Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #151 - SNME Predictions, Will Ospreay Wins At All In, Best Theme Songs With No Lyrics, Grayson Waller Is NXT Champion

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Join me at Insight LIVE in New Orleans on October 9! https://cvvtix.com Welcome to AskCVV #151! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet gives his predictions for the first ever Sunday Night's Main Event and answers questions about whether Bronson Reed will return, Will Ospreay winning the AEW World Championship at All In, the best theme songs with no lyrics, Mount Rushmore of "Big Fight Feel" wrestlers, who from the current roster would succeed in 1997 WCW, a possible CVV book and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” - Nelson Mandela 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 What you doing, my friend? Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's me, the three numbers in the back of your credit card. CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Happy Labor Day weekend. How you feeling? How's the week been?

Thank you for spending a little bit of time with me on this Friday. Thanks for chatting a little wrestling with me. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. hook your phone under your arm and hit a vertical suplex on that follow button on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you're listening right now. I don't ask for much. I don't have a Patreon. I'm not asking you to PayPal me money.

But if you could click a button, man, that would be so helpful. Like that would really help on YouTube. We were headed towards a million subscribers on the main YouTube channel. Like at the start of this year, I'm like, oh, we're going to hit a million subscribers. that's not in the cards at all. I think the channel's at like 853,000, as I sit here right now, which is an insane number, a massive number. But it just feels like with the way that YouTube's algorithm is going right now, it's so dialed in that there seems to be less and less people actually subscribing just across the board in general. So if you could, if you could just click a button,

the next time you open up YouTube, hit a vertical suplex on that subscribe button over there. And in exchange, in exchange, I promise you that I will continue to try my hardest to bring you the most interesting and the most in-depth interviews in wrestling. So thank you so much. Thanks for just being you. I appreciate you. There's a lot of podcasts you could be listening to right now. And you decided to hit play on this one.

So I appreciate you. I'm heading to Atlanta on Sunday for the first ever Sunday night's main event. If you're going to be there, I hope to see you, hope to give you a high five, chat a little wrestling with you. I also have a very interesting interview lined up on Sunday before the show, but I don't want to say any more about that. I also did record an interesting interview earlier this week in Texas. I actually just got back from Texas yesterday.

And I'll tell you in like five minutes, because there's a question that particularly to that. So you'll see in like five minutes, oh my gosh, that is a extremely timely interview that you got. Welcome to Ask CVV number Bacardi 151 edition. And ask CVV number 1501 edition. And ask CVV number 150 kickout at one. Oh my gosh, no selling it. Edition. I'd love to see your questions for next week. So send them in. If you're listening on Spotify,

I'm sure you've already hit a vertical suplex on the follow button. So thank you for that. If you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment with your question for Ask CDV number 152 on there. You can send it in on the newly revamped, chris fanfleet.com. Although I keep saying it's the newly revamped. They got newly revamped three or four months ago.

go. So I suppose it's not. It's just a, it's just the Chris Famfleet website. Okay, you can send it on there if you hit the contact button on there. Or of course, you can always send it in on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV. Thank you for all the questions this week. We'll start it off with Dave Smiths on Facebook who says CVV, do you think it's too soon for Oba versus Breaker? Shouldn't they have to wait till WrestleMania?

Dave, I don't think it's too soon at all. And I think we're going to get a lot more answers after Sunday because it feels like this match is just to set up a return for Bronson Reed. And I feel like it's also to plant some more seeds for what

Paul Heyman's going to do next. I just don't know what you do with this match otherwise. I don't think this is going to be the Oba Femi versus Bron Breaker, WrestleMania-style match that we would have got. I'm sure we'll get one of those down the road for sure. But I don't know who can afford to lose this match.

Obafemi has so much momentum right now that he can't lose. And on the flip side, a clean victory over a Bronbreaker like derails any momentum that Bronbraker's been building up. So what do you do? Like, this is the first time that these two are facing off against each other. it's not going to be the last. These are two of the faces that are going to carry WWE into and through the 2030s.

I think for sure. So I think for this particular match on Sunday, Bronbreaker returns. So technically a win for Obafemi. Bronbreaker returns, starts beating up on Obafemi, disqualification, that's what I think, which then sets up either a reason,

rematch, Obafemmy and Bronbreaker, or it sets up a big, meaty men slapping meat match with Obafemi and the returning Bronson Reed. But I think that if you've seen the photos on social media, Bronson Reed looks like he's ready to go. Who knows what's actually going on outside of the photos, but he looks lean, mean, and absolutely ready to return. That's what I think's going to happen here. I think that there's a, it's not a clean victory. I think we get a great match. I think we get a hard-hitting match. And then somewhere 8 to 10 to 12 minutes into it,

I think the Bronbreaker runs out. Maybe it's when it looks like Obafemi's absolutely going to win. Then I think Bronbreaker comes out. It's a tsunami. Maybe it's another tsunami after that. Maybe it's several tsunamis. Makes Brombron. It makes Bronson read.

