a match of this kind of magnitude, you should have to earn that spot, a number one contender match on Raw last week. That's it. You should have to beat someone to become the number one contender. And here we are in the same situation. We're talking about that with CM Punk as well. And I think that if you do have the ability like this to call your shot, then I feel like we should be seeing a lot more people calling their shots.

Like whatever happens with this match between Seth Rollins and Roman Rains at SummerSlam, how great would it be if on the Monday after SummerSlam? The raw after SummerSlam, Chad Gable, his music hits. Hey, I don't know if you heard this or not, but I had the greatest match in the world of pro wrestling this year. Yeah, that's right. El Grande Americano versus original El Grande Americano. Everybody's talking about it. Well, you need to put that title on the line because I'm world championship material. I'd love to see some of those then.

If you can just call your shot and we're talking just a few minutes ago about the rock defending that title six times in 44 days, what if we could get to that? Because if we're just able to come out here and call shots, why can't we start to have this title? And the title was defended a pretty good amount at the start of the year. CM Punk as the champion was doing a great job of that. But I'm just saying, I would love to see if there's going to be no story or no,

there's a story. Don't get me wrong. There's a story. If there's going to be no lead-up to it, there's going to be no number one contender, I'd love to see that type of thing happen. If we're going to continue to see championships change hands on weekly television, give us more championship matches. I would love to see that. Mike Kaminar wrote this in on chris fanfleet.com. Greetings and salutations, CVV. What did you think of Kenny Omega winning the AEW World Chia? championship on dynamite. Between Kenny Omega winning that on Wednesday and CM Punk winning the WWE title on

Monday, that's two major title changes in three days. That's the first time I looked this up that the WWE title and the world title for the next biggest promotion in North America changed hands on weekly TV since January 1999. It was mankind winning the WWF title and in that same week Hulk Hogan winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

I just loved it in general. Titles are switching hands on weekly TV. It makes you need to tune in. I love it. But that match with MJF and Kenny Omega was such a good match and man, this match just

reiterated how good MJF is it selling. Like, there's one specific moment. The look on his face when Kenny Omega kicks out at one after a low blow and then MJF hits him in the head with a championship, everyone thinks it's over. He goes down for the pen one. It kick out! The look on his face, he's like shaking it like he's seen a ghost. He looks like a Scooby-Doo cartoon character.

It's priceless. That is absolutely going to be a meme if it hasn't already become a meme. I've been saying all along that Will Osprey is going to win his first AWW World Championship at all in London inside Wembley Stadium next month. The story writes itself. I fully believe that. But now, now we're going into that with Kenny Omega versus Will Osprey in the main event. And honestly, if you look at the AW roster,

I don't think you could pick two better wrestlers for the main event at all in. And like, whenever those guys get in the ring together, it's so good. But Kenny Omega being back, the cleaner being back now, back and better than ever, I'm excited. I'm excited to see that match. And these are the type of guys that just like,

know they know when the stakes are high, they go all out. They're going to go all out and all in. I don't even mean to do that. But that was a lovely surprise because I just think that it's happened a few times this year where on AW and WW, where we've seen world titles change hands. But I feel like for the longest time, we were just stuck in this loop. of like it was just PLE to PLE, pay-per-view to paper view to paper view, where now it's like, well, you got to tune into Dynamite because the title might change hands.

Darby Allen might win the title. Darby Allen might lose the title. MJF might win the title. MJF might lose the title. You got to tune into Raw or Smackdown. CM Punk might win the title. Cody Rhodes might win the title. Drew McIntyre might win the title.

And I just appreciate that that's a thing right now. But maybe I'm a little biased because Kenny Omega is a fellow Canadian, but what a moment. What a great moment. And I'm excited to see what the next month and a half is in the lead-in to that match, August 30th, Wembley Stadium, Will Osprey versus Kenny Omega. Mitchell Adam on Spotify says, respectfully, Brett Hart is Mr. Somerslam. I said last week that Brock Lesnar was Mr. Somerslam. So Mitchell says, but maybe a good old-fashioned Mount Rushmore of SummerSlam performers or performances slash mashes is necessary.

