Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #19 - The Rock Turns Heel, Cody vs. Roman, Scott D'Amore Fired From TNA, WrestleMania XL Kickoff

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Welcome back to another #AskCVV episode! On this one, Chris gives his thoughts on the WrestleMania XL Kickoff, what the main event of WrestleMania 40 will be, will we see Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns or The Rock vs. Roman Reigns, the "We Want Cody" movement, The Rock's heel turn, Scott D'Amore being fired from TNA, why I stopped training to be a pro wrestler, who has the best mustache in the history of pro wrestling and much more. If you have a question that you want answered on the next one, send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV! Quote I'm thinking about: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King Jr. Sponsors: ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv FITBOD: Get 25% off when you use the code INSIGHT at http://fitbod.me/INSIGHT 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 15% 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

Chris. Oh my goodness. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. So good to see you here. Hope you're doing well. Hope you've got big plans for Super Bowl weekend. Welcome to AskCV number 19.

And for those of you keep it score at home. Yes, we did an AskCV episode last week. But, wow, a lot has happened in the last seven days. It started with Smackdown last Friday. culminating with the WrestleMania XL kickoff last night, there was a lot to talk about here. So if you've never joined us

for an Ask CVV episode, it's pretty simple. You send in your questions on social media using that hashtag Ask CVV, and I will get to as many of them as I possibly can here. But it is very important to point out that if you're listening to this right now

and you haven't clicked follow yet, please take a second to click follow on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you're listening. right now. It helps the show so, so much. And as the show keeps getting bigger, the guests will keep getting bigger and better. Like one we've got lined up for next week, I don't want to give too much away, but all I can say is he's a guest you won't be able to see. You might be able to hear him, but you won't be able to see him. And if all goes to plan, I hope I'm not saying too much here,

but if all goes to plan, we've got an hour with this inventive. visible person. And that's going to be a great one. And it's all because of people like you, following the show, leaving a review, leaving a rating, and helping the show to grow. So let's dive into these questions here. I had maybe a half a dozen, 10 questions about the WrestleMania XL kickoff, everything that's happening around WrestleMania and the main event. So we will dive right into that. What did you think of the WrestleMania XL kickoff? What do you think of the WrestleMania XL kickoff? what do you think the main event of WrestleMania will be? So for the better part of the last two years,

we've been hearing finish the story. The key word there being story. And man, what a week of storytelling this has been. If you've listened to my podcast for any length of time, you know what are the biggest things that I talk about when it comes to professional wrestling, when it comes to professional wrestling storylines is patience. And it is something that all of us as wrestling fans lack, myself included.

We all want to jump to conclusions when we see something unfold on a Monday or a Wednesday or a Friday or a Saturday night or whatever it happens to be. We all want to go, what does this mean? What does this mean? And so often, well, all we need to do is just wait till the next raw, wait till the next Smackdown, wait till the next press event like we saw at the WrestleMania XL kickoff to get some answers. And that's exactly what we saw. Let's recap here real quick. Last Friday, Cody comes out. He's cutting this promo with Roman Raines. The Rock's music hits. I think people are very quick to forget

that when the Rock's music hit just seven days ago on Smackdown, the ovation was massive. He was getting cheered by everyone in the building. And then he came out. There was that exchange with Cody. It was weird. It was like, it should have been a handshake. It ended up being more of like the bro handshake, like the arm wrestling like predator handshake there, which I thought was, I don't know, a strange moment because usually in wrestling, it's the, it's the handshake and then possibly pulled into the hug. And then we had the rock and Roman Raines left in the ring. It is important. to point out that the rock has never called out Roman Reins up until this point, up until the point of Smackdown last week. But we see the stare down there. I mean, it seems inevitable, right? It seems

like it's, that's what this is leading to. But still, the rock has mentioned head of the table. Now, we've got the stair down here, but the rock at no point, up to this point, has called out Roman reigns. Everybody online starts going ballistic, which in turn makes Cody an even bigger baby face than he already was. And I think that this was all done intentionally. Again, storytelling. We want Cody becomes one of the top trends in the world day after day. Everybody's talking about it going into the weekend. I can't believe the rock would come in and do this to Cody. This is unbelievable. And then there were some people, myself included, who said, what if this was all done just to make Cody an even bigger baby face, an even bigger underdog, and to make the rock a heel?

