Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #16 - The Rock Is Back, Now What? MJF To WWE?, Velveteen Dream, My Backyard Wrestling Days, The Love Guru

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

Happy new year! Welcome to another #AskCVV episode where Chris answers your questions from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We got some great questions about The Rock recent return to WWE and what's next, MJF's status with AEW, my backyard wrestling character Chris Sharp, my (very) brief role in the 2008 movie The Love Guru and much more. If you have one that you want answered on the next one, send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV! Quote I'm thinking about: “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties out of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities out of his difficulties.” - Robert Mansell Sponsors: FITBOD: Get 25% off when you use the code INSIGHT at http://fitbod.me/INSIGHT ZBIOTICS: Get 15% off with the code CVV and have a better morning after you drink at http://zbiotics.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com GHOSTBED: Get 40% of your purchase with the code CVV at http://ghostbed.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 25% For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blele. Oh, my goodness. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. So good to see you here. Thank you for joining us in this one.

And thank you for making Insight, one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. And here we are and AskCV number 16. What perfect timing for this, too, because only a few days into 2024, but I really feel like anything could happen in the wild world of pro wrestling. I mean, think about it.

CM Punk is back in WW. MJF is maybe possibly leaving AEW. Who knows what's going on there? Adam Copeland is in AEW. The Rock just returned to WWE. It's wild. It's wild. And I just feel like anything could possibly happen this year.

So there's a lot to get into with that. of course with content creation, then a few strange questions that are in here as well. So these were all submitted using the hashtag Ask CVV on social media. So if you have a question for the next one, which will be Ask CVV17, just submit it on Twitter or Instagram or even Facebook using that hashtag Ask CVV. And there's a lot of them.

Like there's been a bunch for this one. So we're going to try to get to as many of them as we can. But the goal is to do as, CVV every two weeks. And I feel like with everything that's been going on in wrestling, I hope that's enough. There just seems to be something every single week. It's crazy. If you're one of the many, many people who listen to the show but haven't yet hit follow, could I just ask for this one favor? Could you hit follow wherever you're listening to this, whether that's Apple Podcasts or Spotify or somewhere else? And in exchange for that, I'll make you a deal.

In exchange for that, I will work from now until the end of time to make this the most entertaining wrestling podcast possible. I feel like we set the bar pretty high in 2023, but we're already going to crush that in 2024, which is with the plans that we have. We got two big guests lined up for next week. If you follow me on social media at Chris Van Fleet, you know who at least one of them is, but two huge guests next week. And then a very big guest, haven't set a date or a time with a very big guest. You know who, who, well, if you're watching on YouTube, you will not be able to see him. But, man, that's going to be big.

So hit follow. It helps the show more than I could possibly imagine. And look, I know that you're here because you're a real, you're a real one if you're on an Ask CVV episode. But if it's your first one, basically I answer the questions that you guys submit on social media. And we go from there. So let's dive into this.

This is from Phil We Met on Instagram or no, on Twitter. He says, hey, Chris, if you had the pen and paper, would you rather see the Rock versus Roman Raines at the Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia, or at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia? Love the show. Keep up the great work. Well, Phil, thank you so much for this question.

You had one on the last Ask CVV2, so I appreciate you. Here's what I think. First of all, can we just step back for just half a second and realize how cool it is that not only did the Rock return on Smackdown a few months ago, completely unannounced, but then the Rock returned on day one, completely unannounced on raw? Pretty cool, because I feel like there would have been an era of WWE at some point in time when they would have teased the crap out of that to try to pop the ratings. But I appreciate so much

that it was, the one in Smackdown was there was no tease at all. It was just like he came out of nowhere. This one, there was the tease of like a former champion's going to be back, which was so ambiguous, us, right? Like, AAA didn't say what kind of champion. He didn't say if it was a men's champion or women's champion. We assumed it was a world champion, but he didn't say it was just a former champion. Like, Triple H himself could have returned, right? And we would have been like, oh, yeah, he's ticks the boxes. He's a former champion. And he, we haven't seen him on TV in a little while. He is returning. So there was this tease of like a former champion. It ends up being the rock. Well, actually, it ended up being Jinder Mahal. And then what a, what a swerve that one.

and then it ended up being The Rock. If the Rock is indeed back in a wrestling capacity and not just coming back to make an appearance and cut a fun promo and give a Rock Bottom or two, if he is truly back in a wrestling capacity, there is no way that this is not leading to a WrestleMania match. Do you really think that The Rock is going to return to wrestle at the Royal Rumble or at elimination chamber

or if we're looking way further ahead at SummerSlam. And I get what you're saying right now. That's not fair. The whole story has been set up for a long time since well before WrestleMania 39. It's Cody versus Roman Raines. He has to finish the story. And I'm not saying that that match

still can't somehow take place in the WWE world. But what I'm saying is there is no way that the Rock's going to come back and work anything but WrestleMania. And I would have to think that whatever the Rock's next match is, it is also the Rock's last match. I don't think that I'm just going to take a little sip here of F3 Energy. I just go to F3Energy.com and use the code CVV to save 15%.