Thank you, CVV. Well, respectfully, Mitchell, I will still hold by my opinion. And it's just my opinion. I will hold by standby the fact that Brock Lesnar is Mr. Somerslam. in the same way of like, Sean Michaels is Mr. WrestleMania because of the moments. Red Hart wrestled

11 matches across 10 different SummerSlams, a record of 7 and 4, although that's not really necessary. I don't even know why I read that bar. Brock Lesnar, going into this year, this is his 13th SummerSlam.

Ten of those are main events, assuming his match with Obafemi inside Helen Assal is the main event, which I feel like it probably will be. But it's the magnitude of the matches that Brock Lezor has had. I'm going to go through these. I'm going to go through every single one of Brock Lezzer's SummerSlam matches. We know that he's got Obafemi, Helen Assel coming up this year. Before that, 2023, the match with Cody Rhodes.

2022, it was against Roman Raines for the undisputed WWE Universal Championship. You remember the tractor in Nashville. 2019, Seth Rollins, Universal Championship. 2018, Roman Raines, Universal Championship. 2017, Roman Raines, Bronstroeman, and Samoa Joe, fatal four-way for the Universal Championship. Are you seeing a trend here? A lot of championship matches.

2016, Randy Orton, 2015, The Undertaker. 2014, remember when he squashed John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? Like, what a moment that was of just like, John Cena is the guy and we just crushed him. 2013, C.M. Punk in that no-d-Q match. 2012, 2003, Kurt Angle, in that W.W.E. Championship match. What a match that was.

In 2002, Brock Lezzar's first SummerSlam, the Rock, when he won the undisputed WWA championship. So the point I'm making here is that Brock Lezzer is in these main event spots. He's up against Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers, and more than half of these, the bulk of these, are for the championship. This is not to discredit Brett Hart. You know, I love Brett Hart. Best there is, best there was, best there will be. Such as a catchphrase. It's a, it's a fact. But I think when you think of big moments at SummerSlam, when you think of main events at SummerSlam, in my opinion, it's Brock Leser. I'm Mount Rushmore of SummerSlam matches.

Personally, I got to go, Bradhart versus British Bulldog. What a match SummerSlam 1992. I've talked so much about how much I love SummerSlam 2002. I think it is the best SummerSlam of all time from first match to last match. unbelievable. It has the greatest opening match in the history of opening matches, but certainly in the history of SummerSlam opening matches. Kurt Engel versus Ray Mysterio in like

an eight-minute, just all-out banger, so good. So Sean Michaels in that match against Triple H, his first match back after retiring, he's been away for four years. He's a whole new Sean Michaels. And he very quickly reminds us that nothing has changed. He is still just as good in the ring as he used to be. Like those four years away might as well have been four minutes away, four days away. He's that good. Love that match. I also got to go with the main event from SummerSlam in 2002.

I just talked about it. But the Rock versus Brock Lezor when it's kind of like this crowning achievement, this big moment for Brock Lezzer winning the WWE Under Spouty Championship at 26 years old. the youngest WWE champion ever. Of course, Randy Jordan has his moment at SummerSlam, youngest world champion at 24 years old in Toronto, by the way. But I think it's just such a, it's such a huge moment for Brock Lezzer in his career.

And I also think it's, I think it's the best rock match. Of course, I love Rock Hogan, WrestleMania 18, but I just think that in terms of like the story and like what they did in the ring, I love that match so much. and then to round it off here on my own personal list, I'm going to go SummerSlam 2000 and the TLC match.

Hardys, Dudley's, Edging Christian, what a match, like what a car crash of a match all out just like fun. Like just a fun match. If you're looking for a match to rewatch this weekend, That's one I would highly recommend. Jim Rome takes on sports. I will always have a complicated relationship with this game. But people evolve.

So do sports. Do not make me regret this. Do not make me devolve. Back to that guy that so many clones wish that I still was. And do not embarrass the entire country. Now, I can go back. I can get there fast. Lose tonight.

And you got a real problem. Do not blow it. the Jim Rome show podcast. You've been warned. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I'm Haley. I'm Haley Karania. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok.

Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. Scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. James Penny on Facebook says, rank these wrestler attributes from least to most important. Entrance, the look, mic skills, in ring work, charisma, slash it factor. You want me to go from least to most? So like from least important all the way up? So you've given me five things here.