Makes Bronson look great. and protects everybody else in the match from taking losses here. That's what I think. And then we see another matchup with Obafemi and Brombraker at some point down the line. Let's look at all the matches here for Sunday night's main event now that we're talking about it. The odds are up on my bookie. My bookie has Obafemi as the slight favorite in this match. So that actually might open up a little bit of a door there because, well, yeah, I think Obafemi.

does get the win. Whether that win is by disqualification or other means, yeah, Obafemi definitely gets the win. Let's look now at Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and Tatum Paxley versus Jade Cargill, Meachin, and BFAB, a six-woman tag match. I think the whole idea around this is to push forward a story

with Charlotte Flair specifically, but everyone on Charlotte Flair's team here because Charlotte Flair is kind of like floating around and like, what's next land? She hasn't won WVWWWW women's championship in three plus years. And there was a long period of time where Charlotte Flair was winning the championship

multiple times per year. I think she finds her way back into that title picture eventually and this match starts to get her there. So what I think's going to happen in this match, is I think that we're going to get Jade Cargill pinning Charlotte Flair which I think is going to cause some tension here.

So Tatum Paxley is going to cost Charlotte and Alexa and her the match. That's what I think is going to end up happening here. So then that's going to cause Jade to pin Charlotte and then there's going to be tension with Charlotte and Tatum and that's probably going to be a story that ends up getting played out. him, maybe it's money in the bank or leading up to money in the bank, but I'm thinking that it's

the team of Jade Cargill, Meachin, and Bfab winning this one. Baron Corbin versus Lil Yachty. Lil Yachty making his WWE debut in this match, or at least it's Lil Yadi's debut match, I should say. It's a singles match with a five-minute time limit. If Yachty can last for five minutes, then Trick Williams will receive a rematch for the W. United States Championship

against Corbyn later on this night. Or maybe it's right after the match. They've just been saying that he gets a title match on the same night.

I'm thinking Lil Yadi spends at least the first part of this match running away, trying to kill the clock, trying to find a way to get to that five minutes. I think that

Baron Corbin eventually ends up catching him, starts laying the beatdown on him. There's some sort of moment here where Lil Yadi gets chance to get some offense in. I think there's going to be one, like, social media moment here

where a little yachtie does something that makes the crowd go wild, and it's something that creates a moment that people will be talking about for the next few days. Little Yadi's been putting in the work. And Little Yaddy is like, he's not just some celebrity coming in here. Like, he's been in the PC weekend, week out, learning how to take bumps, learning the business. It's not like he just shows. He's not like he just showed up last week on Raw, and now he's getting this match. Yachty's been around in WWE now on screen for almost six months. He made his first WWE appearance in March 26 when we saw him on Smackdown, kind of as the manager slash hype man for Trick Williams. We saw him at WrestleMania 42, accompanying Trick Williams to the ring with that epic entrance

the trick had. We've seen him breaking out the Kendo stick. Saw that last week on Smackdown when he was beaten down Baron Corbyn with the Kendo stick. So it's not like he's just showing up having a match and leaving. Like he has been there. I'm not sure

what his contractual situation is, but he has been there. And he's been spending a lot of time from what I understand behind the scenes figuring this out and making sure that this goes right. So for making a prediction on this one.

I think that Little Yachty, by the skin of his teeth, lasts the five minutes, which then sets up the rematch, Baron Corbyn putting the United States Championship on the line against Trick Williams. And then I would think that in that match, Trick Williams ends up winning back the United States Championship.

I think that Trick Williams will be leaving Atlanta as the United States champion once again. then we come to Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes. The stakes were so high the last time they wrestled. In fact, the stakes couldn't have been higher. It was the main event of WrestleMania. It was for the undisputed WWE championship.

That was actually Randy Orton's last televised match. Since then, he's had one match at a WWE live event. It was about three weeks ago against Cody Rhodes. And for what it's worth. Cody won at Russellmania. Cody also won at that recent live event. So what happens here? I think Randy Orton gets his win back.

And I think that this propels Randy Orton into that conversation where he's actually chasing number 15. He's been talking about number 15 for a while. There were some hints dropped about him with CM Punk. He said to CM Punk, hey, when I'm done with Cody, I'm coming after you and that championship, I think that's what happens here. And I don't think that things are done

with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. If slash when, Randy Orton wins number 15, you'd have to think that Cody Rhodes would be coming back going, hey, that's my championship. I want a shot at that. But I think here,

and this is, there's a lot of things at play here because this is in Atlanta. This is Cody Rhodes hometown. But I think, think that Randy Orton gets the win here. And I think that if Randy has, I don't know how much time he has left, but I would think he's going to be making the most of the storylines that he has in his remaining, what is it, two years, five years, hopefully more. I mean, he hasn't lost

a step. Randy Orton still looks as awesome as ever. But I would think that he's going to be making the most of all the storylines he's put in. He'll be making the most of the most of all the matches that he's having. I think he gets the win here, and I would not be surprised. I would not be surprised at all. If Randy Orton is the champion at some point in the next three to six months.