These things are fantastic. You see us drinking them in the episodes. They're so good. I just don't see The Rock coming back to have a match as anything about WrestleMania. So I don't know how that shakes out because if you would ask me, this question, and actually you guys did ask me this question on the last Ask CVV a few weeks ago, I would have told you that as it stood at that point in time in December, that the two WrestleMania main events looked like CM Punk, Seth Rawlins, and then Roman Raines and Cody Rhodes.

The crazy thing about wrestling is anything can happen and things change on a dime. So as of right now, it certainly feels like the Rock is making some sort of a play for or that Roman Reigns, the rock Roman Reigns. And here's the other thing. Who says that the story, that Cody Road's story has to be finished at WrestleMania? Like, why can't Cody Road's story be finished at SummerSlam or next year at Survivors? says, I don't know how much further we're going to go ahead with this.

But I will say this. If it is indeed the Rock Roman Reigns, and we are indeed going to see the Rock wrestle again, because I've seen these headlines that are like, The Rock calls out Roman Raines. No, he didn't. He made a reference to the head of the table. If that is calling someone out, I mean, it's close, right? It's like, he talked about the head of the table, but he didn't say like, Roman

Raines, it's me versus you at this event. I didn't call him out. He referenced the head of the table, which obviously in the next few weeks, we'll see how that's all going to play out. But it's just a really interesting situation here. And I feel like with what Cody has going on here with Shinske, that I don't know if that's going to go on much longer, but we'll have a much clearer picture of all of this,

I feel like after the Royal Rumble. And my gut still tells me, my gut still tells me as of right now, it's in first week of January, it still tells me that Cody Rhodes wins the Royal Rumble. I don't think the Rock's in the Rumble. I've seen some reports about that. That doesn't make sense.

Like, I think, I don't know. But in wrestling, they talk about having a match card, like I only have a bump card. I feel like the Rock's bump card has one match left on it. That's just my opinion. That's just my thought here. But I just think that it's one more match, which would mean one more WrestleMania. He's 51 years old. He'll be almost 52 when WrestleMania rolls around. I just can't see him having a whole bunch of matches. It also takes away from the magic of if it ends up being a WrestleMania match. And really, there's no bigger story in wrestling than Roman Raines, the bloodline, head of the table, one of the greatest

storylines, at least in modern wrestling history, especially with how long it's gone on for. The Rock has to be part of that storyline in some way. Look, it's all very interesting. It's all very interesting. So I'm just curious to see where things go from here. Also curious to hear what you think about this? This one's from Tiger Teeth 987 on Instagram. Is MJF actually gone from AEW? Do you think we'll see him in WW? I think that AEDU is playing this so well, so well. I believe the reports that MJF signed a new deal a few years ago and that MJF's deal was not actually up on January 1st, 2024. His deal is actually up in like a few years. So AEW. he's playing this very well, removing him from the website and starting the buzz. And if I'm

AEW, if I was in their shoes, I wouldn't do anything with MJF. I wouldn't even mention MJF until February, until after the Royal Rumble, because there's going to be so much buzz leading into the Royal Rumble in St. Petersburg. It's going to be so much buzz of like, could we see MJF in WWE? Will MJF appear at the Rumble? And the answer is no, MJF will not appear at the Rumble. MJF will not be going to WWE at least no time soon because, as I just said, he's under contract with AEW. But if I'm AEW, I'm going to ride all of those reports as long as I can and suck in all of that buzz that I can. Because if they're talking about MJF, they're really talking about AEW because the two are interchangeable here. So if I'm AEW, I don't even mention it.

I just act like MJF is gone. And in February, we pick back up where we left off, which is the whole storyline with Adam Cole, which is actually interesting, right? Then I think it ends up being, if I had to guess, Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland, somewhere down the line there. And I'm guessing Swerve wins the title at some point in time here. Also, I was just a guest on Swerve's podcast with Montesi. Go check that out.

It's called Swerve City Podcast. What a great conversation we had when I was in Orlando a few weeks ago. That one just came out. So listen to it wherever you're listening to this or check out their YouTube channel, Swerve City. So that's my take on the whole MJF situation. I just, there's going to be a lot of people,

you're going to see so many headlines. In fact, I'm sitting in front of a computer right now. If I type in MJF into Google News, just curious. Oh, MJF considering surgery following AEW. So this is a break. This is a break.

He's mulling over this decision about his. is shoulder surgery. So this is just a little bit of a break. And I think that MJF is playing this all very well. This all makes a lot of sense to me. Make this year's New Year's resolutions a breeze with Green Chef. Build healthy habits the easy way in 2024 with nutritious recipes from the number one meal kit for clean eating. Like Green Chef take all the work out of eating clean with chef crafted nutritionist

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plus 20% off your next two months. That's greenchef.com slash insight pod. The promo code is Insight Pod. Green Chef, the number one meal kit for eating well. A wrestling historian on Instagram says, what is your greatest moment of 2023? I'm becoming a dad is. definitely the moment in my personal life. I mean, that's incredible. Yeah, I'm still, still pinch myself every day, the fact that we have this little girl, Logan, who just turned seven months old, just a few days ago. And seeing the wonder in her eyes, that's great. So that's the, that's my greatest personal moment. Professionally, I think it was, yeah, it was the trip to Tampa of, what was that, September?