I want to go the other way around. I want to go from most important down to least important. Because I think the most important thing here is the it factor. So charisma slash it factor as you have it written here. It's the one thing you really can't teach. Like the biggest stars in the history of the business all had this undeniable presence that made you need to watch them. It made it so you couldn't take your eyes off of them.

Stone Cold, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Roman Raines, whoever it is, they commanded your attention. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan, if you saw them, you went, oh, there's something about that person. There's something I need to watch there. Behind that, I'm going to go Mike's skills. Because wrestling is all about storytelling. It's about that emotional investment. I mean, promo is short for promotion and a great promo is a great. promotion to sell tickets, to create rivalries, and like when it really comes down to it,

to make fans care. And plenty of wrestlers, you can name them, I can name them. They became champions, even though they were average in the ring. And they were able to do that because they could talk. I'm going to go in ringability next. And this has become a lot more important over the last. 20-ish years, 20 to 30 years. But I think that there's countless wrestlers, like I said,

who were able to get over without being great in the ring. But I feel like if you are great in the ring, it allows you to make up for some other things that maybe you aren't great at. If you're not a great promo, we'll put you with a great manager. But if from bell to bell, you can go, you can go. But when you pair that with charisma, with a look, with it factor, and that changes everything. Like, Kurt Angle's a perfect example of that. He ticked all the boxes.

And then when the bell rang, you went, oh, my God, this guy's the best in the world. After in ring ability, I'm going to go, look. And I think it's important because fans instantly judge wrestlers. if you've never seen this person work before and you've heard all this great talk online about this person, then you see them and they don't fit the bill. They don't meet the expectations of what you had in your mind of what a wrestler should look like. It's going to take a long time for them to win you over. But at the same time, I think you can make that work for you.

Dusty Rose, not a prototypical wrestling look. Kevin Owen's not a prototypical wrestling look, but they made it work because that became a part of their character. Like not every guy wearing basketball shorts and a cut off t-shirt can make it work. Kevin Owens can. But I don't think look is nearly as important as it used to be. I think look would have been way higher up this if we were talking. This was 1988.

But I think a lot has changed. And then I guess because you've only given me five options here, entrance lands at number five on this list. Although with that said, if you've got a great entrance, it allows you to like jump up in people's minds. If you have a great entrance song or a great just entrance when you walk out there and it involves the audience, I think it allows you to get over. But I think what a great entrance does, though, is it elevates someone who's already a star. Sure, there's examples of someone who maybe they can't go in the ring or maybe they don't have the look, but they've got a great entrance and that helps them to get over.

But I think when we're looking at this list here, undeniable that you, if you want to be a star, you need charisma, you need that it factor. You've got to be able to figure out a way to talk people into caring about your match. That's why I put Mike's skills up there. It's tough. This might be one of the toughest questions that we've talked about on here. And I think that maybe you could switch a few things in your own order, but that's where I'll go with mine. Mason Taylor on Spotify says, CVV, I loved this question so much a few weeks ago, but I want to put a different spin on it.

So here's the spin. It's 1998 this time. You're backstage at a WWF show. You can only interview four wrestlers. Who are they? Oh, we had so much fun with this. The last time we did it, it was 2005. We could only interview four wrestlers.

We went through the list. That was Ask CVV number 139, I believe, if you want to go back and listen to those answers. So it's 1998 now, and we're going to use the same rules we did last time. 1998 is very broad, right? I think we'd have a different answer if it's January versus December. So what we're going to do is we're going to take this exact day. and go back in our DeLoreans to 1998.

So July 10th, 1998. Who do we want to talk to in July? I'll tell you who I want to talk to. The WWF champion, stone cold, Steve Austin. And it's interesting because at this point in time, he has just started his second championship reign. So he just beat Sean Michaels at wrestling. 2014 to win the title.

He lost it to Kane at King of the Ring for a day, won it back the next night on Raw. And at this point in time, if it's July 10th, that would have happened a week and a half ago. So we're talking to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who is red hot right now. And it's interesting because we don't know it, he's somehow going to get even hotter.

But Stone Cold Steve Austin, at this point of his career, when he's like just starting to kick it into that gear of being a main event guy, what a conversation that would be. Who else are we going to talk to? We have to talk to Mick Foley. Because at this point in time,

it was like a week and a half ago that Mick Foley was thrown off of hell in a cell. Crazy. So that's going to be, one of the biggest stories in pro wrestling, we've got to talk to him. And I think at this point, 1998, K-Fabe's still being relatively intact.