What if this was the plan all along? And then we see what happens on Monday. Cody basically saying, oh, yeah, it's going to be, it's not, I don't want this. match happening at WrestleMania. And then the We Want Cody stuff continues. Fast forward to the Rock making an appearance on the Pat McAfee show, essentially turning heel with the hashtag the Cody Cry Babies. They basically cut a promo on all the Cody fans that have been whining and complaining

about this. Classic Rock. Like this was a throwback to Hollywood Rock from 2003. And then we had the WrestleMania. X-L kickoff. And the way that that all unfolded, I feel like this was the story they were looking for all along.

I've seen people call this a pivot. I don't think this was a pivot. I think that this is what the plan was all along. And ever since Triple H has been in charge of the storyline, he really hasn't let us down. And it's funny that just seven days ago, people were like, they're out of touch.

This is a complete oversight. They don't know what they're doing. And I just kept saying, have a little bit of patience. When has Triple H let us down in terms of booking in the last year or so? He hasn't. In fact, Triple H has been, he's been cooking. Upon not intended there, he's been cooking. He's been making some great storylines.

He did it in NXT. He's done it on the main roster. Triple H has not let us down. And I feel like this has been the vision the whole time here. And the funny thing is, as we sit here right now, the first week of February, we still don't really know what the main event of WrestleMania is going to be. Like up in last week, up until 24 hours ago, we thought it was, well, first of all, Cody wins the rumble.

We'll take a back of step here. Cody wins the rumble. It seems obvious. It's going to be Cody and Roman again. That all seems to make sense. The Rock comes in, throws a wrench in the plans. We think for six days, oh my gosh, now it's the Rock versus Roman Reigns. What happens now?

as it stands at this exact second after the WrestleMania XL kickoff, Cody, who's the winner of the Royal Rumble, he gets to decide. So Cody says, hey, it's going to be me and you, Roman. And then everything unfolded. What did the five fingers say to this face? Slap, what a moment. Then the rock interrupting Triple H's promo backstage and dropping all kinds of cuss words that some of them got bleeped out, but a lot of them didn't. It was all brilliant. The Rock has basically turned heel.

I mean, he's essentially turned heel. And some of his best work has been as a heel. I also want to point out, this is a press conference. This is a press event watched by across all platforms because it was streaming on YouTube and Peacock and TikTok across all platforms. Millions of people are watching a press event. Like, I think that if you were to combine all of this. the viewers of this, probably more people watch this than an episode of RAW or an episode of Smackdown. And there wasn't one second of wrestling during that show. It's been just fascinating,

seeing how I think a lot of strings are being pulled behind the scenes here. For all the booze that The Rock was getting over the last week, The Rock was the number one merch seller on WWE shop. That's something that not a lot of people were talking about. I think that WWE was pulling some strings at raw when reports came out that they were passing out the we want Cody signs. Here's what's so interesting about the whole thing. Again, patience. Cody tweeted on Monday, trust me.

That's what he said. He said, trust me. He appreciated the outpouring of support. He appreciated the passion. But he said, trust me. Did people trust him? This was on Monday. Did people trust him?

No. they weren't patient. They didn't take the time to see how this would all unfold. And I feel like we're starting to see how this is going to shape up now. But this is the thing. It's February right now. There's still another pay-per-view event, PLE, in Elimination Chamber, that's coming up between now and WrestleMania.

We don't need to know what the main event of WrestleMania is 55 days out from the main event. I think that that's actually a great thing that like they're keeping us on our toes. I love it. They're keeping us on our toes and we don't know what's going to happen here. I think we've got like four scenarios really, right? We've got Roman versus Cody. We've got the Rock versus Roman. We've got a three-way match between those three people, the Rock, Roman and Cody.