Nage Medalla emailed this in. Chris, what was your personal reaction watching All In? And was there a specific moment that night where you realized we're watching something really special here? As soon as the entrance started for Osprey, as soon as that package started playing with the Who's Bobo O'Reilly and his mom narrating, I was like, this is such good storytelling.

It made it feel big. It gave a real weight to that main event. And then it cuts to Will walking through the backstage area. He's passing by people who have played a role in his career up to this point, whether they've been an opponent of his or a teammate of his. It's beautifully done. And then you see his wife, Alex Windsor. It's hard not to get emotional when you see that.

You know how much this means to him. And he's having this moment. He's sharing this moment with his wife before he goes out there for the biggest match of his career. Then it's capped off by John Moxley, handing him the flag right before elevated hit. And then the crowd inside Wembley Stadium are just on fire. And of course, there's. the underlying narrative here, that it's his hometown, or his home country at least, and he's trying to be the first ever British wrestler to win a championship on his own soil.

So there's so much leading up to this, how can you not cheer for the guy? And then Kenny Omega's music hits. And we see this video package for Kenny Omega that's narrated in Japanese, and instantly you're like, oh, I hate this guy. Will Osprey is trying to achieve this lifelong dream. He's trying to become the world champion. And this is the guy standing in his way. And you already know there's history with these guys. They've up to this point, they've had three matches together.

Kenny Omega's two and one up on Will Osprey. So Kenny Omega has the slight edge here. But it just felt like really special. Fantastic storytelling. The match itself, I loved. This is my style of wrestling. It's no secret. I'm a huge TNA fan.

It's no secret that Will Osprey is a huge TNA fan. He said specifically, the X Division's the thing that made him want to be a pro wrestler. And that's the type of wrestling you got here. Like false finishes, very hard hitting, but also really good storytelling within this match. I think the moment within the match itself where you're like, oh, this is special

is when Will Osprey kicked out of the one Wigan angel. Like, up to that point, only one other person had ever kicked out of it. It's such a protected finisher that when Kenny Omega's giving Will Osprey this moment of like, only one other person's kicked out of this and you're going to be the next person, it's like, oh, this is magical.

It's a great match. I loved it. I loved watching. it. And I don't think I need to say this, but it's okay to like more than one wrestling company. Like, I don't know where the tribalism came from. And quite frankly, I don't understand it. Wrestling to me is wrestling. Doesn't matter what letters are attached to the company. Like what you like. Don't yuck other people's yumps. I thought that match was fantastic. And I just just hate that it can't exist within its own world.

Like it ends up being now a comparison to, well, it wasn't as good as this match from WrestleMania or it wasn't as good as this classic match from SummerSlam. It's like, well, can you not just like it? Can you not just appreciate it for what it was? I loved it. And I had a great chat with Will Osprey just the other day. in Texas, that's an episode

you'll be seeing next Thursday. We talk about that entire match, all of the nerves he felt leading up to that week, the emotions afterwards, how he celebrated, the injury that he had, that I don't feel like

gets talked about enough. I think that people thought, oh, he had next surgery. It's okay. He'll be back in a year. If this had happened like 10 years ago, He would have been done. 32 years old, Will Osprey would have been done.

It's the same injury that took out Brian Danielson. It's the same injury that took out Adam Copeland, aka Edge. There have been medical advancements that allowed him to be out for, I think it was 10 months, and he's still wrestling the same style that he wrestled before. He told me there's one move he can't do anymore. And it's a move that'll, I think, surprise you. He can't do reverse Ranas anymore. And he was like, what do you mean I can't do a reverse ron?

I love doing reverse Rana's. And I think Adam Copeland was like, bro, they don't care if you do reverse Ranas or not. Like they care about seeing you wrestle. But it's a great conversation. And I can't wait for you to check that out next Thursday. Trevor Johnston on Spotify. What do you think of Grayson Waller winning the NXT championship? Huge.

congrats to Grayson Waller. And I feel like I called this. I feel like since Grayson Waller came back to NXT and cut that promo, I think I even said, I said,

Grayson Wall is going to be the NXT champion before the end of the year. Well, it happened a lot quicker than I expected. Grayson Waller is now the NXT champion. And I just,

he deserves it. This guy works so, so hard. And look at the the shape he's got himself in over the last year or so. He's not just a guy who can talk on the mic. He's a guy who can absolutely talk on the mic. He's, I think, probably underrated on the mic. I think because with great respect to Grace of Waller, I think because he's not in the main event scene that people don't put him in that conversation when they talk about who's the best

promos right now. But I think that you have to start talking about how good Grayson Waller is when he has a mic at his hand. And I'm excited to see what he does with this NXT championship. And I love that here's another story of a guy who's, you know, kind of floating around on the midcard. There's not really much for them on the main roster, but they go to NXT and it just like clicks. something changes. And it's like, oh, there's a fire there.