I don't know how much we're actually going to be able to find out from McFoley. I don't know if we're going to be talking to Mick Folli or if we're going to be talking to mankind. Or if in that same interview, Dude Love shows up. Or maybe we get Cactus Jack and it goes wild. But I think there's some of the things you could talk about. What's going through his mind? We've all, we've heard all the stories now, almost 30 years later.

But to hear those stories a week, two, three weeks later, after the craziness of that, he'd be in an interesting headspace, a very interesting headspace. And I would love to chat with him about that. And this was, you talk about Stone Cold, you know, just breaking into that main of ensign, I feel like that was such a pivotal match and a pivotal moment for his career. And the fans like, they were already behind Mick Foley. They were already behind mankind. But that moment, like, made him infamous and iconic and immortal. That moment lives on.

That moment will forever live on. And I feel like that's the moment that really allowed Mick Foley to later on that year, become the WWF champion. Who else is on this list? I think we've got to go with the Rock. At this point in time, July of 20, or July of 1998, he's the current intercontinental champion. And I think that we all know at this point,

the Rock has all the tools to be a world champion. He hasn't won it yet. But what an interesting conversation that would be to talk to someone who you know is right there, right there. right there. And it ends up being later that year's Survivor Series when he wins the championship, but he's right there.

And everybody knows it. And it's like a ticking time bomb ready to go off. He's ready to just catapult himself into being the top guy. And who's the fourth person on this list? So we got Stone Cold, Mick Foley, the Rock. Three great conversations in 1998. I think you have to talk. to the Mr. McMahon character.

Because if you're catching him at this point, he has just transitioned from the announcer to the evil Mr. McMahon character. Everybody is now aware of what Vince McMahon does, what his role in the company is, and this is all playing out for everybody to see during the Monday Night Wars. I think there'd be a fascinating conversation here

as WCW in 1998, there's still winning many weeks in the ratings. So he's making huge decisions every single day, every single week about what are they going to do on Raw? How is that going to lead to this pay-per-view? I think it'd be a great conversation to have with him about how WWF's going to try to win this war, how they're going to try to take over what Ted Turner's doing. What are his thoughts on the NWO?

Could we get an answer about that? Which young talent would Mr. McMahon think would define the next five, ten years? Obviously, he would have no idea in 1998 what was going to happen three, four years from then when he ends up buying WCW, ECW goes under. Like, it's the big moment right here. Because in 1998, nitro's hot, nitro's on top. WWF is gaining a lot of ground on them, and ECW has been really building their audience as well

and really starting to shake things up as the third promotion. I think it would be fascinating to talk to Mr. McMahon about that transition from being, I guess, the character that he was on screen, but he was kind of like behind the scenes and like the fact that he had the power, to going right to the forefront with that character and blurring the lines a lot between what's real and what's not and we don't know. Maybe we get some sort of answer from Vince McMahon about

the screw job to see what he could say. But there we go. Stone Cold, Mick Foley, the rock, Mr. McMahon. I love these questions. These are fun. It's always fun to think about too. Michael Whitaker on Facebook says, if you were asked to do an episode of hot ones, would you? And how far could you go? Michael, I love wings. I love chicken wings, chicken wings and pizza. My two kryptonites. I love hot wings.

I don't love like uncomfortably hot wings. Like I like delicious hot wings. But I also think that Sean Evans is an unbelievable interviewer. he asks these in-depth, fascinating questions. He's a lot like Nardwar. I have such a huge respect for Nardwar, fellow Canadian as well. And there were actually like some very early on in my career, 2006, 2007, when I was working for what ended up becoming MTV to Canada, I was on a show called 969.

I interviewed a lot of musicians, a lot of celebrities. He would be at those interviews. And even at that time, he was a legend doing these incredible interviews. And now he's gone on to become an even bigger force of nature in these interviews. But I have such a huge respect for Sean Evans. I love chicken wings. So yes, sign me up. How far would I go?

I would go all the way, baby. I would be chugging milk and sweating buckets and doing all the things. But there is no quitting me. so I'm going all the way with this. Sign me up for those hot wings. Fun little side story on this when I was still working in television. When I was in Miami, I was on a show called Deco Drive. An entertainment show came on at 7.30. Still lives on all the time. Shout out to Alex Miranda, the guy who ended up taking my job when I left in 2019. Shout out to Shereen Sandoval and Lynn Martinez, who hosts the show. Love you guys.

