Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #148 - Zilla Fatu's WWE Debut, I Hit The ROCK BOTTOM!, Roman Reigns' Opponent In Mexico City, Best Custom Title Designs

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

See you at the next Insight LIVE on August 21 in Toronto with Trish Stratus! https://cvvtix.com Welcome to AskCVV #148! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions about Zilla Fatu making his NXT debut, how long it will be before he joins The Bloodline, CVV hitting the Rock Bottom on Richard Holliday at Booker T's Reality Of Wrestling, the official start and end dates of The Attitude Era, what's next for Solo Sikoa, when Bray Wyatt should be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame, the Mount Rushmore of custom WWE Title designs and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "The cold water doesn't get warmer the longer you wait to jump in" - James King 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 Welcome back, my friend, to another one here on Insight. It's me. It's me. It's CVV. Chris Van Fleet.

Hope you've had a great week. Thank you for keeping me company on this Friday. Thank you for chatting a little wrestling with me. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a rock bottom on that follow button wherever you're listening right now.

Apple, whatever the podcast app of your listening pleasure is, hit a rock bottom on that follow button. I want to make sure that you don't miss out on any episodes that we have on the way. And we've recorded some big ones. So make sure you're following the show for new interviews every Tuesday and Thursday. And of course, Ask CVV every single Friday. But I don't need to tell you that because you're already here. You're a real one. You're listening on a Friday. And if you listen all the way until the end, that officially makes you a real, real one. And I will see all of the real, real, real ones one week from today. We're going to get a little stratisfaction, Insight Live in Toronto on Friday, August 21st,

with the one and only Trish Stratus. I am pumped for this. I've been talking to Trish Stratis and her people about doing an interview for almost three years now. And I couldn't think of a better place and I couldn't think of a better time than next Friday in our hometown. We're doing this in our hometown of Toronto.

And on top of all that, Trish is going to stick around after the show for a meet and greet with all of you. So grab those tickets now at CVVTix.com. And I will say this. Tickets are going fast, mostly because Trish is doing the meet and greet for this and you also have the ability to get as many autographs as you want.

So CVVTix.com, if you see the tickets are available, I would suggest grabbing them because this show is going to sell out and you'll be, of course, able to listen to this or watch it. I think about a week or two afterwards, we're going to put it up like we always do with all of these episodes. Also, when you're on CVVTicks.com, you can grab tickets for Insight Live in New Orleans. Orleans, Friday, October 9th, the day before money in the bank. So a lot of exciting stuff

on the way there is a, I don't want to say too much. I feel like sometimes I like, I say, oh yeah, this, this great thing's going to happen. I've been emailing with this person or we've set a date in a time and then it falls through for whatever reason or gets rescheduled. But there's one that we're lining up here in September that's that's going to make you go, Oh my gosh. CVV got that person on the show? Yeah, I got that person on the show. And you'll see who it is in the next month or so.

The U.S. soccer podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg. And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup,

and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Welcome to Ask CVV number 140, figure 8, leg lock edition. Send in your ideas for next week.

Ask CVV number 149. Send in your questions. as well. There's a ton of stuff to get to on this one, but send in your questions by leaving a comment on Spotify. Send them in on chrisfanfleet.com by clicking on that contact button or, of course, send it on social media by using the hashtag Ask CVV. We'll kick this one off from F. Hilliard 96 on Instagram who says, yo, CVV. Zillifatu just showed up in NXT. How long does he stay there? and when do you think he'll be brought up to join the bloodline? First of all, huge.

Congratulations to Zillifat II on making his WWE debut this last Tuesday on NXT. He interrupted the number one contenders match between Grayson Waller and Cruz, Montana, which was a great match up until that point. I'm curious how that match would go if there was no outside interference. But he came in. He interfered on that. We got a DQ. by Zillifat 2 wreaking havoc in this match.

I'm guessing that maybe this sets up a fatal four-way at some point in the future. Grayson Waller versus Cruz Montana versus Zillifat 2 versus Tony DeAngelo for the NXT championship. That's what it feels like we're headed towards here. But I've known Zilla for years now. I was there when he made his wrestling debut. three years ago. He was on my show almost exactly a year ago last summer.

He was on the show last summer. And at that time when he was on the show and you can go back and check this episode out, he said he hadn't had a WWE tryout at that point. And he hadn't been to the Performance Center yet. Obviously, a lot has changed in that last year. And I just love how patient he's been with this process. He's honed his skills on the, the indies. He's gotten like so good at dialing in what his skill set is all about. Like if you look at

his first match and you look at where he's at now, it's, it's night and day. And that's the way it should be. That's the way it should be as you continue to get those reps in. But he's instead of just going, oh man, he's Umaga's son. And he's super athletic instead of just going, yeah, let's just send him right to the PC and see what we can do with him. I like that he did the indie thing. I like that he did the Indy thing. He's had 93 matches on the Indies competing at some of the top independent wrestling companies like Booker T's Reality Wrestling, Hogg, Fourth Rope, and many others. He's worked with some tremendous talent on the Indies. And now it's time to see what he can do on weekly television every single week. So how long does he stay in NXT? I would think it's maybe it's a year-ish.