And I'm excited about this person again. So I can't wait to see. I'm guessing it's Zillifat too and Grayson Waller before long. But just let him cook. Just let Grayson Waller do his thing. And I think that maybe there's a little bit

of a guideline for what he's doing out there. But not much. what I'm talking about with his promos, like just let him do his thing. It's been amazing to see. Congrats to Grayson Waller. Grace and Wula. Nikos

Pan Turoakis. Man, that is a very Greek last name and I have completely butchered it. I'm sorry. My relatives are going to be so upset. Chris! Hello, man, big fan here from Greece. I thought to send you this message

while I was finishing your interview with Trish Stratus. So the question, what is the most underrated, least talked about match that you have watched more than one time? It can be from any company and any era. Keep up the good work on these magnificent interviews. Well, thank you for the very kind words. The most underrated match that I've watched more than once.

I love how open-ended this is, because I think a lot of times when we think about underrated matches, we think about like, oh, man, that's a match that could have made evented that pay-per-view or could have made evented Russellmania. And you're thinking about like specific matches. But then I think there's like some sleeper matches on like an episode of Raw or SmackDown where it just doesn't get talked about enough because it's, the stakes maybe aren't that high. it's just on Raw or it's just on SmackDown.

But I've got a good one for you. Brett Hart versus 1, 2, 3 kid from Raw in 1994. And it's for the WWF Championship. Like there's no huge angle leading up to this. There's no blood. There's no stipulation. It's not WrestleMania. It's not a PLE.

Or in 1994, pay-per-view. This is simply Brett Hart. making you believe for about 20 minutes that 1, 2, 3 kid might actually become the WWF champion. And Brett doesn't wrestle down to Pock. He treats him like a legitimate challenger, which causes the audience to start treating him like one

and to start believing in the idea of like, could this, could 1, 2, 3 kid actually win? It's also a perfect demonstration. of why Brett was so good as the champion. Like we already know that Brett's amazing and could wrestle anyone, but this is, this showcases how good he is as a champion. Because usually his opponent would come out of a match with Brett Hart

so much more credible than when they went into it. So that is my extremely deep cut, underrated match that I don't feel like enough people talk about. And I'll give you one more because that'll be my deep cut like raw slash smackdown answer. But this one, I don't, I feel like it completely just gets looked over all the time. The Rock versus Chris Jericho, no mercy 2001 for the WCW championship. Because everyone during that time remembers Rock Austin. And you also remember Jericho becoming the undisputed champion.

with the two belts. But Rock versus Jericho had ridiculous chemistry. And what makes this one so special is the story because Chris Jericho desperately needs to prove that he belongs in the Rock's league.

And the crowd is like gradually getting that. They're gradually along for this ride as they're watching. watching Chris Jericho's elevation happening in real time in this match. And then Jericho actually beats the Rock for the WCW Championship.

And it feels like this exact moment when Jericho goes from the entertaining upper mid-card guy who had this great debut in WWE to legitimate main event player. and I don't think that enough people, number one, talk about this or even go back and watch it. I'm not saying it's the Rock's best match. I'm not saying it's Chris Jericho's best match, but I'm saying that something about these guys together just clicks. So thank you for the fun question there, Nicos. Scott Morris on Spotify, CVV, you rock. No, Scott, you rock.

I saw a video on social media where you listed your favorite theme songs, but let me ask you about this. What's your Mount Rushmore of theme songs with no lyrics? Oh, this is good. So it's theme songs, but no lyrics. Okay, I'll give you my personal list here, and there's a lot that you could choose from, but my personal list, like, if I was making a gym playlist, then I'm going to get pumped up. And I can only pick four songs.

Of course you've got to go Stone Cold Steve Austin. I think Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme song is on the Mount Rushmore of any theme song Mount Rushmore that you're talking about. Whether it's best theme songs of all time, best theme songs with no lyrics. If you want theme songs that are sung by popular bands, well, you can throw the disturbed version on there.

Thack jobs, you've got the next one I'm not going to kill. Then we've got to go Undertaker. It's so iconic. Soon as the music hits, you start feeling something. And then from there, it's hard to narrow down the list, but I'm going to try. So come along with me on this ride. Gangrel slash the brood. It's just, it just slaps.

It's one of the best. theme songs ever. And it was funny when Gangrel was on the show a few months ago, he said it's one of the things that keeps him relevant still to this day. It's how much people love that theme song. So we've got Gangrel Slash the Brut on there. And then in my final spot on my personal list of theme songs and no lyrics, I'm going to go Ultimate Warrior. There's something about that one, too. From the second it hits, you're just like, yeah, I'm going to run through a wall. But shout out to Brett Hart's music. Shout out to Kurt Angle.