I was doing a segment called Keeping Up with Chris. And basically, I handed my boss my bucket list. They were looking for a new segment that was going to run on the show Deco Drive that I was on. It was also going to run on the 6 o'clock, 11 o'clock news on WSvN, the TV station that we were on. And my boss was looking for a pitch. And I handed her my bucket list and I said, how about this? And she said, oh, what? And like there were some crazy things on there.

like swim with sharks, take batting practice with the Miami Marlins, catch a Goliath grouper, drive a tank. Like I did some insane things. I did trapeze training like at the circus. Crazy, crazy things I got to do. She looked at the list and went, yeah, if you can do, if you can book five of these, you've got a segment. Okay. Okay. Sounds great. One of the, one of the things that we were supposed to do was, I don't know why this was on my bucket list or why this was a pitch for a TV segment, but I was going to eat like the wings you have to sign a waiver for. There was a place on Miami Beach where they had these wings. So we set up the shoot. We went down there and, you know, sometimes things don't happen and it ends up being like probably the best thing that couldn't happen. we went down there. We were all set up, had the camera, the mic, the lights, everything. And the manager goes, oh, you wanted to eat the wings. Oh, like, we don't have them in-house. Like, when

someone wants to do this, usually they tell us, like, ahead of time. And then we, like, get it set up with our chef. And I said, oh, like, what do you think we were going to do? He said, oh, I thought you wanted to just, like, interview us about the wings. I said, no, like, I'm here to eat the wings. I I brought the milk and all the things. Like, I'm ready to do this. And he goes, I'm so sorry, man. Like, we can't do it today. We can do it tomorrow or the next day, but we can't do it.

And I feel like he was saving me. And he wasn't doing this on purpose. He wasn't like, he wasn't just making this up that they didn't have the sauce there. Like, they legitimately couldn't do that that day. But I feel like he ended up saving me because the way the schedule worked out, we couldn't obviously shoot that segment that day. and then it just never ended up coming to fruition. And I feel like it,

that maybe that segment would have just like wrecked me. Like maybe those wings would have ruined me. I don't know. But I'm just a big believer in like, everything happens for a reason. And them not having that ridiculously hot, well, I don't remember what was called, whatever that sauce was called,

but they didn't have it on site. And I feel like he was saving me. but hot wings sign me out i'll make a fool out of myself sounds great tony stark 31 on instagram did chelsea green ever give you that hat that she said she would because she said that matt had 20 of them that is a fantastic question tony stark 31 great name love your movies it's funny you bring that up because tomorrow i'm going to be in orlando and i'm going to be in orlando I'm going to be sitting down with Matt Cardona for an interview. And I'm so excited because I've interviewed Matt Cardona many times.

I've never interviewed WWE superstar Matt Cardona before. Every time I've interviewed him, and he's been on the show three, four times. He was always an independent wrestler. Every interview I did with him was between 2020 and 2025. So I'm really interested to talk to him. him about the return of Zach Ryder, then the return as Matt Cardona fully under a contract and signed to WWE. Can't wait, but you have reminded me that Chelsea Green owes me a hat. Matt Cardona better bring me a hat to this interview. I want my Chelsea Green hat.

Matthew Sandy on Facebook says, from a mental standpoint, what moment or like at what point within your life? Did you realize you're going places within the podcast business or wrestling in general? Really interesting question, Matthew. And I feel like it's been a really slow burn because there's still some people that are just finding the episodes now, just finding out about the podcast now. And I'm super grateful for that. Like, that's such a beautiful thing about the way that the internet works. But here we are on this is episode number 941. And we've been putting out the podcast consistently since, man, it's been, I think the seven-year anniversary just passed like two or three weeks ago. So for the last seven-plus years, consistently doing this.