interview with Rick Flair in the morning, drive to Clearwater Beach, sit down with Hulk Hogan in the afternoon, go back to downtown Tampa, have a drink or two or three, and a steak with Rick Flair and Mike Keota. Then Mike Keota and I sit down and do an interview. Then we go back and hang out with Rick Flair some more. Pretty cool day. Like if you were to go back in time and tell the 17-year-old CVV that one of those, things that I just listed off were to happen in a day. He wouldn't believe you. So that way, I think that's the highlight there. And also just the year in general, like you being along in this journey has helped the show so much. Like if you look at the charts around this time last year, Insight was always like 15thish, 20th, you know, somewhere around there. And now the show is consistently top three, top five, all of that. the time. And it's because people like you show up all the time. And yeah, we've been getting some amazing guests and having some conversations that I absolutely love. But it's because you guys

keep showing up. So that's just an overarching memory and highlight of the year. Hey, Chris, I love the show. I know you're a big goals guy. Hey, vague goals get vague results, right? What are your 2024 goals for insight? This is from Jimmy underscore Jones 43. Well, you know I have a big goal guy. Vag goals and vague results. So kind of bouncing off what I just said in that last one, I think the goal is to have the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. And that's just going to come from continuing to put in the time. And I get a lot of people that ask me like, how do I start a podcast or how do I grow my podcast? And the biggest thing is you start by starting. Like you got to hit record and just go. And then you grow the show by

being consistent. If you continue to show up every Tuesday and every Thursday and then on Friday sometimes like this one here, your audience will also start to show up on those days. So if you're consistent, your audience will start to be consistent. And here we are in episode 551. And I feel like we're just getting started here. So that is definitely one of the goals. Another goal is to have a real, like a long sit down interview with someone like. John Sina. I spent some time with him, chatted with him at the Red Carbett premiere for the Iron Claw in Los Angeles, and it sounds like it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when is it going to happen. He has his movie Argyle coming out soon. So I feel like there'll be some like a potential around there to talk about that and talk about everything he's done in wrestling in the last little while here. But yeah, I think the goal is just to continue to keep pushing forward and to keep enjoying this. Like I have such a blast doing this, whether it's an Ask CVVV episode like this one, or it's an episode with any of the number of guests that we've had. Like I literally have loved every episode that we've done, all for different reasons,

but I've loved every single one of them. So that's the goal. The goal for me, in life in general, has always been to wake up excited for what I'm going to do that day. And then at the end of the day, to be proud of what I've accomplished. And then you wake up tomorrow and you do it again. and that will forever be my goal. That need to be a great dad and great husband.

Those are the goals for me. Sean O'Dago on Instagram says, Who's your favorite Ninja Turtle? Michelangelo. I mean, I love them all for different reasons. Leonardo leads. Donatello does machines. Raphael is cool but rude.

Michelangelo is the party, dude. I'm Michaelangelo. because of my love of pizza, Michelangelo. Remember, like, in the old school cartoon, Michelangelo will do like this little, like spinning, like breakdancing move during that part of the song, but it's the pizza. Michaelangelo, he's my Ninja Turtle, and my love for pizza will only continue to grow all the time. I love pizza. I want pizza right now. I should have grabbed some pizza while we were recording this. That would have been fun. Caldron underscore zero says Chris, I love you, man, but what the heck were you talking about?

with Caleb Braxton when you said that wrestling was hotter than it's ever been. Hello, have you ever heard of the attitude era? I've got a lot of comments like this over the last few weeks. What I said to Kayla was wrestling was maybe more popular than it's ever been. And the thing that people always like to look at here is, well, the ratings aren't what they used to be. I mean, they're not getting 8 million people watching Raw like they were in 1999. Yeah, because people don't watch TV the same way now, 25 years later.

That would be like saying, man, there's not as many phone calls made to landlines anymore. I guess people aren't talking on the phone anymore. Yeah, because they're talking on cell phones in the same way that like, just because people aren't turning on the TV and then looking for TNT or USA or Fox and looking for that channel and watching it live doesn't mean that they're not consuming the content. whether that's on Hulu or YouTube or TikTok or Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or or right. And it's a different, it's a completely different era right now. So to compare ratings in 2024 to ratings in 1999 is totally like apples and zebras.

And I just don't understand how people can't look at the bigger picture of like we don't watch TV like we used to. That's just a plain ass fact. that we don't watch TV like we used to because there's so many other forms of entertainment. You can be entertained in so many other different ways. And I'm just so sick and tired of this television rating conversation that this always comes down to because it doesn't look at the bigger picture. It looks at one tiny little statistic that is part of a much larger conversation. Like when the Rock returned on Smackdown, there was 103,000,

million views in 24 hours across social media. Again, Apple's DeZEvers, you can't compare that stat from 2023 to a stat from 1999 because social media wasn't a thing back then. You know, people's viewing habits are different now. But if I were to take the same stance that those ratings people take, I could, I would go, 103 million views. They weren't doing those numbers in the attitude era. Look, just as a whole here.

wrestling is exciting. Wrestling is more exciting now than it has been in a very long time. And whatever company it is that you like to watch, that's amazing. And just because you like the company that you like, doesn't mean that you have to hate another company that you don't even watch. So I just think you should like what you like and just appreciate that we are in a very special time right now. we will never have the attitude era again. We will never have the ruthless aggression era again. We will never have the PG era ever again. We will never have any of these eras ever again. And that's why they are eras, because they start and they have a middle and then they have an end.