And I think that there's this outside shot here at a four-way match. match. I can't see this actually coming to fruition, but I'll just put it out there that I think there's an outside, very small chance of Rock versus Roman versus Cody versus Seth. All four of them were on stages. This was all kind of unfolding. So like there's definitely a story there. That's not what I think. I do think the Rock's going to wrestle at WrestleMania 40. I don't know how this is going to all shape out, shake out. And that's what I love about it. I really do think that there's a possibility as well, that you could see Roman main event both nights. Maybe he made events the first night against the rock. And then Cody gets the winner of that the next night,

which I would assume is going to be Roman reigns. It's all so interesting. It's all so fascinating. I also want to touch on the fact that at the start of the kickoff show, they showed this highlight package about basically what does WrestleMania mean? What is 40 years of WrestleMania been all about? Did you guys notice that they did not shy away? WWE did not shy away from showing

Daniel Bryan and they did not shy away from showing Edge and they showed the spear off the ladder to Jeff Hardy. So they're showing several AEW people. That was never the case for a long time. And I think you might say, oh, well, how can you talk about the history of WrestleMania without talking

about Daniel Brian and Yesselmania, one of the biggest high spots in the history of pro wrestling being the spear off the ladder. Yeah, I get it. But WWE for the longest time has just been going, oh, you don't work here anymore. Like basically you're excommunicated. Like you exist in the history books, but we're not going to be like advertising the things that you did here. I thought that was a really interesting move. And I think that that, I'm just guessing here, that feels to me like a Triple H move of going, that's part of the history. Those are some of the biggest moments. Let's talk about them. But as it stands right now, again, it's not even the middle of February

yet. This is exciting. And what an exciting time to be a wrestling fan of all wrestling. WWAW, New Japan, TNA, you name it, all of it. A rising tide lifts all ships. And baby, that tide is lifting. So, I'm so excited to see what happens at WrestleMania 40. Obviously, we had huge news with AEW and big business, which I think if you read between the lines, it sure sounds like Mercedes is going to show up in Boston. I mean, I don't think you name an event after someone and they're not going to be there. So, man, there's a lot of exciting stuff going on right now.

And if you're going to be at WrestleMania 40 in Philly, I will see you there. And we are doing our best to try to book a massive guest for a live show the Friday of WrestleMania weekend. It'll be Friday at like 4 p.m. Location, guest, all of that is still to be determined. So I'll keep you posted on that. So we've got a lot in common. Obviously, we both love wrestling and evidently we love great conversations about wrestling.

But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you're not a lot in common, and say that if you're you're like me, you also like to save a dollar or two or maybe 10. And that's been the case since I signed out for Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that fines and cancels your unwanted subscriptions. It also monitors your spending and helps to lower your bills. Rocket Money has over 5 million users, myself included, and they've helped save its members an average of $720 a year with over $500 million in canceles. subscriptions. So yeah, they'll go in and they'll find those subscriptions that you

completely forgot you signed up for and they'll do the hard work of canceling those subscriptions for you and saving you that money. So stop wasting money on things that you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash CVV. That's rocketmoney.com slash CVV. James Mitchell here on Facebook. who says, I want to know if you think the rumors and surprise leaks are helping or hurting wrestling today. Personally, I much prefer being surprised by returns. I remember the surprise return of Stone Cold and The Undertaker, among many others. I know it's the way things are right now, but could you imagine how big the pop for Randy Orton would have been if he wasn't expected back at Survivor Series?

I couldn't agree more with you. I actually think that the way that it was treated at Survivor Series was really interesting because a lot of times these returns are spoiled by just reports online. This one was spoiled. If we're speaking specifically about Randy Orton, that one was spoiled by WWE. Like Randy Orton could have been a massive surprise. And I've been talking about this since I went to Survivor Series in Chicago in November. It was just weird for them on raw to be like, oh, yeah. some our extra our final person in the match he's a somewhat of a snake and his name rhymes with

shmandy smorton and i i would have to guess that they did that because otherwise there would have been this is before c m punk return there would have been cm punk chance throughout the entire match if not throughout the entire night and there were a lot of cm punk chance that was there. I heard them. It was also funny that a lot of those CM Punk chants were met immediately with booze because a lot of people didn't think that it was even possible that CM Punk could come back. But the greatest thing in pro wrestling is that element of surprise. And if you think back to some of the best surprises, I mean, there's a ton of them. But if you think back to some of the best surprises, they're the ones where we had no idea this would be even possible. CM Punk returning a Survivor series