Shout out to McFoley. Shout out to Razor Ramon, Goldberg. And then I love deep cuts. Shout out to Ken Shamrock's theme song. Ken Shamrock's theme song needs to be talked about more often. Ken Shamrock's career. needs to be talked about more often. How is, how is Ken Shamrock not in the WWE Hall of Fame?

I ask that question every single year. He's in the TNA Hall of Fame. He's in the UFC Hall of Fame, but somehow he's not in the WWE Hall of Fame. Hopefully that gets rectified for the class of 2027. I mean, come on. but yes, his theme song. Such a banger.

It's so good. Nancy emailed this one and, Hey, Chris. Hey, yo. I love that. I enjoyed the Penta-Fenix match on Raw this week. I was also a big fan of Lucha Underground and both of them specifically.

I've been watching wrestling for a long time and saw two moves from them near the end of the match that I don't think I've ever seen before. One was the pop-up power bomb where Penta did a flip, and the other was when Phoenix landing on his feet after the attempted Mexican destroyer. I assume that it would be these two at the end of the tournament when the bracket was announced, and I figured that it would be Penta as the one to face Roman.

I'm curious. What are your thoughts on how the Roman Penta match will play out? I'm not sure Roman has ever faced someone like Penta before. Should be quite interesting. I'm looking forward to it. I enjoy your podcast each week. I hope you can get Roman on soon. Thanks, Nancy.

I also hope that I can get Roman on soon. I loved that Penta and Ray Phoenix match. Oh my gosh. It was just brilliantly done. What a match. And I'm with you. I saw the bracket and when I think I know how this is going to shake out, it's going to shake out with just an epic match.

Just a, just a fantastic match between Ray Phoenix and Penta. And that's what we got. And then I think we predicted it as well, that it would be Penta moving on for this match in Mexico City on Monday, September 14th. It's going to be great. I've seen comments online where it's like, oh, so Penta goes through this entire number one contender tournament

just to get squashed by Roman Raines. My friend, if you think that this match for the WWE World Championship with Penta as the number one contender is going to be a squash match. You are in for quite the surprise. This is going to be a PLE quality match.

This whole show in Mexico City on September 14th is shaping up to be a PLE quality show and you know that the crowd in there is going to be absolutely electric. I think the match is going to play out with both of these guys getting their stuff in. And I think that I've mentioned this before, but Roman Raines doesn't get enough credit for how good he is it selling. And I think he's going to sell Penta's stuff to make Penta look like a million bucks.

Yes, Roman Rains is more than likely going to retain the WWE World Championship. I still have this idea in my mind that when Street Fighter debuts or when Street Fighter the movie premieres, he's going to be walking the red carpet with that championship around his waist or on his shoulder. Like I still think that's a thing. I think he holds the title for a little while longer. And now that Crown Jewel has announced, it seems like we're going to be getting Roman Raines versus CM Punk. I don't know. A lot of things could change. It's two months away. Sure. Could change, but will it? I don't know.

I don't, I don't think so. But we're in for a great match here. And I think that there's going to be some like super near falls, like some 2.99 near falls where everybody in the arena and everybody watching at home is going to be like, ah, almost. It's going to be a lot like the Brett Hart 1, 2, 3 kid match. that I was just talking about. Like,

Roman Reigns has the ability to make you believe that his opponent is killing him. That's how good Roman is at selling. But also, man, I don't even plan this out, but just like Brett Hart, Roman Reins has this ability

to level up his opponents. Even if Roman comes out on top, his opponents end up looking great. And like, they've stepped it up after that. So, this is probably one of the matches I've been looking forward to on Raw

more than any other match other than maybe Ray Phoenix versus Penta. That was so good. But I'm so excited about this. It's Romans first time defending the world title on Raw in, I believe, eight years, I think it was 2018. It was the last time he defended

a WWE World Championship on Raw. It feels big. Like it feels like It's a big fight feel, for lack of a better word. And that leads, oh, so perfectly into this one from Daniel Bellini. He sent this in on Chris VanVleet.com. CVV, realist, real one here, again from New Jersey. What is your very subjective Mount Rushmore of big fight feel wrestlers?

Mine would be Rock Lesnar, Lazzar, Triple H, Goldberg, and Roman Raines. I appreciate you. Thank you. I appreciate you, Daniel. Thank you. Since I already said Roman Raines, I've got to throw him in there. And I think the idea here is,

when Roman Raines has a match, it means something. And I know that there's a lot of people that will say, well, he hardly ever has matches. I posted this thing on Facebook that Roman Raines is undefeated in 2026, which I just posted it as a fact. Roman Raines has not lost a match.

in 2026, period. That's the end of the story. I couldn't believe how many people were saying how much I loved Roman Raines. Like, I simply stated a fact. That's it. It was not an opinion. I stated a fact.