And then another era starts. And the era that we are in right now, I don't know what the name for this era will be. Maybe that'll be an Ask CVV on the next episode. But some people have called it the Renaissance era. And I think that that's kind of what this feels like right now. wrestling is cool again. And there's always going to be people. And this happened during the attitude era as well, because I was a fan then. There were people then. They were going, it's not the same as it was 10 years ago. And it's like, no, it's not. It's supposed to change and

it's supposed to grow and it's supposed to evolve. And look, if you don't like it, no one is forcing you to watch it. I think that's a really big thing that no one talks about. But I just got a little bit upset when the quote that I said got taken out of content. I did not say that wrestling was bigger than it's ever been. I did not say that. I said that maybe wrestling is bigger than it's ever been, which then starts a conversation about like, well, yeah, the factors that are going on right now in this era are different from factors than other errors. But bottom line here, that's the bottom line. The bottom line here is it's a pretty fantastic time to be a wrestling fan. And I'm glad that you're along.

for the ride with me. Clarence Alexander Pryor, C. Prior, C. Prior, N.YC on Twitter says, what do you think of my buddy, Lexus King, being part of NXT? Brian Pilman, Jr. is a good friend of mine. In fact, Brian Pilman Jr. slash Lexus King is a guest on an upcoming episode. I just sat down with him in Orlando. And fascinating conversation. He has grown so much. I've known him for a while. We go back to when we were, well, we go way back. Actually, I became friends with him just when he started his wrestling career in MLW. But we go back to when we were both living in the Cincinnati era. We were both living in northern Kentucky and we would work out together and we would hang out

together and we would drive to shows together. Love Brian. I love Brian Pilman Jr. And I love that he is getting the opportunity in NXT to really play to his strengths. And he talks about that a lot. in the interview that we have. He said he really wanted structure and that NXT gives him a lot of structure to grow with what he's doing both in the ring and out of the ring. So big fan Alexis King. I also love that he gets the superstar entrance. If you haven't watched NXT recently,

I mean, his last name's King, right? So he comes out on a crown or on a throne. He comes out on a throne. It like, it's on like a conveyor belt or on pulleys or something, but it's on wheels and it like slides into the shot with the fog machine. It looks like a star. And he's, what, four months into his NXT career? I feel like we're going to be talking about him in a very different capacity in the next, call it, year or so. Big fan, big fan of Brian the human,

big fan of Lexus King, the character. Phil Talk Sports on Twitter says, What is your favorite championship belt design? I love this question so much. and it's always so interesting to be that generally speaking, generally speaking, most people's favorite belt design goes back to the time when they were like most invested in wrestling or like the time that they got into wrestling. So for me, it's the winged eagle. I think it's just like such a prestigious looking title. I love that title so much when you think of the people who held it.

Ah, man, it's just like what a legacy there. But it's so interesting to me that if you started watching wrestling in like the ruthless aggression era, then like the Universal Championship. that's probably your favorite belt. If you started watching like the PG era and John Scene is your guy, I bet you love the spinner belt. It's just really, it's a very interesting, very interesting question. But for me, it's the winged eagle. And I also own a winged eagle. And I got an autographed by Hulk Hogan. I had a point in time a few years ago where I was collecting all of the championships and then I was getting them signed by the person who, in my mind, was the person who best represented that championship. So I had him sign that. And I think it's sitting in a closet somewhere. Maybe we should

put it on display in my office. I don't know. But I think I have a lot of belts that are just like kind of sitting there. My wife's like, that's fine. We don't need to have a house full of championships. Although as I look around my office, I've got the Chris Van Vleet belt, which I am willing to put on the line at any point in time, anywhere, any time against any time against any. named Chris Van Fleet. That's right. And then I've also got the big gold just behind where the camera is.

So if you look at the shot on YouTube, it's right behind the camera. That's one of the many big golds that I've given away with Fandu belts. They've got such great championships. And yeah, I still have one here in my office. So as I'm saying that about like

which championships your favorite and it's probably linked to the era that you've been watching them? I mean, not always, right? It's not a hard and fast rule, but I've just generally found that that's kind of how it works. Don Stevens 29, 931. It's a lot of numbers, Don, on Twitter. What in your mind makes a good slash great dating profile?

I'm joining Hinge after a few years away from the dating scene. I don't know if you're asking me this question because you heard me mention that I met my wife on Hinge. It's true. I met Rachel on Hinge. And, well, I will, look, I will say this. dating websites are both or dating apps are both awesome and awful at the same time they are awesome because you've got a lot of options and they are awful because everybody has a lot of options so everybody so you're talking to someone who you think you're hitting it off with based on

five photos in a few exchanges text exchanges you've had and then it just doesn't end up going anywhere good or great dating profile in my my wish rachel was here she's not here i would called her in and said, hey, honey, what would make a good dating profile? And in fact, if she comes back before we're done recording this episode, I'll call her back in and get her take on this. But I would just say be honest, right? And like, I think stay away from like the generic like, don't stand in front of a car. Don't have a shirtless photo. But just be honest. Just be a good person. That's it. Don't be a douchebag. I feel like that's, that's the beginning of a great dating profile. And be willing, this goes for men or women that are on a dating profile,