I'm like there's a big difference and wrestlers talk about this all the time. It's a big difference between knowing how to be a great wrestler and knowing how to be a great TV wrestler. And the difference is playing to the cameras. The difference is knowing what to do during the commercial breaks

and what to do coming out of the commercial breaks. The difference is hitting those time cues and I don't just mean the match needs to be eight minutes and you want to have it as close to eight minutes as possible but it's also the idea of like, we got to make sure that we're counting down. And this is something that I don't know if every wrestling fan knows this.

Sometimes the referee's like counting you down to commercial break. So you've got to hit this big spot that's going to have you like laid out during the commercial break. It's about hitting those moments. So there's a big difference between knowing how to wrestle and knowing how to be a good TV wrestler. And this time in NXT is going to allow him to hone in those skills

of being a great TV wrestler. so that by the time he does get called up to the main roster, it's like, oh, yeah, this guy can go. Maybe, maybe it's spend the next five months in NXT and then we see him have a Royal Rumble moment. But although there has been a lot of times where it's an NXT talent having that Royal Rumble moment, but they're not officially part of the main roster.

They're just, they happen to be represented in NXT in the Royal Rumble. I could definitely see that being a possibility here. but man, I can't be the only one who thought we were just seeing a young Umaga in the ring and fitting, like almost poetic that the Umaga character debuted in 2006. Fast forward 20 years later, Umaga's son, Zilofatu making his WWE debut. But CVV, Jamal's been part of the WWE roster since 2002. Yes, Umaga, who wrestled under the name Jamal was part of three-minute warning in 2002, but the Umaga character,

which is what I'm talking about, after Jamal ended up leaving WWE and then went to TNA and all Japan, he came back to WWE in 2006 as the Umaga character. So that's what I'm talking about here. Man, the guy can move in the ring. And I think you're right. And I think everybody's right to assume

that Zillifah 2 at some point will probably play a role in the bloodline. And it seems like the bloodline just finds new ways to switch things up a little bit. Just when you think the bloodline is crumbling, they find a new way to inject some new life into that storyline. So I guess we'll see where it goes here with Solosokoa and that storyline. And then is Zillah part of that in the next few months? I just don't think so yet. But with that said, I also feel like

NXT needs a little bit of time to like build up the current roster. A lot of the top stars in NXT got bumped up to the main roster to start this year. Like a ton of them. Sol Ruka, Javon Evans, Obafemi, Ethan Page. So I think it's time to like let this current NXT roster do what it can do for now. Let's see where things go from here and then give him, like I said, maybe it's a year. Maybe it's a little bit less than a year, but the intensity that Zilla has in the ring, who you're in for something here. Episode number seven, 97 was my episode with Zillifat

two from August 12th, 2025. Wow, that is one year ago as of Wednesday. Isn't that crazy to the day? So lots happened in that time, but huge congrats to him. And it's great to see how much he's just matured and evolved. And he has an amazing story. So if you've got some time this weekend, that's one that I highly suggest that you go check out. David Savely emailed this one. And Chris, what an incredible surprise to check out social media and see you back in a wrestling ring.

Not only did you hit an incredibly clean sharp deaths. That's what I'm calling Chris Sharp's version of the rock bottom, but the instant pop-up after the move to you turning and looking at the crowd, it felt like you belonged in a ring. You are too kind, David. Thank you. Can you provide some insight on how this opportunity for you came to be? How do you feel after the moment and seeing everyone's reaction?

Surely this is not the end of Chris Sharp's journey. first of all, thank you to anyone who watched that clip. Thank you to anyone who came out to reality of wrestling, Summer of Champions 12 on Saturday in Texas City, Texas. What a night. It was just such a fun night. And a huge shout out to Booker T for even allowing this moment to happen. Like Booker T had to sign off on this idea.

And he did. He gave me a fist bump after, and he's like, man, you look like the rock out there for a second. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. Two-time WWE Hall of Famer, Booker T, who, by the way, will be on the show here in a few weeks. It was just such a fun moment. So I've been to reality of wrestling a few times. I think the last time that I did something was two years ago, like almost exactly two years ago.

It was their big show Summer of Champions, which is like their biggest show of the year. which is what this show was this past weekend. I was a Summer of Champions two years ago. Max Castiano's, their big heel. I did a segment in the ring where he, like, blue cigar smoke in my face. I was not happy about that at all. This time around, I'll peel back the curtain just a little bit.

They were like, hey, would you be okay doing some guest commentary? I said, sure, yeah, that'd be so fun. So I did guest commentary on the, battle royal that kicked off the show. It was a blast. Then I did a little backstage segment with Jesse Funaki. Yes, the son of WWE legend Funaki, Smackdown's number one announcer. Jesse Funaki's an incredible young talent, so I was doing a backstage segment with him, and it got interrupted by Richard Holliday, who had some not-so-nice things to say about Jesse and some not-so-nice things to say about me.

I'm like, what? I never met Richard Holliday before that night. And he's like, oh, man, you should be interviewing me instead of this guy over here. And then he had some not nice things to say. And I was like, huh, well, I'm, I'm going to remember that moment. So then when the match ended up happening a little bit later that night, it was Jesse Foonaki, putting his reality of wrestling legacy title on the line in a three-way match. It was Jesse Funaki versus Rye Davidson versus Richard Holliday.

I just happened to remember that little conversation that Richard Holliday and I had backstage. So he hit his signature move, which looks an awful lot like a low blow. But I'm not going to question his technique. He's looking for the referee. The referee's out. He had just taken a ref bump. He's not there to count the one, two, three. And I saw this as an opportunity to go in and have a conversation with Mr.