is a huge one. Edge returning at the Royal Rumble, another huge one. The WrestleMania 30 intro with Hogan, then Stone Cold, then the Rock, and it wasn't even rumored that Stone Cold and the Rock would be there. Those are the moments that we live for. And I also love that as a wrestling fan, you can show those moments to someone who's not a wrestling fan, and it just transcends wrestling. I love that. That's one of the things I love the most about wrestling is, you, you know, You don't even have to explain to someone who CM Punk is, why he was away from the business, why he was away from WWE. You just hit play on that video and the crowd reaction, the shots of the people in the crowd

that tells the whole story. And that's what I love. And I think that there's been a lot of amazing surprises over the last, call it, decade or two. I mean, John Cena, 2008 Royal Rumble, there's another great one. CM Punk's just returned to wrestling in AEW. I've talked at length about how I think that that return was so important to set the table for the return that happened at Survivor Series in WWE. Like that's another big one.

Adam Copeland going to AEW, although that was heavily rumored. I think there was still a lot of people that were like, I don't actually think he's going to go there. Boom. Not only is he there. He's there with his WWE music. Like, so yes, I think that. surprises when they can keep them under lock and key. Cody Rhodes,

when he made his WWE return at WrestleMania 38, like those are the moments that I think we as fans live for. So the more of those that we can have, I think the better. Got asked this by a few people, Dustin Wedekind and Ryan Berthiom, Berthiom, my goodness. I'm sorry.

man. My last name gets butchered all the time. Van Vlea, Van Violet. It is Van Vleet. So I'm sorry. Dustin and Ryan asked this on Facebook. What are your thoughts on Scott DeMore being let go by Anthem and TNA after all of his work

to rebuild the brand? I was as shocked as anybody. I felt like that one came out of nowhere. And to be less than a month after the TNA rebrand at Hard to kill, I was also there in Las Vegas. It feels like it's coming out of nowhere, and it's not like there were, to my knowledge, reports out in the last

month or two or three that this was even possible, that this was even rumored, that people were even talking about Scott D'more being fired. That's also really interesting here, that the terminology was fired. It wasn't, it came to terms with his release. It wasn't that he decided to resign, fired. So I would. have to think that over the next handful of weeks, we'll start to learn a little bit more about the full story here, but shocked. And it was so interesting seeing the outpour of love from everybody in TNA. I mean, all the way down. I mean, just go to go to the Instagrams for Instagram profiles for Eric Young or Moose or Josh Alexander, like all the way down the line there,

Santino as well. I mean, everybody, all kinds of love and respect for Scott the person, like friend, and also Scott for what he did for TNA. And I think that we can all agree. TNA wrestling is what it is right now because of the work that Scott D'more has done over the last many years to revive the brand and to have some of the best in-ring wrestling in the world right now. And I get it. You may be allowed. TNA fan. You may have not watched since, I don't know, the Hogan and Bischoff days. You might not have watched since A.J. Stiles was there or since Kurt Engel was there. Tune into just a few matches. Watch hard to kill. Pick literally any match on the hard to kill card, and you will be so

impressed by how great the wrestling is. So I think that this story is far from over, and I'll be very curious to see what happens. Alex Martinez 80 on Instagram says, Hey, Chris, what's been the most challenging part of hosting your own podcast? I think the most challenging part of hosting any podcast is the consistency. So you guys know I do two,

sometimes three episodes a week when I do a Ask CVV episode like this one. So it's interview Tuesday, interview Thursday, every other Friday, ask CVV, except for right now. We've done back-to-back, Ask CVVs. And I feel like if things keep going, the way that they're going right now, we might have to do these every Friday. How would you guys feel about that? This is ask the CVV audience now. If we did ask CVV episodes and we talked about

current storylines and current news with a little bit of content creation and maybe some movie talk and I don't know, pizza talk thrown in, how would you guys feel about that? So the biggest challenge I think is being consistent. And I think a lot of people who have ever started a podcast or who are early on in the process of podcasting, totally understand that. Because when you say to your audience, I'm going to put out an episode every single Thursday, you now are making that commitment that I'm going to do 52 of these in a year, which when you're looking at it week to week, it doesn't seem like a lot of it. Seven days to put this together, record it, put it out there. But then, you know, life happens. Stuff happens. And when you're not making any money and

all you're doing is spending money and spending a ton of time, it starts. to really get difficult. So that's been the most challenging thing is we do about 120-ish episodes a year. And I think one of the most challenging things is constantly finding great guests to have great conversations with, great, you know, like great uplifting conversations and things that I can selfishly learn from myself, like by asking some of these questions. And I think the thing is, it's just difficult, like, to keep that going. And I love it, though.