be willing to take a chance. I think there's a lot of people who sign up for it and then they go, I can't do it. I can't do it. You sign up, you make a profile, and then you don't ever bother end up either going back or responding to messages or end up meeting up with people. Just be willing to take a chance. I'm not saying go on 50 dates or something like that, but be willing to engage in a conversation with somebody. And I think there's a lot of people that are so embarrassed that they created an online dating profile and oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm doing this. I want to meet someone, quote, the old-fashioned way. Well, I hate to tell you this, but this is the old-fashioned way now. How crazy is it that 15 years ago, we were told, don't ever get in a car with a stranger

and, oh, by the way, don't ever talk to strangers. Now what do we do? We get into cars. We get into cars. with strangers all the time. It's called Uber. And we talk to strangers online all the time. It's just the new norm now. So I think that if you're not, I've got such a tangent. This is such a tangent here about online dating. But if you're single and you're not at least trying to cast your net out a little bit further with a dating app, then you're truly not, you know, casting your net out far to see who like far, far as you can to get all of your possible possibilities. And maybe you're not ready for it and that's okay. But if you are ready for it,

I would say cast your net out and just see what all the options are. Because other than being introduced to somebody through friends or through some sort of social activity or the gym, it's not like you're going to bump into someone in the produce section of the grocery store and be like, oh my gosh, you're getting bananas too? Wow, that's crazy. Yes, that stuff may happen. I'm not saying it's not going to happen.

but I'm saying that your odds are a lot better on a dating profile. So there you go, Don. Aaron Royce 13 on Twitter says, Velveteen Dream did a five-minute apology video and wants to do interviews and nothing is off the table. 100% everyone is saying that you should be the one to do it. So I've got to ask you, have you been approached to do it or have you inquired about doing the interview?

I'm very intrigued by the interview. very intrigued by what Patrick would have to say. We really haven't heard from him in three years until this apology video. They put that out. And look, I think people are going to think one way or another about him. And unfortunately, in the court of public opinion, people have already made up their mind one way or another. And I don't think that doing an interview with me is really going to change some people's minds. But I'm most interested in just hearing people's stories.

that is what got me into broadcasting in the first place is I love the idea of storytelling. And I think that everybody has a story to tell. And unfortunately, in some of these situations, there will be a section of the population who says, you can't talk to that person because there's these allegations out there about them that say this. And I understand that. And I completely respect that. But on the flip side of the things, I'll play devil's advocate here. what if those allegations aren't true?

And I'm not saying that they're not true. I'm just simply playing devil's advocate here. If those allegations aren't true, are we just supposed to say to this person, you can't talk for, what is he? He's 28 years old. You just can't talk for the rest of your life. Like, you don't deserve to have your story told.

I don't believe in that. And I believe that everybody has a story to tell. There's a thing here called the freedom of speech. I'm a big believer in the freedom of speech. and I would I would love to hear what Patrick has to say. You don't have to believe what he says, but let me tell you this. If we do that interview, I will ask the hard questions. You have to.

I have to. You have to ask the hard questions. So if that ends up happening, all of those questions will be asked. Obviously, I won't be able to control what the answers to those questions are. But you better believe that you can count on me to ask those questions. Go check out my interview with Austin Aries from a few years ago. And you'll see that I'm totally willing to ask the questions that people want to know the answers to. So Aaron Roy's 13.

We'll see what happens with that. The Brendan A on Twitter says, what was up with that hair of yours in that 2007 interview with Bobby Lashley? There's actually a story about that hair. So I was working for a show called 969 on Razor TV, which ended up becoming MTV to Canada. And we were working out of the city TV building in Vancouver, British Columbia. So a little preface to this story. I'm from just outside of Toronto.

I'm from Pickering, Ontario. I was working at Checks TV in Peterborough, Ontario. That is the home of Bobby Rood, by the way, Peterborough, Ontario. I was working as a news reporter for a year and a year and a year. half. Long story short. I'll tell that story another time. I've told it many other times, but I got this job in Vancouver. So I went from being news reporter, like reporting on like serious news and actually anchoring the news as well. I was the Sunday news anchor. I went from that to interviewing musicians and interviewing actors and I got to do my first wrestling interview there

with Bobby Lashley. So I started that job in October of 2006. And I was doing the show and I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but I just didn't feel like anyone was really noticing or anyone was really caring. It was just kind of like going on about my business. And I thought I was getting better every single time. We had a deal with this local hair salon. And they would like style your hair, cut your hair. It was like six times a year or something like that. And obviously the girls would go in there, my co-host in the show, the women would go in there and they would get their hair done and died and highlights and all that stuff. I went in and I just wanted something that would make me stand out just a little bit. And this is 2000, early, actually, no, it was 2006 when I actually

did this or maybe it was early, no, it was early 2007. Because that interview was January 2007. I was, I went in with a picture of my friend had just done this. And I thought it looked so cool because, you know, foahawks were a thing at that time. A little tiny little blonde patch on the front there. I went in. I did it. I came. I came. came into work the next, I didn't tell anyone I was doing this, came into work the next day. And my boss was like, oh, well, that's, that's different. And I'm like, I know, it's great, isn't it? She's like, yeah, that's certainly different.