But on top of that, it's been, I started my television career in 2005, started my radio career in December of 2004. So it's been a really, really, really, long, slow burn. And I think the moment I realized that I was, I don't know if I was going places, but I realized that there was a slight impact in these interviews was probably in 2011 when I interviewed the miss. He was throwing out the first pitch for the Cleveland Indians at the time. And I went down there, was working for the local TV station in Cleveland,

channel 19 WIO 19 action news honest fair everywhere that was the catchphrase i asked my boss if i could go down and do this interview with the miss he said no problem we set it up with the baseball team the cleveland indians at the time cleveland guardians now they said sure so i did this interview with miss on the field it's like three minutes long but he said a few things in that interview that ended up making news. And if you think back to 2011, who's interviewing wrestlers at that point? Like really the only people

that are doing interviews with wrestlers at that point, current wrestlers. Because sure, there's some shoot interviews that are happening, but those are people who their contracts are done. A lot of these people are disgruntled

and they're saying lots of terrible things about the place they used to work. Who's doing interviews with current wrestlers at that time? Morning radio shows. maybe promoting ticket sales, morning TV shows, that's about it. So I was at this really interesting crossroads where I'm a huge wrestling fan, lifelong wrestling fan.

Now I've got access to talk to a current wrestler, not about like Ross coming to town this week, get your tickets and see you at the Quicken Loans Arena, which is the arena, it was the name of the arena in Cleveland. But this was like me, like, asking questions about, like, current stuff that was going on. And I asked Ms. about the pipe bomb. He gave a great answer about that. He said it was the most exciting time in wrestling since the attitude era.

I also said, oh, man, I was there at WrestleMania 27. I just said that, like, off the cuff. And he goes, oh, yeah, I got concussed her in that match. I don't remember it. And I was like, oh, wow. That all ended up becoming news. I posted that interview on my YouTube channel, not thinking much of it. My YouTube channel at that point was like a few months old.

And I posted this on there just as like a place for it to just live digitally. And I woke up the next day and it had like 6,000 views. And I was like, what? Like these usually got like dozens of views. And like if I was lucky, a few hundred and like most of them being my mom. So I was like, what happened? And you could dig into the analytics and see like where the links were coming from. Like who was clicking on this?

and I saw that it had been embedded in a few wrestling websites. I was like, oh, wow, like, this is a thing. Like, it just hit me in that moment of like, not only am I on the news reporting on the local news here in the Cleveland area, but the things we talked about here end up being like wrestling news, like global wrestling news. It doesn't matter what city, state, country, continent you live on, This was news.

And I was like, oh, wow, that's a thing. So then basically every time from that moment on, when a wrestler were coming to town to promote Raw, Smackdown, or Impact, I would ask some questions about like, what can fans expect from the show? Like a sound bite we could use on the news, but then I'd ask some other questions that I always want to know the answer to. So that was kind of like the first inflection point.

And then from then on, I was always uploading the interviews I did to my YouTube channel just as kind of like a place for them to live. Like I just hated the idea that the only time you could see the interview I did with Anne Hathaway or Ben Affleck or Steven Spielberg or Tom Cruise or whoever it might have been. I hated that the only time you could see that is if you were, you had your TV on, you lived in the greater. Cleveland area, you happen to have it on Channel 19, and you happen to be watching that specific Thursday at 4.17 p.m. when my entertainment news segment came on, it was called The Buzz. And I was like, there's got to be people outside of Cleveland, maybe living in a different city or country that would appreciate this interview. I'm just going to put it up on YouTube and see what happens. Again, some of those interviews got hundreds of views. Some of those

interviews ended up getting millions of views early on. And I started leaning into that idea of, all right, I've got access through this pretty cool job I've got, being an entertainment report, I've got access to all of these celebrities by, you know, they're promoting their movies or their books or their comedy tour, whatever it happens to be. I've also got access to some pro wrestlers every once in a while. And I started kind of looking at the calendar and going, oh, look, AIW, this independent wrestling promotion in Cleveland, they're bringing in Buff Bagwell. Well, that'd be an interesting conversation. We could run a clip of that on the news, and then we could run the rest of it on my YouTube channel. Oh, what's this? AIW is bringing in

Christopher Daniels, huge TNA fan. It'd be great to have a chat with him. Oh, there's a wrestling convention that's an hour away. What if I could drive there and I could ask somebody to do an interview with me and we could film it on my flip phone or my not sorry not flip phone flip cam remember the flip cam in fact if you look at that youtube channel i'm talking about my main youtube channel the chris fan vlead channel if you go on there and you sort it oldest to newest instead of the way that it is like default newest to oldest the first interview you'll see on there the first wrestling interview you'll is Cody Rhodes wearing a face mask in the days leading up to WrestleMania 27. And we filmed that, me and my buddy, Jason Hanman, who was the weatherman at our TV station

in Cleveland. He was like not a huge wrestling fan, but like just always down for a good time. And we made it this tradition. There was four of us. Me, Jason Hanman, Brian Tully and Alex Rosenberg, boom. we would all go on this WrestleMania trip every year. We did it for many, many years.