And I love that you guys always show up. And that's what makes me always show up too. So if you have any ideas for guests, I would love to hear them. Shoot me a message. Shoot me a tweet and let me know. But we've got some big ones on top of the Invisible Man. We've got some big ones lined up. Actually, I'll give you a handful here.

I've already recorded a bunch. So I will let you know who we've recorded interviews with. We've recorded interviews with Johnny Gargano, Top Dala, he's now known as A.J. Francis, his real name, Bobby Rude. He will see an interview with Damien Sandow very soon. O'Shea Jackson, Jr., yes, the actor, Ice Cube's son, yeah, from Straight Outta Compton. O'Shea Jackson Jr., if you don't follow him on Twitter, he is a massive wrestling fan and maybe an even bigger Roman Raines fan. We recorded that interview last week. You won't want to miss that. That is such a good one that's going to be coming up soon. Disco Inferno, we recorded that not long ago. And I think we see a totally different side of Disco Inferno here. And I get that there's a lot of people that feel certain ways about Disco Inferno, but listen to that episode with an open mind because I think you're really going to enjoy that. So these are some of the

episodes that are coming up. If you're not following the show, I hope we gave you a little incentive there to click follow so you don't miss out on any of the episodes that we have coming up. Jordie Noland on Facebook says, what made you want to interview professional wrestlers specifically? Was it just the passion that you had as a fan or is there more to it? I've been so fortunate in my career and I'm so grateful to be able to even say this that I've interviewed some of the biggest stars on the planet. And long story short, I've worked as an entertainment reporter. I've worked as a TV host for most of my career. And it started out, you're interviewing musicians and actors and comedians and directors. And then every once in a while,

WWE or TNA would come to town. And that was really where it began. I remember saying to my boss, 2007, when I did that very first interview with Bobby Lashley, I was working for a show called 969, which aired on Razor, which became MTV to Canada. And it also aired on City TV for all my Canadians out there. WWE was coming to town and I just said in my boss, could we do an interview with a wrestler? And she's like, yeah, of course. We've done that before. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to get to talk to a wrestler and get paid.

Like, I'm going to get paid to interview a wrestler. And that was the interview with Bobby Lashley. He was the ECW champion at the time. Smackdown with ECW was touring in Vancouver, British Columbia, where I was living and working at the time. So it really began as I would interview a bunch of actors, a bunch of musicians, a bunch of comedians and then wrestling would come to town. You'd do an interview with a wrestler once or twice or three or four times a year. And it was just whenever they were in town, that happened to be it.

I moved to Toronto after the Vancouver job, continued to do that, interviewed wrestlers, got a job in Cleveland at WIO, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland. And I continued the same thing there. My news director was like, absolutely, let's bring in these larger than life personalities. And if you go to my YouTube channel, you can check those out. There's interviews on there with Bully Ray and Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jared. This is where I did a bunch of interviews with The Miz and Dolph Ziegler because they're also Cleveland guys and I was living in Cleveland. That's where my YouTube channel really started.

And if you go back to the early days of my YouTube channel, it started in, it started yeah, yes, today. Wow, today was the anniversary of my YouTube channel. I started in 2011. This is my main YouTube channel, the one that's called Chris Van Fleet. If you go way back there, yeah, you'll see those interviews with the wrestlers that I talked about. But you'll also see interviews with people like Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Affleck and Stephen Spielberg. And like the list goes on and on like Jack Black and Kevin Hart, like tons of these huge celebrities.