Holliday. I told him I didn't appreciate what he had said to me in the back. We went back and forth a little bit. He tried to punch me. Richard Holliday tried to punch me in the face. I saw it coming. I ducked, I caught him. And I looked around and hit that rock bottom, rolled out of the ring, woke up the referee

just in time for Jesse Funaki to hit a flying knee to get the one, two, three, and retain his legacy title. It was such a fun moment. It was such a fun thing because, like, didn't really get a chance to practice this. And I think the thing I would. worried most about was, yeah, sure, I could do a rock bottom. I feel like almost anyone has the ability to do that move. But what I really wanted to nail was hopping right back up. I have now delivered three rock bottoms at indie shows over the last 13 years. This isn't something

that happens often. The first one was to Nikki Valentino at prime wrestling. in Ohio. The last one or the one before this was to Bryce Hall at Hornswoggle's wrestling company in Wisconsin. Man, that was such an absolute blast. That was last summer. And then there was this one with Richard Holiday last weekend. Every single time I've been able to like do the pop-up. So I'm like, man, am I going to be able to pull this off? Am I going to be able to hit it and then stand right back up afterwards. And I just feel so lucky that it went like flawlessly. So I don't know if that was Chris Sharp in the ring.

But I think for a second, things just felt good. I know Richard Holliday has called me out for a match. I bet he'd like that. I bet Richard Holliday would like a one-on-one match with Chris Sharp. But I don't think that's going to happen. I think they will just leave it where it is right now. And if our paths ever cross, well, we'll see what happens then. But I have to thank Richard Holliday for getting up for making me look like a million bucks

in that moment. And I've seen a lot of names for what my version of the rock bottom would be called. The sharp declines what you're saying, David. I like that. I saw someone said, the gratitude adjustment. I'm like, that's pretty good. If I was doing a Death Valley driver,

maybe we would call that the gratitude adjustment. I don't know, but I do know this. If slash when I ever get the rock on the show, that will be something I will show him. I got to show him at least the last two rock bottoms and be like, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Because I feel like the way that I have been fortunate enough to land this and so little of this has to do with the person delivering the move and so much of it

has to do with the person taking it and I've just had some great dance partners. But I have always loved the way the rock did like the early rock bottoms, like 98, 99 rock bottoms where he delivers it and he stands right back up on his feet and he's like talking trash to the person. It shifted and evolved and I'd love to hear the reason why from the rock, why it shifted to like more of him falling with the guy and like landing on top of him. But I always love the early version of the rock bottom and that's always the version that I've always tried to do. Funny thing is a lot of people are like, oh, well, of course you know how to do a rock bottom. You trained to be a pro wrestler. It's true. I trained to be a pro wrestler in Toronto for like a few months. I can promise you,

we did not get to the point in wrestling training where we were doing finishers. to each other. It was headlocks and drop downs and tackles and leapfrogs and running the ropes and bumps and front rolls. That's what we were doing. I was like two, three months in when I had this fork in the road and it was like, all right, do we continue with wrestling school or do we continue with school school? And that was the decision I had to make. Then there were other people saying, oh, of course you know how to do a rock bottom. You were a backyard wrestler for years. The funny thing about that is the rock bottom was not my move. I think I did it once in a match with my friend Mark Mayhem. Shout out to Mark Toseghi from Pickering, Ontario. I think I did it once and it was like,

like not great. So I think the only time I really did a rock bottom was like on trampolines. every like teenage kid who loves wrestling, every kid who loved wrestling put them on a trampoline and it's just going to be rock bottoms and stunners and choke slams and suplexes and all the other moves. But again,

thank you to everyone for the feedback and the comments. And who knows? Like wrestling's a big thing where you just, you never say never. So I will continue to say, never say never, but the odds of me having a match

are like so slim. And it just comes down to time. Like in order to put in the time and the work to have a match, I'd want to be spending three, four days at a wrestling school, like making sure that all the bases are covered. That we'd be, I feel like I'd be doing it in injustice. If I didn't spend all of the time to make the match, try to look as good as it possibly could be.

even if I was in there with an opponent who would take care of me and make the match look good, I'd want it to be watchable. And I feel like I'd need to put in three, four days a week, like intense training sessions in the ring to figure that out, six, eight, ten, twelve months of training to like make sure it's done right. And just at this stage of life with two young kids, Logan just turned three. Cooper's a year and a half. He's almost 20 months. So much of my free time is focused on being with them, being a dad.

So for now, it will be one rock bottom at reality of wrestling last Saturday. And I think that'll be it for a little while here. Art Potillo on Instagram says, do you think Penta will win the tournament and challenge Roman Reigns for the championship in Mexico City. Well, I got to say, I was way off with my prediction last week.