And I had it for like, maybe a week or two. And our show had like the big bosses of our show were based in Toronto. And if you know anything about Canada, they were based out of the much music building. So that's where our like big bosses were. apparently they saw me on TV and said, hey, what is Chris changing his hair? Because it should be tomorrow. And I got called into the office

or I think my boss pulled me a sign. She's like, hey, what are you going to go get your hair? I'm done again. I'm like, God, I just did this last week. So probably, I don't know, another like month or so. She's like, oh, actually, you should go tomorrow. So I only had that hair for like a week and a half, two weeks. And it just so happened that during that time

was that interview with Bobby Lashley. So if you look at any other interview, type my name in, type 969, just the numbers, type in that into YouTube or Google, any other interview that I did from that show, I have dark hair, except for that one. So a little did I know that that first interview with Bobby Lashley would turn into 17 years of talking to wrestlers. but that's how that all came to be. So that haircut, well, the haircut was the same, but that dye job was a very, very short period of time that just so happened to be one of the most, I guess, important interviews I've done in my entire career

because that was the first one. And the whole reason that came together was WWE was coming to town when Smackdown with ECW was like a touring thing. And we did that interview with him, like a few weeks out, and then we aired the interview like the week of. So it's just so funny that all that came together. And I love it. I love posting that clip. That full interview is on YouTube, if you want to go check it out. I love posting it because we all start somewhere. And that

video, that hair, all of my bracelets and everything, all of that just completely encompasses the idea that we all start somewhere. And if you're not looking back and you're, old stuff and cringing just a little bit, or in my case here, cringing quite a bit, then you're not heading in the right direction. Aaron Bittner on Instagram says, what did you think about Adam Cole, being the devil? I really love the devil's storyline. I think we all kind of assumed at the end there that it was Adam Cole, but I'm now curious if MJF is out and he's getting this shoulder injury fixed or if he's just out to like build a little bit of

buzz. I don't know where that goes now. I guess you can pick this up in a few months, but I think that Adam Cole, it made a lot of sense. Maybe there's something here with Samoa Joe. I don't know. But I liked it. I've always loved these mysterious angles. I like when there's a good payoff. I don't like the mysterious angle. I mean, we can point to a lot of them, raw anonymous, anonymous raw general manager or Stone Cold getting hit by the car or. Or, the higher power or actually GTV, there was never, there was never any sort of revelation

of who was behind GTV. Remember GTV? Way back? I feel like a lot of those storylines that just listed, they were just kind of like, who could it be? I don't know,

torn swoggle, yeah. So I feel like at least there was a real payoff with this one. So, yeah, I liked it. And I'm a huge fan of Adam Cole, Bay, Bay. You can't say, just can't just say Adam Cole

without saying, Bebe. So I enjoyed it. I'm just very curious now what they do with it because that was such a big storyline for so many months. If MJF's not going to be on TV, obviously the devil's storyline can't continue. But when MJF comes back, is it going to be Adam Cole MJF and we rehash everything there? I don't know. A Castillo? A Castillo sound on Instagram. What was your finishing move plus ring entrance music when doing backyard wrestling. I mean, when you want to talk about throwback stuff, I had not just the blonde patch that you saw in the Bobby Lashley interview,

but I also had bleach blonde hair. It was the year 2000. It was a popular thing at the time. I had the bleach blonde hair, which then would grow out into the frosted tips. That was part of me being Chris Sharp, my backyard wrestling persona in the HCW in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. obviously backyard wrestling has very, very, very, very little wrestling psychology.

Very little wrestling psychology. So my, oh, geez, my setup move was that's incredible, which was a spinning tombstone, which I feel awful, the fact that I was doing that back then. My goodness. Like, how was I doing tombstones and dropping my friends like within, half inches of on their head. Like I was, I was driving them into the ground. You can go back and look, there are some,

there are some videos. I think I'm Facebook, Instagram of me doing some backyard wrestling. So it was the, that's incredible, the quisting, jumping, tombstone, and then I did the swan tom bomb, which I got to say. Gotta say, I threw a pretty good swan bomb. All right? I was a big fan of the swan tom bomb that I threw. And I would remember, I would practice.

all the time on trampolines and practice in the pools. Oh yeah. As for my entrance theme, it was Rage Against the Machine, which is also something that was so much of that era. And I actually don't, what was the name of the song? It was called New Millennium Homes. So I'm going to play this for you. And you'll see it. It was one of those songs that had a little bit of a buildup. And then when the music hit, I walked out then. So it was this baseline that the star. Okay, you ready? I'm going to play this off my computer here. I don't know if we can hear that baseline. It's so quiet. And then I walked out here. Very angry. Chris Sharp was a heel. Oh, Chris Sharp. He's out here.

What's Chris Sharp doing out here? I don't know why I started yelling, but you get the point. Rage gets a machine, new millennium homes. I would spit water. Not like into the air, like Triple H. I would spit it at the camera because it's very upset, chewing gum the whole time, like a total heel. Maybe this should be the entrance theme for the show from now. I feel like when I listen to this song, I'm transported back to being Chris Sharp. Sharp talking, sharp walking, sharp dressing. Okay.

I think Chris Sharp can exit now. That was Chris Sharp, okay? I really do like that song a lot. You might have seen me tweet it out. I was chatting with Downstate. It sounds like Downstate is interesting. in making the theme song for insight. Oh, yeah, I said it.