WrestleMania 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, like till the world shut down. And Jason shot that on a flip cam. All of this is to say, I just realized that like the most important thing was can you get that person to say yes? And this is the biggest advice I always say to anybody who says, do you have advice for me?

I'm trying to get into being a content creator. I want to do interviews, what do I need to do? And I always say, find someone who's going to say yes. If you want to interview wrestlers, go to your local independent show and ask every wrestler that's at that show when they're at their merch table. Ask them, hey, my name is so-and-so. I have this channel called Whatever. I would love to do an interview with you.

Could I get five minutes of your time later on after the show if you're not too busy? They say no, on to the next person. Eventually somebody's going to say yes. And then that yes is going to turn into another yes from somebody else down the line and then it's going to start to snowball from there. I think the biggest thing is what is the value that you can lead with? What do you bring to the table? Because they're giving you their most valuable asset, their time. The biggest non-renewable resource. What are you giving them an exchange? Are you giving them promotion on your YouTube channel on a podcast, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is. How many followers do you have?

How many people could potentially end up seeing this? That's the value that you bring. And I started to realize that early on in my career. And two wrestling interviews a year turned into three, turned into five, turned into like 15, turned into like by 2018. I think it was like 20 or 30, 2019, I think close to 100. And like that was really where it all began was like, how can I get this access? And then how can I get somebody to say yes?

And if you look back at some of those older interviews, I mean, we're going way back 15 plus years ago with the ones that you'll see on YouTube. And then like the very first wrestling interviews, Bobby Lashley, I did in 2007. I think there's some other ones, 2008, 2009 that aren't on, yeah, they, they, they, they, don't think they ever got uploaded, but like I interviewed Mr. Kennedy early on, like 2008-ish, I think. Ted DiBi-Junior, I think, 2008 or 2009, like some really early ones. They're not great. They're not great at all, but the whole thing is like, how did you learn from there? How did you grow from there? And if you're not looking back at your older work and being embarrassed by it and thinking, oh, man, I thought that was good. Man, the stuff I'm doing now is.

so much better. If you're not doing that, then I don't think you're headed in the right direction. You should always be improving on it. You should always be getting just a little bit better every single time. So Matthew, thank you for that question. Thank you everybody for all the questions. That's our final question on this. Ask CBV number 140 Tank Abbott and three count audition. Number one, 40, it doesn't matter if the rock counts a three. edition. And number 143, yeah, you know me, addition. Let's hear your questions for next week.

Ask CVV number 144. Send them in the comments if you're listening on Spotify. And if you're still listening on Spotify, we talked a lot about SummerSlam during this episode. Drop in there your favorite SummerSlam or your favorite SummerSlam match of all time. I'd love to hear what it is. You already know mine. SummerSlam 2002 is about as perfect as it can be. But let me know what yours is if you're listening on Spotify and send in your questions on there.

Of course, go to Chris VanVleet.com and click on the contact form. You can send in your questions there or send them in on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV. I'm going to go grab some hot wings now to start the day. And I will leave you with this quote from Flex Lewis. don't let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours. That is powerful. Powerful words from the seven-time Mr. Olympia, Flex Lewis. I love that. Be great and be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. Maybe I'll even see you in Orlando. It's a quick trip, but I'll be in Orlando later tonight and then into tomorrow. I'm shooting four interviews.

I already told you one of them. You'll see the other three in the weeks to come here. Be great, be grateful. Have a great weekend. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer podcast. The Place Where I, Megan Klingerberg, a World Cup expert, teaches you everything that you need to know for this summer's World Cup.

How special is it that we've been able to follow this young group of guys? It's been such a roller coaster of emotions. You can feel the intensity. a bit of time, energy, effort, everything along the way on these guys making the country proud, and I think they will the summer. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.