The brackets hadn't been created yet, so we were just spitballing here and throwing out names. I'm like, oh, well, we got to go with El Grande Americano, who's a bigger star in AAA right now than El Grande Americano? I completely get

why the participants of the number one contenders tournament for the World Heavyweight Championship involve, I will say, traditional luchadors. I'm not saying that El Grande Americano is not a luchador, but I understand why the competitors in this tournament are traditional luchadors. So Penta has now moved on. Penta beat Laredo Kid. He will then face the winner of Psycho Clown versus LaParka. Then in the other side of the bracket,

you've got Dragon Lee taking on El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., who will face the winner of Ray Phoenix versus El Fiscal. So, who will it end up be? Who will face off against Roman Reigns Monday Night Raw, September 14th in Mexico City? Penta seems like a pretty good choice. Like, I think it's, this could really go anyway here. Like, if we're going to try to, this would just be total guesses, but I think that Penta's problem. going to face, I can't even guess. I don't know. I don't know. But I do know what we're going to get here is some amazing matches, like some incredible matches in this first round and this second round, just like incredible lucha action. And I'm really excited to see how this match

ends up playing out with Roman Raines in Mexico City. I would think, I would think it's Penta. Penta's a raw competitor. The title will be defended on raw. Penta's one of the biggest Mexican stars in wrestling right now. It feels like it makes sense, but what a great way to showcase the AAA talent by putting this on. And I will say, even though Al Grande-A Americano is not in this tournament, I predict Al Grande Americano will be a big part of that Monday Night Raw in Mexico City. and I would think he gets one of the biggest, if not the biggest pop of the night when he comes out. Can't wait. Can't wait to see how all that plays out and man, that crowd is going to be so hot.

The House of Horror left this one on Spotify. When do you think Bray Wyatt gets his Hall of Fame induction? Well, it feels like it should have happened by now. So I will say not soon enough. Although I would think that when Bray Wyatt gets inducted into the W.W.E. Hall of Fame, I would think it'd be Bo Dallas, who's the one to induct him. I know there's a lot of people that could possibly induct Bray Wyatt, but Bo Dallas feels like a top choice. And since Bo Dallas was recently released along with the other Wyatt Six members, it just doesn't feel like this

induction is going to be happening anytime soon. And also, I don't know how you release Bo Dallas in 2026 and all of the members of this legacy faction that's honoring Bray Wyatt. I don't know how you release them. And then, what would ever would be, eight months later, you go, oh, yeah, well, let's honor Bray Wyatt by putting him in the Hall of Fame. It's like, well, if you wanted to continue to honor Bray Wyatt, you would have done more with the Wyatt six.

and even if you were going to release the other members of the Wyatt Six, you probably should have kept Bo Dallas around. That was the one that shocked me. I couldn't believe that all of the members of the Wyatt Six got released together at the same time. Like, that blew my mind, but I just can't believe Bo Dallas. I can't believe there's nothing for Bo Dallas. And I've now interviewed three members of the Wyatt Six. So you saw the interview with Joe Gacy last week.

You saw the Nikki Cross interview earlier this week. And I just sat down with Samuel Shaw, aka Dexter Loomis, just yesterday. So that's an interview you'll be seeing, I believe, in two weeks. I don't know if we've made the schedule official for that. But all of them are going, we can't believe we all got released.

And like on top of that, man, how did Beau get released too? But yes, Bray Wyatt, 1,000%. a future Hall of Famer. Like, when we're having these conversations like we did last week of like, when does Brock Lezor go in, when does John Cena go in, when do they finally find a time

for Dave Batista and schedule that? Bray Wyatt's part of the same conversation. Like, it's just a matter of time before Bray Wyatt goes in. Extremely deserving of that Hall of Fame induction whenever that happens. The U.S. Soccer podcast. I'm your host Megan Klingerberg.

And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's World Cup. I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready?

I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Dan. says, will solo rejoin the bloodline? Or will he turn on them straight away? He's too good to go back. I agree with you, Dan.

He's too good to go back. And on top of that, I will say not only too good to go back, he's too entertaining to be a heel right now. And if the bloodline are the heel faction, solo's way too entertaining with the work he's doing right now as a baby face. I'm curious how this goes. I want to see how this plays out, but I don't see solo going back to that.

I think that solo continuing to be solo is a much better choice for him and for what the future holds for him. Arctic Fox MC on Instagram, if you had a DeLorean, what era do you think Chris Sharp might have thrived best in? Who might he feud with?

What title or titles would he pursue? What era do I think Chris Sharp would have thrived best in, I'm such a big believer in this quote that the Rock told me in sometimes the best things in life are the things that don't happen. Like sometimes you have life planned out of like, well, my goals are set on this thing. And then life throws you a curveball

and like it sends you off in a different direction. And that different direction, kind of like the whole storyline of back to the future, that allows you to be on the path that you're on right now. Maybe that allowed you to get the job that you have now or meet the partner that you have now or whatever the case may be. I am so grateful for the things that didn't happen. I'm so grateful that my path of training to be a pro wrestler, which would have inevitably

taken me to being an independent wrestler, I'm so grateful it didn't happen. And now I'm able to dip my toe into wrestling and do some things here or there, whether it's some guest commentary or it's a guest ring. announcer spot or maybe it's hitting the rock bottom, you know, once every 13 years or something like that. I'm just so grateful because if I think back on it, if I truly want to do have been committed to being a pro wrestler at that time, I was going to wrestling school in the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college. So between my second and third year of college, I was going for a few months. Things were going great. I felt like I was picking a

it up relatively quickly, I feel like had I kept going, there would have been a few things that would have had to give. Number one, it was like an hour to an hour and a half drive from where my college was, where my university was in Waterloo, Ontario to Toronto. So that's one part of it. Not that the hour, hour and a half each way would have been detrimental. It's just like, that's a factor that I would have to take into account, especially as we would have been approaching winter a few months after that. The other thing is like in order to put that time in to travel to the wrestling school, it was four days a week. It was Tuesday, Thursday, Thursday nights, Saturday, Sunday all day. I would have, my studies, my work at school would have had to take a backseat.