We haven't really gone anywhere past that conversation, but I just basically said, like, I think it's got to be shortened to the point, because that's kind of how podcast intro themes are, but downstate, the same people who do Cody Rhodes Kingdom, the same people who did Dolph Ziegler's theme song, The Mrs. theme song, Alex Riley's banger of a theme song,

they might be doing the Insight theme song. So stay tuned for that one. Omar L13 on Instagram says, What celebrity that has passed away was someone that you always wanted to interview and why? I'll give you one in wrestling and I'll give you one outside of wrestling. In wrestling, it's Eddie Guerrero for obvious reasons.

He was taken from us far too soon, one of the greatest to ever do it. So Eddie Guerrero, and it's sad to think about Eddie's story as a whole because he wasn't done doing what he was doing. And I think the thing that it always like, I think he was 38 when he passed away and it's just like, oh, I just turned 40 last year. It just makes me think like he had so much more to accomplish. And everybody talks about how great Eddie was in the ring.

So Eddie for sure. And then when you talk about someone who had so much more to accomplish Heath Ledger as well. And I think a lot of people think that Heath Ledger's final role. was The Dark Night. And that's not true. He was in a movie called The Imaginarium of Dr. Pernassas. And he actually passed away during the filming of that movie. And they ended up getting other actors to finish off his role. Colin Farrell, I can't remember the other ones. I can look it up. But Colin Farrell was somebody else who kind of stepped in and did some of the scenes. And then another actor stepped in and did some of the scenes. And the movie was like, it's a wild movie.

So another actor coming in and doing playing that role, it made a lot of sense. But yeah, I got to interview his castmates on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival for the Imaginarium of Dr. Pernassas. And it was just so interesting hearing all of them say such great things about Heath Ledger. So that's the other one. I mean, what an actor taken from us far, far too soon. And you've got to wonder, that was 15 years ago. that he passed away, what could he have done in those 15 years? I think about that all the time.

Speaking of movies, there's another movie question. Alex Tor Lemone on Instagram, did you have a chance to interact with Mike Myers on The Love Guru? Have you told him that you were in the movie? So if you haven't seen the clips, I'm in a bunch of scenes. I'm an extra. I'm a background actor in a bunch of scenes in The Love Guru. And kind of the backstory there was that job I was telling you about with a blonde patch on 969 on MTV 2, Canada. That job was the best. I got that job when I was 23.

And then a year later, one big media company, I was working for Chum in Canada, got bought out by another very big media company, CTV. They merged and they were looking to cut budgets and our show got cut. So like literally we walked into work one day

and my boss was like, hey, pack up what you're doing? Our show just got canceled. And I had to make this decision. Like, what do I do? Do I stay in? Vancouver where I'd only been living for a year. Do I stay in Vancouver where I was just starting to like figure life out and like get

accustomed to things? Or do I go back home? Do I pack up my 1995 Robbins Egg Blue Toyota Corolla and drive the 47 hours back home to move in with my parents and try to figure things out? And that's ultimately what I decided to do. My lease was up at the end of the month. I didn't have a lot of time to decide. And it was ultimately the best move.

But while I was there, I made it my job to find a job because I was unemployed. And it sucked. It sucked so much. My dream job had been taken away from me simply because of, I guess it was budget cuts, but our show was just, it was canceled. And it sucked. So I made it my job every single day to look for work and to apply for all these other TV hosting jobs or reporting jobs or whatever it had happened to be.

And one of my very good friends at the time, Adam Booth, who's still one of my very good friends. He was an aspiring actor and he was always looking for all these acting opportunities. And since I was always in the same spots, like all these job sites and also looking on Craigslist, I came across a listing on Craigslist that was looking for, I should find what the actual listing said, but it basically said that they were looking for, quote, Hollywood types for a big party scene in a movie. So I send it over to him. And he's like, oh, this sounds perfect. He submitted his headshot, he got in. They were like, great, you're going to be part of this big thing. They didn't tell us anything. They didn't say what the movie was. Who was in it? They just said it was a movie.

And then he goes, well, if you're doing, if I'm doing this and you don't have any plans, why don't you do this as well? I was like, oh, great idea. Sure. So I submit up, submitted my stuff. I was also in. So this is amazing. Here I am. I get to be part of this movie with one of my very best friends. And I had no job at the time. So it's like, I'm going to hang out on a movie set. I think it was like a four day. commitment to start and then it ended up turning into like way more. I think I was on that set for like nine or ten days. But I didn't talk to Mike Myers at all. I didn't talk to him at all. Nope. I mean, when you're an extra on a movie set, you are basically a prop that breathes. Like you are at the same

level as like a tree in the background. Like you're on the same level as like one of the chairs in the background except you happen to like breathe. That's, I'm not, I'm not even joking. And I don't mean that disparagingly. Like, You were just a piece of the background that just happens to move. So there is no talking to anybody on that set. But I was also on set with Vern Troyer. I was on set with John Oliver. I was on set with Jessica Alba.

I was on set with Mariska Hargitay. Murska Hargatay. I was on set with Val Kilmer. I mean, all those scenes. If you see a guy in a green shirt with dark hair, that is me. I'm in all those scenes. But so, no, there is no talking to the cast while you're doing that. Like they rehearse and then they bring in the background and you basically just on action have to move and pretend you're talking.