Roman Raines is undefeated. Well, he's only had five matches. Okay. He's, he's won them all. The point being, when Roman Raines has a match, it means something. typically something is on the line,

whether it's the championship that he holds or if he's not the champion, he's chasing after it or getting one step closer to it. Not a lot of wasted matches, not a lot of wasted moments, not a lot of wasted movements with Roman Reins.

That, to me, big fight feel. Brock Leisler's in that exact same situation. Like Brock Lezzer, wrestling, handful of times every year, big fight feel. When Brock is there, it means something. I think those two are like the pretty obvious ones, especially when you're talking about like modern day wrestling. But how can you talk about big fight feel without talking about big match John?

Like John Cena stepped things up. And I think that there's a certain fan that maybe only, got to really see his work. If you're relatively new to wrestling, you're only seeing his work in this retirement tour. Well, those matches all felt pretty big. But when you were thinking back before that, it's John Sina. It's WrestleMania. It means something. And I also love that John Sina didn't have to do that in the main event spot. Johnson didn't have to do it when it was around a championship. John Sina made the United States championship feel really important. He gave that a big fight feel, especially with the United States Open Challenge.

So I got to personally go with John Cena. And then I'm going to go Undertaker. The entrance, the aura, the streak, the presentation, especially if you're talking specifically about WrestleMania, an Undertaker match just feels consequential even before the bell rings. Like, think about all of these matches he had at WrestleMania where just the two guys standing in the ring. It's like, oh, wow, we're in for something here.

Taker versus Sean, Taker versus Triple H, Taker versus Edge, Taker versus Batista, Taker versus Leszden. Those felt like events. So that's, I think that's my four. I know that there are some glaring omissions here. perhaps there's a little bit of recency bias thrown into this. But like I always say, you've got two very powerful forces when you talk about things like pro wrestling

that are butting up against each other. You've got the power of nostalgia. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, right? It's butted up against recency bias of like, I saw that thing last week. That thing was pretty great. That entrance, that match, that promo, whatever it happens to be. And you're like, you're comparing the two of like, this feels really. big and awesome and meaningful because I just saw it or I was there. Or you go,

ah, this other thing from 20 years ago feels big and important and meaningful because at that time of my life when I was at this certain age and this stage of my life, that felt meaningful. So those always seem to be buttoned up against each other. But those are my four. There's a lot of other people you could put on there. And perhaps you're a little. list would look much different than mine, but that's mine. Michael Shank on Facebook says, CVV, you've been on a role recently with guests. I really enjoyed your interview with Trish. I will say, I believe the biggest pop that Trish received is when she faced off with

Mickey James at the first women's Royal Rumble. Really cool moment. That got me thinking, what's your favorite Rumble pop? Entrance, elimination, in-ring face-off, whatever it is. is. Thanks for the top-notch content. I think the correct answer for this is Edge at the Royal Rumble 2020. The look on his face says it all. He had retired in 2011 because of his neck injury, inducted into the Hall of Fame the next year, part of the Hall of Fame class of 2012. Nobody thought that they'd be hearing his music again for him to come out and rustle him.

match. But then it happened. Like, what a moment. We're all shocked. And sure, there were some seeds planted earlier. You know, when Edge came out, SummerSlam 2019 in Toronto, and he's doing this segment with Elias, and he hits him with the spear, you're like, oh, wait a second, if the guy who can't wrestle just hit a spear, huh. Does that mean he could wrestle now? And I feel like the seeds were planted, or at least the idea for a possible return, was there. But then when his music hit at the Rumble,

it's like, just... It's why we love wrestling. And this is something I feel like I've been saying every single week, but when wrestling makes you feel something, that's when it's at its best. But my personal favorite Rumble Pop, is John Cena 2008.

No one's expecting him to be there. And he comes out at number 30 and ends up going on to win the Rumble. But he had gone away with a torn pack. That happened in October of 2007. So four months later, just under four months later, comes back and somehow gets cleared

and is able to participate in the Royal Rumble. Amazing. And then you talk about the look on Edge's face. The look on Sena's face here is like, yeah, that's right. It's me. It's me. And then the look on Triple H's face too, because Triple H is in the ring looking like you saw a ghost.

I love that. I get goosebumps when I hear Edge's music and I watch back Royal Rumble 2020. That's a highly rewatchable moment. And I get goosebumps when I watch John Cena's return at the 2008 Royal Rumble. And I think it's just special also because it's Madison's Guard. And the fact that Sina not only returns.

It's not just the return. It's the return and then also the win. Kurt Solomon sent this email in, Hi, CVV. I'm Kurt Solomon. A real, real one from the Philippines, home of tennis sensation, Alex Iala,

and one of boxing's goats, Manny Pacquiao. I've got a Dolorian slash Back to the Future question for you. Fire up the DeLorean and go back to 1997, right in the middle of WCW's hottest era. You can send one current WWE or AEW wrestler from 2026 back to WCW in 1997 with their

current character, their current promo ability, their current look, and their current in-ring skills completely intact. Who do you think would have the best chance of becoming a legitimate WCW main event star alongside Hulk Hogan, Sting, Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, and the Ed and W.O.? and why. The catch, don't just pick the best wrestler today. Pick the wrestler whose character could actually survive the politics, the larger than life personalities, and the chaotic WCW environment of 1997. We'd love to hear your pick. Much love from the Philippines, Kurt. Fantastic question. And I will fire up vroom, vroom, my DeLorean, and head back to 1997.