So that's something else I got to take into account. I was fortunate to like have decent grades, but that would have been a factor of like, all right, well, What's more important? Going to wrestling school this week or studying for this communication exam that I have coming up. And I think I probably would have chosen wrestling school every single time. Beyond that, had I entered into the independent wrestling world in 2000, I would have been like 2004-ish, like late 2004 I would have been having my first bunch of matches. Independent wrestling at that time was not set up nearly the same as it is now.

Like we're talking early-ish days of the internet. Like the internet at this point's like not quite 10 years old. So like the internet's like just starting to become a thing. The ability to like get buzz as an independent wrestler in that time difficult. Social media is like just barely starting to be a thing. And like you're not getting social media buzz off of MySpace or like early, this is like, 04 is like early Facebook

when you had to be part of a, had to be going to a certain college in order to go there. Like, it's just not set up the same way. So like, it would have been a lot of hustling and a lot of just like building the buzz within the building, building the buzz

with the people that were watching the independent wrestling companies that you were going to. So like, I'm just, all of this is to say, I'm just grateful it didn't work out. Like, I feel like I was put on the path that I was on to be right here, right now, talking to you. And if you look at, yes, I'm not saying there weren't people from that time that didn't make it in WWE or TNA. Sure. There absolutely were. And I'm trying to think of, like, who would it have been from the Ontario area that was like really, like, that would have been coming up around that same time?

Sean Spears would have been one of them. Eric Young. was slightly before me. Like I actually visited his wrestling school, Russellplex Ontario in Cambridge, Ontario. So he was like two or two or three years ahead. Cody Deiner, who at the time was Cody Steele, who's in TNA. He was doing it and like we're like the same age,

like same story of everything. Like yeah, I'm not saying that there weren't people that did it. But like the odds of making it happen like just difficult. So I think I actually would have thrived best how I've been born like 10 years later. Because instead of training to be a wrestler in 2003, I would have been training to be a wrestler in 2013 when social media is now a thing. And you're able to build some buzz.

You're able to have a great match in Kitchener, Ontario that people on the other side of the planet see clips from or they hear the buzz about. So like, that's probably what would have been better. And like it is, I feel like I would be doing myself a disservice if I'm talking about, wow, what would my wrestling character be like if they went to the WWE? I don't know. Like anything's possible here. Sure. Had I worked really, really hard and had the right opportunities in front of me and made the most of those opportunities, possibly.

Maybe I would have had a chance, a shot to have a try. to have a tryout in WWE or a gut check tryout in TNA when they were doing that in like 2012, 2013. But I think that I would be, I don't know if that would even be a possibility. So I think that I'm grateful to be where I'm out right now. But if I, if we're just dream scenario here, Chris Sharp is going to make it to WWE after training in 2003, some indie matches in 0405, 06. somehow, some way, again, dream scenario here. Chris Sharp makes it to WWE in 2007.

I'm having feuds with John Sina and Batista and Randy Orton and I'm a six-time WWE champion, and I'm still doing it now, and I will wrestle my last match at WrestleMania 44, because it's going to be in Nashville where I currently live. Yeah. And that's just me guessing. I don't know if Nashville is going to host the next WrestleMania,

but there were those rumors a few months ago. I don't know. But it's fun to play these what-if games. Jonathan Smookler emailed this one, and he says, CVV. Yeah, real, real one here. It's not an episode of AskCTV without a good Mount Rushmore question.

So here we go. your Mount Rushmore of custom belts. Oh, that's a good one, one that I've never done before. So custom belts, we got to go with the smoking skull. Like, I don't think you can think of custom belts without thinking of Stone Cold's smoking skull. Great design. And one of the very first wrestling toys that I ever owned, I had the winged eagle,

which I bought from a store in the Pickering Town Center called funny you should ask, like a, like a Spencer's type of place, like where you buy like gag gifts. And then like, I'm like, I didn't know they sold these things. And then a few weeks later, I saw that there was another one there, the smoking skull belt. I'm like, wow, got to buy that thing. So we've got to go smoking skull. You absolutely have to have the spinner title on there. It started out as a custom title that caught on and was so, I was going to say popular, but so polarizing that it became the WWE. championship from 05 all the way until 2013.

So if you're talking about, if we're talking about personal opinion, that's a whole other conversation for you to have. I personally love the spinner belt. But if you're talking about just like custom titles that like are important, you got to put the spinner title on there. Such a great design. It became the WWE championship. I personally loved Daniel Bryan's.

eco-friendly WWE championship. It played so well into that character and the fact that people hated it. Like, loathed it was the whole point.

Daniel Bryan was playing a mega heel at that point in time and he took this prestigious looking title and he made it look like it was made out of twigs. People hated it

and people still hate it to this day. And if you hate it, that's the point. He did his job. And I think that we'll go with number four here with the million dollar belt. Ted DiBiase never won the WWE championship,

but he ended up creating the million dollar championship. Great design, by the way, like the diamonds, the dollar signs. And it ended up like playing into Ted DiBiase's character so much better. Kind of like what we're talking about. with Daniel Bryan. You're like, you just hated him.

You just like, what are you holding a championship for? You didn't win that thing? It's like, yeah, yeah, that's the point. Ha ha, ha, ha. So that'll be my four. It's a great question. Bring the Mount Rushmore questions every single week. And I'll try to give you my personal top four for all of those.