And that's it. Pretend you're laughing, pretending and having a conversation. And I remember like one of the big scenes is a scene where like he walks into the party, the love guru, guru walks into the party. And we're supposed to be like in our own little world having a conversation because we're at the party but also looking over like, oh my gosh, can you believe guru pick us here? This is crazy. So you're having the conversation, but also like looking over. So you'll definitely see that. That scene's actually in the trailer if you go check that out.

But when I, I've only interviewed him once. I interviewed him once for the Pentavarit. It was over Zoom. I didn't really feel like I had the chance to go, hey, Mike, I'm in this movie with you and like trying to over Zoom, show him like, hey, that's me in the green shirt in the background. So I didn't do that. But I was also in a movie called Chloe with Liam Neeson and Amanda Seifred.

and Julianne Moore. And I interviewed Liam Neeson for that movie called The Grey. Remember that movie? I loved that movie. Joe Carnahan directed it. It's such a good movie. The plane crash scene in that movie might be the best plane crash scene in any movie. When I interviewed Liam Neeson for the gray,

one of the official photos from Chloe is Amanda Seifred looking dead in the camera and I'm right behind her. So if you go on IMDB and you look up the movie Chloe, I'm one of the official. photos for that movie. I go in to do the interview with him and I go, of course, you're never going to remember this. But I'm actually in a movie with you. I spent two days on the set of Chloe and I'm sitting right behind you in the scene at the cafe where you and Julianne Moore's character having like that very intense argument. And I show him the picture. It's Amanda Seifred and me. And I show him the picture. And he goes, oh, she's a great actress. Oh, yeah, I just love working with her. and he just totally glazed over the fact that like,

here's me looking like an idiot in the background. And then we just went on with the conversation. But I made a few different movies. I was also recently in Cherry. I'm in a scene with Tom Holland very, very briefly. Someone sent me a screenshot of that. They're like, is this you in Cherry? It's like, yes, that's me in Cherry.

I'm also in a very early episode of suits walking around. This is like LA Night. And L.A. Night's going to be on the show soon, and we kind of like touched on this a little bit. how he did some random stuff in the LA night, you know, multiverse of acting things. There's also a multiverse of CDV acting things.

I'm in an Ohio lottery commercial. I'm in, I can't remember the name of the furniture company. I'm in a furniture commercial. I'm in a Buffalo Wings and Rings commercial. So all of this is out there. But to answer your question, no,

I've not told Mike Meyer, Mike Myers said I was in a movie with him yet. But if there's another chance, and it's an in-person interview with Mike Myers, I will for sure tell Mike Myers that. He grew up like 10, 15 minutes away. I'm from Pickering. He's from Scarborough, which is just the next town over. So there's like that little, I don't know, I feel like there's like a little connection there. Oh, we're already at the last question here. So guys, thank you again for being with me on this. These are some stories I haven't ever told.

So if you're listening on an Ask CVV episode, you're getting this kind of stuff. And you're also getting my take on the wild world of pro wrestling. I see you and your guests drinking F3 energy when you're in the studio. Which one is your favorite flavor? This is from Kimberly underscore 3 underscore 3. I mean, I think tropical theory is my favorite flavor. Original's really good. Original's very sweet. I'm a big sweet fan. You might have heard me talking with Ethan Page, though, about how I had to kick sugar because I felt like I was badly addicted to like sugar and candy and like had this really bad habit. So I like sweet, especially when it doesn't come with like all the sugar. Although I'm also not a fan of like sucralose and all the artificial sweeteners.

So I know there is sucralose and most things that taste sweet that don't have sugar. But tropical theory, number one flavor. I would highly recommend that if you are into energy drinks, go check out F3 Energy, F3Energy.com. Use the code CVV to say 15%. Or if you just want to get it from Amazon, I think it's available. No, it is available for Prime. So if you go to Amazon and type in F3 Energy, you'll see it on there and you'll see all the amazing reviews, which are all very well deserved because F3 Energy is fantastic. I am super grateful for them to be a sponsor this show. And I love what my friend Harrison Rogers is doing. He's the founder of F3 Energy, and he's also the founder of UFL, which is the United Fight League. And they are the only

Fight League in the world that is paying their fighters like a revenue share. They're giving them stocks in the company. And they're also giving them medical benefits. Like it's crazy to me that your job is to get punched in the face. And medical benefits like health coverage isn't like part of that. So big, big shout out to my friend Harrison Rogers for everything that he's doing with UFL and the community that he's building with F3. And if you follow F3 on Twitter, you know what I'm talking about. or if you happen to go on kick, you know what I'm talking about. F3 is building a massive community on there. So there we go. That's a bunch of questions there. There were like, I don't know, way more, 60 or 70 that were submitted. I could only get to this many. I just didn't

want to be like doing it and ask CVV for four hours. I figure like right here at the 50 or so minute mark, that's kind of the sweet spot of these. So if you've got a question for the next one, submit it using the hashtag AskCVV, and we'll see you in two weeks for the next AskCV episode. I'll leave you with this quote from Robert Mansell. A pessimist is one who makes difficulties out of his opportunities. An optimist is one who makes opportunities out of his difficulties. Be great, be grateful.

Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. And go watch The Love Guru and send me screenshots of all the different scenes that you find me in. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today.

No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be?

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.