So when we're talking about it's someone, we're just taking them directly from the show right now in 2026 and just plopping them in 1997. We're not saying, well, this person has all the skills, but we'd have to rework their character. No. So we're just taking this entire package and putting them in 1997.

I like this. I like this a lot. I think my answer is Roman Raines. And I don't know. if it's particularly close. Like WCW in 1997, it's not a promotion where like you have to have

great matches. It's about having great aura. And that's what Roman Raines is all about, although Roman Raines also happens to have great matches as well. Just look at the night two main event this year at WrestleMania. But when we're looking at the enormous person,

personalities there. And all the established stars, you named a bunch of them, but there's also Savage is there at the time. And Lugar and Flair, there's so many people. But if you think about 26, Roman Raines walking into, say, Hulk Hogan's dressing room at that point in time, Romans 6.3-265-ish movie star good looks, amazing presence, tons of charisma, carries himself like he's the biggest star in the building. Hogan's going to be looking at this guy going, huh, this guy looks like money. And I think that you put Roman in front of the crowd. He doesn't need long to get over. Music hits, slow walk, doesn't say anything, gets into the ring, just acknowledge me. That's it. 1997 wrestling fans will completely get that.

I wouldn't put Roman in the NWO. I know there's, 97 members of the NWO, maybe not at that point, but I wouldn't put him in the NWO. Maybe he has a storyline with the NWO where like Hogan can't recruit him. Like picture Hogan, Hall and Nash offering him the black and white t-shirt. Bromond looks at it, looks at Hogan. Crowd is bubbling up and then he drops it. it's great it's great now also i think the more most importantly roman style

translates like really well like he has a he has a bit of an old school style in the way that he's slow and methodical spear superman punch power bomb clothesline simoan drop guillotine choke big selling great crowd work lots of facial expressions. I think the answer is Roman Reigns. Sure, there's other people you could add into this. Perhaps you have a different pick, but I think that just aesthetically, we're not talking about wrestling in 1997. We're talking about WCW. WCW in 1997. I think the answer is a clear Roman Reigns. R.J. Gabs underscore on Instagram says, hey, CVV, you've heard. You've heard.

so many great and inspirational stories over the years throughout your interviews. Have you ever considered writing a book to share all of the insight, pun intended, that you've obtained over the years? I think it would be a great idea. RJ, have you been looking at my text messages or something? This is an idea we've been talking about for a while. You ever read the book, Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, or you ever heard of it? Or he also did a book called Tribe of Mentors. Tim Ferriss has a very popular podcast, gets to talk to some of the biggest names on the planet,

and he distills the wisdom that he learned from those interviews into these books. So each interview that he does, I can't remember how many it is, 50 or 100. Each interview, he distilled it down into like three to five pages of like, their morning routine or like, what do they do when they're up against a big challenge? Like all of their advice. And I've been thinking about doing a similar thing for insight. I just don't know if anyone would care.

Like, I am very aware that I've been able to share some amazing conversations with some of the top people in an industry that I have loved since I was a kid. and I've been able to sit across from legends and greats and future legends. And I've learned a lot of things from those interviews that I now apply to my own life, both personally and professionally. I just wonder if anyone's going to care. So if we could sell, you know, 10, 12 books, sure. We'll do it. And I know that writing a book's not just something you just snap your fingers and it happens.

It's obviously going to take men's, many months of a lot of work, but yeah, it's definitely a thing we've thought about a lot. So it might be something that could happen at some point soon. There would have to be a lot more planning going into it than just me and you right now, just riffing about it. But I can think, like I've mentioned this before, John, Sina, control to controllable. That's a huge piece of life advice. But then you think back to the interview I did with The Undertaker recently, and he was talking about the life lessons that wrestling's taught him.

So, like, sure, in these interviews, we're talking about WrestleMania moments, or we're talking about entrance themes, good, bad, and indifferent. I have an interview coming up soon. I've already recorded it, but I have an interview coming up soon with Rob Conway. and he talked about how he just absolutely hated his theme song. And then on the flip side of that, you got Gangrel. He was like, man, my theme song basically made me. But what I'm getting at is sometimes we're talking about like specifically wrestling things. And then a lot of times we're talking about just like things that could just help you in life.