Rob underscore K-306 on Instagram says, how realistic do you think interviewing Brock Lesder is after him retiring? Could you use your chat with Paul Heyman recently as a way in? I think the odds of interviewing Brock Lesnar now that he's retired are actually far worse than when he was an active competitor. I don't know Brock Lesnar at all. I have never met the man. But from everything that I've heard, he is going to enjoy retirement by living on however many hundreds of acres he lives on. in Saskatchewan, Canada, and he's just going to enjoy hunting and fishing and watching his

wildly athletic children play all of their various sports at the highest level that they're all playing it at. I think that that interview that we saw him with, that we saw him have with Pat McAfee, was that like three-ish years ago? I think that might be it. That might be the only glimpse into, like who Brock Lesnar is as an actual like person outside of the ring. That might be all we get. And he was so entertaining. It was so funny. Like he started doing the what bit.

What? He started doing the what bit with Pat McAfee and everyone else in the show. It was just fun. I don't know if we'll see Brock Lesnar in WWE at any point other than the Hall of Fame. Like I truly think he's just going to sit back and enjoy retirement. and like he may never leave his house. That just feels like what he'd want to do. That one appearance that he had back in May of this year,

that one at a random hardware store in Saskatchewan, that might be the last meet and greet that he does. I'm not saying, oh, yeah, he's never going to do them again. It just feels to me that since there are no longer any contractual obligations, Like if we are truly believing that Brock Lesnar is retired, and I think the way that this retirement happened with Brock Lesder, like making the announcement on Pat McAfee of like, yeah, I'm retired. That's it.

I think he's just going to ride off into the sunset and enjoy his retirement. I'm a little jealous for everybody that was there at Emerald Park Home Hardware in Saskatchewan. Brock was there promoting his grilling pellet. For all the people that went there, that's cool. Like, that's such a rare thing. But I don't think that he's going to be touring all around the different home hardwheres across Canada or the home hardware's across, I don't know how many home hardware there are in Saskatchewan. But I don't think it's going to be a thing. I think that an interview with Brock seems probably unlikely.

but again, we said it earlier, why not say it again here? Never say never. John Charles, pizza underscore time zero zero in Instagram. First of all, it's always time for pizza. It's time, it's time. It's pizza time. Chris, I wanted to ask you something, man, in your personal opinion, as a fan, when would you officially say that the attitude era actually started and ended?

Some might say it started right after WrestleMania 13 or after Montreal, but how about you? what's your take? Great question. Because I feel like everybody has a slightly different answer. There's no like official moment where they came out and said, welcome everyone to the attitude era. It's just kind of like, well, things started to shift a little here. And then when do we get out of the attitude era? When does it officially become the ruthless aggression era? So I'm going to try to do my best job here of setting an official start date and an official end date for the attitude era. And again, this is all subjective. If you have a different answer, throw it in the comments if you're listening on Spotify.

I would say that the attitude era began the night after the Montreal screw jobs. So the Monday after Survivor Series 1997. So that would be Monday, November 10th, 1997. And the reason that I say it's the Monday after Survivor series is that's when Vince gives the interview of Brett screwed Brett. So, like, that's the beginning of the, like, planting the early seeds for the Mr. McMahon character, which is really the, like, it's Vince and Stone Cold that really starts to drive the attitude era. So I think it's the transition of Vince McMahon to becoming Mr. McMahon, for me, is what. started it. And that all began because of the screw job in Montreal. We talked about it a few weeks ago. Like, I think the Montreal screw job is the biggest what if in wrestling. Like, there's so

much fallout from Montreal. Like, so many different things and go back and listen to it, I'm not going to talk about all of it because it, like, truly is a fascinating conversation. But I think it's Montreal happens. Vince decides, like, let's lean into this. Like, if Brett heart's going to spit in my face and punch me, well, let's lean into this character. Yeah, Vince McMahon didn't screw Brett. Brett screwed Brett. So I'm going to go with that as a start date. And then the end date's difficult, but I'm going to use like, I suppose, facts to back this up. WWF officially became WWE on May 6th, 2002. Get the F out. Remember that? When they lost their name to the World Wildlife Fund. So I think the end of the attitude era is the day before that. Judgment Day,

2002, May 5th, 2002. I think that's arguably the final night of the attitude era. It's the final night of the Scratch WWF logo before officially rebranding the entire name of the company changes the next day. That's what I think. And then you start to get like early stuff here with Roosevelt. ruthless aggression. And it's punctuated that night on raw, the day after judgment day, when Vince McMahon comes out, tells the locker room, we will be the most ruthless, aggressive sports entertainment company in the world. Then he famously says the line, ruthless aggression, which then leads to John Sina, saying

the line to Kurt Engel, and then the rest is history. So I think that that's about as definitive of an answer that you can possibly get how it began slash when it began to when it ended slash how it ended I'd if that's not as if that's not the correct answer man I don't know I don't know what it is

the US soccer podcast I'm your host Megan Klingerberg and after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup I'm so happy to be back with my US women's national team players I know the US men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects

in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Yeager Moser on Facebook says, my girlfriend agreed to watch one WWE slash WWF match with me. She likes the high-flyers and fast-paced offense. What would be a good match to show her to get her hooked. Just one match. You have, oh my goodness, my friend, you have one opportunity to win her over or you'll blow it forever. And now you're putting all of this responsibility on me. I like it. I can deal with this pressure. I would show her Ray Mysterio versus Kurt Angle the opening match at SummerSlam 2002. If she likes high flyers, If she likes fast-paced offense, if she likes Olympic gold medalists, she will love this match.

There's no way you can't enjoy this match. You also don't need any sort of story going into it. You also don't need half an hour or 45 minutes to watch it. It's like a 10-minute match. It's just fast-paced action that never stops. That's the match. Please report back and let me know how we did. because I think that you're going to have a real winner with that one.

And if she's still interested, just continue to watch SummerSlam. Like, pause it after that match and chat about how great that match was, but then continue because I think SummerSlam 2002 is the greatest SummerSlam of all time. Jay Hone sent this in on Spotify. Hey, CVV, you've interviewed wrestlers, managers, ring announcers, even wrestling adjacent individuals. But I'm curious if you're looking to interview any wrestling commentators.

I would love to hear perspectives from the people who have the best seat in the house every week, the preparation, what they think are their biggest moments, their favorite matches, Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Tony Chivani, Jim Ross. I think hearing their perspectives would be great. I completely agree. And as someone myself who is passionate about broadcasting, I have such a respect for what all the commentators do, whether you're doing play-by-play, you're doing color, or you're an analyst. I have so much respect for everything that goes on and the ability to put words to the pictures that we're seeing and also to put emotion to the things that we're seeing on the screen.

So Jim Ross has been a guest on the show. You'll have to go back quite a ways, like early, early episode. But it was 2019 that I did an interview with him. I would love to have Jim Ross back on the show. Maybe we could chat for two hours this time. Corey Graves was a guest a few years ago as well. And we chatted a little bit about his wrestling career, a lot about commentary. So that's one you can also go back and check out. The Voice of TNA, Tom Hannafin, who you'll know is Tom Phillips from WWE. He was also on around that time. So like four-ish years ago, Matt Raywald, aka Aidan English from WWE, the color commentator from TNA,

he was also a guest on the show. Jonathan Coachman, he's been a guest on the show a few times. He was commentator for years and years and years in WWE. So I've had quite a few of them on, but man, we've got a lot of like huge people that we'd love to get on the show. Michael Cole, dream guest for sure. Joey Stiles. I would love to have a conversation with Joey Stiles. What an absolute legend.

Mike Teney, one of the unsung hearing. of TNA and the work he did with the late, great Don West, I just don't feel like it's talked about enough in TNA. That's why every chance I get to talk about how great Mike Teney and Don West are and Mike Teney and Don West together, every chance I get to talk about them, I take it. So, so good. Tony Chavani, you're right. Would be amazing. I feel like we'd need like 14 hours to hear all of his amazing stories. Those are definitely people that are on the list would love to make happen. I couldn't agree with you more that hearing their perspective on some of these iconic moments would be amazing. Michael Cole, I think celebrates, and I know this, I don't know

the exact date, but he celebrates 30 years in WWE at some point next year. Maybe. Maybe we can convince him as a 30-year anniversary to do a retrospective with me and like come on the show and chat about his incredible career. I'm a huge Michael Cole fan. Let's try to make this happen. Chip, emailed this in on chrisvampley.com. I guess your real name is Joshua Schaumburg. Hopefully I didn't blow up your spot there, Chip. Hi, CVV. Welcome to Tennessee. I'm out in the East Tennessee Valley area, and I heard a radio ad for your podcast on the local classic rock station, 106.5. The spot included Sandman and HBK. How did you land on these two? The same. The same Man seems like such a rare and deep cut to advertise on the podcast. Also,

2026 is the term podcast outdated? Is there a term you'd like to push going into the future? Thank you. Well, thank you for writing in. That's so cool that you heard that spot on the radio. I've heard that from a few people in various different cities. So my podcast is on the Cumulus Podcast Network, which is also part of the same family as Westwood One, which owns radio stations all across the country. So as just a way to like advertise the show, they put 30 second ads for various podcasts on the Cumulus Podcast Network on their radio stations.

So it's been so cool that like I've had friends in Atlanta, send me a clip of that. Now you're sending me this from the East Tennessee Valley. So, so cool. Like amazing. I didn't decide on which spots would be included, Sam Man and HBK. but they're two legends.

Like, how could you possibly argue against Sean Michaels? And when you think about ECW, Samman's got to be one of the people that comes to mind. I recorded the voice part of that, obviously, because it's my voice in the commercial, like, hey, I'm Chris Van Villeat. I've got this podcast called Insight with Chris Van Vleet. We interview blah, blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff.

They're picking different wrestlers that have different guests from the show, and they're putting that in, I think they're switching up the ad every few weeks. So next time you hear the spot on the radio, it will be two completely different wrestlers in there. But I got Samman on the show because he was promoting his podcast, which is called the Sandman podcast. So when this episode comes to an end, you can go check out the Samman podcast wherever you're listening to this, or you could also check out his podcast on YouTube. Just type in Samman podcast, and you'll find it. I did that interview with Sean Michaels last year right around the Canelo Crawford fight in Las Vegas.