Whether it's helping with your mental health, helping with your physical health, helping with your physical health. but there's there's a lot of lessons so to distill all that down into a book definitely something I've thought about if you actually feel like you would buy a book that sounds like this please let me know and then maybe I could show that to my agent and he'd go all right okay if these nine people would buy it we're on to something here BB1 under podcast on Twitter says, Hey, Chris, I love that your favorite match is Rock versus Hogan at WrestleMania 18

because that is also my favorite match too. My question is, how would the wrestling industry look if Vince never bought WCW or ECW back in 2001? Keep up the good work. Those are obviously two very different conversations. WCW probably could have had another owner. ECW, Paul Heyman explained this when he was on the show. Like there was the possibility there for it to be sold.

Shane McMahon was interested in buying ECW. But Vince McMahon was interested in acquiring the services of Paul Heyman. So he thought, well, the best way to do that is to buy ECW or let it go into bankruptcy. Then we'll get Paul Heyman and. Heyman tells us a story much better with all the details in there. but I think one of the biggest what ifs in wrestling is what happens if Eric Bischoff gets the chance to actually go through with the deal to buy WCW. They were really close. Eric Bischoff talked about this at great length, but they were really close to making this happen. And one of the things that

was like the pivotal part of the deal was that the TV rights would come along with the show. there was an actual deal in place where Eric Bischoff and a financial group that was giving him backing were going to buy WCW. The idea here is they would still get to have Nitro and Thunder on TV. Turner Broadcasting's new leadership came in. They made the decision to cancel Nitro and Thunder and that basically killed the deal because Eric Bischoff would have WCW, but they wouldn't have the national television. So you would just have WCW, and that's a radically different business.

If things had gone through the way he planned, and I don't know if people remember this, they had already announced that there was going to be this other WCW event, the Eric Bischoff WCW event. He called this WCW, the Big Bang. WCW magazine actually advertised this pay-per-view. May 6th,

2001 and the idea would essentially have been like wcw 2.0 and they were going to try to get the stink of what was going on in wcw in 2000 off of them and rebuild what ericischoff's vision would be for wcd but when they lost a tv deal everything changed vince McMahon ends up buying wcd and getting the TV or getting the library, and everything changes there. But that's a huge what-if, a massive what-if. I don't think that things change immediately.

I don't think, like, Eric Bischoff's kind of, he's not starting from scratch, he's starting from experience, and fans are aware of WCW, but he's starting behind. And the other idea here was to allow Nitro and Thunder to go off the air for a little while then they would reboot this new WCW

with Eric Bischoff's vision and Eric Bischoff being the owner behind it. But yeah, if WCW is a real player from 2001 on, that changes a lot of the ruthless aggression era. Because think about it, Stone Cold Steve Austin walks out when his contract ends.

Well, it's contract ending. in 2002, he walks out a WWF at the time in June 2002, where could he go here? Like, could have gone to WCW, could have returned to WCW. Think of all the matches that could have happened there. But it opens up the possibility if there's an actual competitor again, wouldn't really be again. If the actual competitor never went away, you now don't have to have people that are beholden to the WWE contract because there's nowhere else to go. TNA is starting up around that time, but not really a place where you can go and have a guaranteed contract. But it would have changed a lot. I don't know how differently things look in 2026.

Who knows if WCW would still be around, but it's a very, very interesting what if because there's a lot of big names that you can throw around from the early to mid 2000s of like, well, what happens to what happens to CM Punk? Does he do Ring of Honor or does he stay with this idea of being with a number two company? Does he go to WCW? Maybe they're not a number two company. What happens to Ray Mysterio in the mid or the early to mid 2000s? What happens to Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels? Ryan Danielson. What happens to AJ Stiles? That'd be the butterfly effect that no one talks about it.

If WCW is around and able to offer real money, TNA probably doesn't happen either. Or at least not in the way that it did. There's a lot of dominoes that could fall into play here. But I think it's, I love talking about what ifs. I feel like what ifs have now, what ifs have now become like an idea for me like a thing that I love as much as Mount Rushmore's and Would You Routers? What ifs?

I'd spend the next hour talking about all the what ifs and all the fall out of that. So please keep these coming. Give me your ideas for what if. What if WCW doesn't get bought out by Vince? What if the deal goes through with Eric Bischoff? what if there's still WCW on TV in September of 26, does AEW still end up happening? Who knows?

It's the great thing about what if questions. Well, that's our final question on this. Ask CVV number Bacardi 151 edition and Ask CVV 150. Kick out at one edition. Send in your questions for next week. VV number one, five, two. If you're going to be in Atlanta this weekend,

let me know. It would be awesome to see you in or around the arena. You can either point in my, point a finger in my face after and go, ha, I told you that Randy Orton wasn't going to win. Or you can go, huh, well, you made a really good point about Randy Orton winning. And it turns out you were right. So we'll see how that all ends up shaking out. and we'll see if Trick Williams is indeed going to be the United States champion at the end of this

weekend. I'll leave you this quote from Nelson Mandela. Do not judge me by my successes. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. That interview that I talked about with Rob Conway, you'll see that interview on Tuesday and then Will Osprey joins us on Thursday. Be great, be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season.

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