And I feel like we just scratched the surface of topics. Like he tells such great stories. And I'm like, oh, man, I wish we had like four more hours. I had like 15 more questions that I wrote down that we didn't have a chance to get to. So I would love another chance to talk to Sean Michaels about his incredible career, but also everything he's doing with NXT and like, who's the next person? Who's the next huge talent in NXT that we should all be keeping an eye on? But if you happen to be listening to the radio and you hear an ad for insight,

please take a quick video or take a photo and tag me. That would be the coolest thing. That would make my entire week if you did that. And it's just, it feels full circle for me. Because I started my career working in radio as a board operator at 570 News and Kitchener Waterloo, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Full circle to have my podcast advertised on there. And maybe you're right. Maybe the term podcast is outdated because we're not listening to them on iPods anymore. That's why the term began. But I don't know. What are we going to call it?

Seems to make sense now. So I'm okay with the term. D underscore Stites on Instagram. Hey, CVV. Love the Thank you so much. Who do you think Obafemi's next loss could be to? Is it Roman, Braun? Does he go on a Goldberg type of streak? It's an interesting question because he's not undefeated in the main roster. We all know that, right? The loss to Brock Lesnar, he's not undefeated.

But does he go on from here to have a Goldberg type of streak? Possibly. Here's what I actually think will end up happening. And it may take a while to get. get there. But I think he continues to keep dominating. I think we see him having these squash matches and like going out and like just manhandling people. And I think it continues to build and build and build where he gets a shot at either the world title or the WWE title. And I think that he wins that. Or I think that he earns the opportunity to get that title shot by winning the Royal Rumble.

Like I'm already booking this way ahead here in this fantasy land booking that we're doing right now. I think he continues to win, goes up to the Royal Rumble, wins the Royal Rumble, takes that opportunity, uses it. And doesn't instead of, doesn't squander this title opportunity like he did with King of the Ring. He actually uses this title opportunity for a match at WrestleMania. And I think that he wins the title next year at WrestleMania. I know that we're booking this way in advance here and a ton of things could happen in the next eight months. But I don't see how he gets any other losses that are justified if we look at the current landscape right now. So I actually think his next loss comes to whoever beats him for the WWE championship or world title, whichever one he happens to have.

I don't think that Roman Raines is still going to be the champion by them, although I do know that one of the big, big conversations is like, all right, why are we getting Roman versus Oba? It's now become a dream match. Does that happen to WrestleMania next year? I don't know. I feel like Roman's not still the champion by then. But to answer your question, I think he just continues to win. I think he just continues to dominate and be an absolute monster in the ring all the way up until

maybe it's sometime towards the end of 2027 when whoever it is that's challenging for the championship ends up beating him and that's his first win after my goodness, it'd be a year and a half at that point in time. That is my prediction for Obafemi. And I don't think there'll be any other losses coming before then, other than that one loss that he had with Brock Lesnar, that one match at clash in Italy,

I'm still scratching my head. Why did that match happen? I don't, I understand we had a trilogy there, but like, I've talked about that enough. Leaves the gloves in the ring at WrestleMania, beautiful moment, which I think, I suppose now we can interpret as that was him saying goodbye to his final WrestleMania.

A month later, match at Clash in Italy, not quite sure why. then we complete the trilogy at SummerSlam inside Hell in a Cell. That's beside the point. I went off on a little bit of a tangent there. It just doesn't make sense. But I think Oba just continues to win. He's my pick.

As of the middle of August, right now, as we're hanging out here, he's my very, very, very early pick to win the Royal Rumble and then become WWE a world champion. Jonathan Crop on Facebook says, onion rings or fries? Now that is an important question. Fries.

I don't have anything against onion rings, but if I'm looking at a menu and they've got onion rings, fries, waffle fries, sweet potato fries. I'm going with sweet potato fries like nine times out of ten. And then the other time out of ten, I'm probably going to go with the waffle fries. Yeah, I'm onion. rings just are not to the top of my list. I just love fries. Really? Like, they are,

they're my vice. Like, if we, if you go to a restaurant and like, you put them in front of me, I'm going to demolish them. So, thank you for the question. Please send, send in more like that. Barbecue wings or hot wings. Hmm. I'm going to go barbecue wings. Actually, I probably go spicy barbecue. Or like, or Nashville hot, like a, like a flavorful hot. All right, that's our final question on this. Ask CVV number one 40, figure eight leg lock edition. And we've done it before, but let's throw it in again. And ask CVV number one 48th Wonder of the World edition. Send in those questions for next week. Let's hang out next Friday. same bat time, same bat channel.

Go to chrisfanfleet.com, click on the contact button there to send in a question, leave a comment on Spotify, or of course, sending it on social media using that hashtag AskCVV. The young OG, Javon Evans, will join me on the show on Tuesday, and I will see all of the real, real ones next Friday in Toronto with the one and And only Trish Stratus, I can't wait for that one. CBVTicks.com to grab your tickets for that. I'll leave you with this quote from James King.

The cold water doesn't get warmer, the longer you wait to jump in. I'm sure that it's speaking directly to someone right now. Be great, be grateful. Have an amazing weekend and we will see you on the next one for some more insight. Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL, Mike Ridland. What is your take? Was it what you expected? Oh, it was the best thing ever. It was something I always wanted to do.

If you show me a clear goal, I'm like, okay, I can do that. Master Chief, he's like, you realize there's about 1% chance that you make it through. 1%. That's all I need Master Chief. My platoon went home early, and I just went up to my chief, and I was like, I'm not going home. Turns out I'm staying. That's when we go to war. I was like, okay, I could get used to this. Mike Drop, follow and listen on your favorite platform.