So it wasn't that I was deciding to interview wrestlers specifically. It's just they kind of fell under the umbrella of wrestling, of energy. entertainment and I'm a big wrestling fan, so I selfishly just wanted to ask them questions that I always want to know the answer to. But in like 2018, I started to go, what if I could go out of my way and like bring, bring my camera to a local independent show? And they've got a big name there. Like, you'll see an interview with Christopher Daniels from an independent show. You'll see an interview with Rhino from an independent show. And that's when I was just like, I've got an audience. And yes, there's lots of celebrity interviews on my YouTube channel,

but also I know that wrestling fans are really excited about these conversations and the fact that I have access to do these interviews. Because if you think back, six, seven, eight years ago, there weren't a ton of people doing wrestling interviews. It was like me, my good friend, Sam Roberts, Peter Rosenberg. Like, they were like the main people that were doing wrestling interviews. So, like, we had the ability to, like, be at the crossroads here. of entertainment and also being a wrestling fan,

and then we had the access through the media to do it, that's what my channel really started to grow when I was going out of my way to do these interviews. 2019, AEW was announced, and I was able to do interviews, like I did the first interview with Chris Jericho, right after he signed with AEW. That was the first interview that he ever did,

talking about why he decided to sign with AEW. That's the interview in the backseat of the car. I did an interview with Tony Kahn, Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, like there were so many A.W interviews at that time, and people were just like, clamoring for something different. If you think back five years ago, people were just like so hungry for something new. And AEDW was announced in January. And their first show wasn't until May, double or nothing. So anything that had any, like any sort of link to A.E.W. was just going bonkers with numbers. Like I was in L.A. I reached out to Jungle Boy. We did an interview together.

I was doing whatever I could. It just, like, tried to, like, I don't know. Let people know who these wrestlers were because I think that they were up to that point. Unless you were a huge indie fan, they were just names. Like, they were just a name on a piece of paper. You didn't, like, really know who they were as a person. So I was hoping to do as many interviews as I could. So still was doing celebrity interviews and still to this day, I'm doing celebrity interviews.

Like, in the last year, man, I've been so fortunate to interview people like, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christian Bale, Julia Roberts, Mahershal Ali, Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawk. Like, just in the last year, it's been amazing. I've been so, so fortunate. Chris Hemsworth, so many of these great interviews. So while I still do a ton of wrestling interviews, and if you've been listening to the show for a long time, you know that we used to have everybody on the show.

And now it's been just wrestlers for about the last year. and as a result, the show has never been bigger. Well, and that's also because you guys keep showing up. So thank you for that. So the answer to your question is, was it just a passion that you had as a fan? Yes, that's like what got me in the door. It was the passion to like make these interviews happen 12 and 13 and 14 plus years ago. And yes, also there is more to it.

And it's like, I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky to be able to get to do what I do. And I'm even luckier that you listen to this. So thank you, Jordy, for the question. Quick pause from this conversation because I need to tell you about mudwater. If you're a coffee drinker, listen up. Mudwater is a coffee alternative made with four functional mushrooms. It has only a fraction of the caffeine of a cup of coffee,

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Go check it out right now. You'll get $20 off when you subscribe at mudwater.com slash CVV. You'll also get a free frother and a sample of their delicious coconut creamer that I love. Go to mudwater.com slash CVV. That's M-U-D-W-T-R.com slash CVV to get $20 off your subscription and your free frother. That's mudwater.com slash CVV. Ben Burnside on Facebook says, why didn't you become a pro wrestler? So I was a backyard wrestler.

There are clips out there of my alter ego, Chris Sharp, Sharp walking, sharp talking, sharp dressing. I say that now, but I was actually never, it's not even a promo I ever cut. I don't know why that's always my go-to line when I talk about Chris Sharp. I never once said that as a backyard wrestler. But Chris Sharp was heavily influenced by

Triple H, kind of mixed with the rock, but like very much a heel. But I was so influenced by Triple H that I would tape my left wrist, and then I would tape my right wrist and right hand like Triple H used to. It was a back-year wrestler. The swan ton bomb was my finishing move.

There are videos of this out there. If you search for just a few seconds, I'm sure you'll find them. Then I did attend wrestling school in Toronto. I went to the squared circle in Toronto. Actually, while I was at the squared circle in Toronto, I was 20 when I went there. Angelina Love was there.

She had already trained. She was in the expert ring. I was in the beginner ring. She was in the advanced ring with some of the other local independent wrestlers from the Toronto area. But yeah, I trained. I trained for several months. This was in the summer between my junior year and no, sophomore year and junior year. I always like mix up those terms because in Canada, you just say first year of university, second year of university.

And now that I've been living in the U.S. for 14 years, I'm like, first of all, it's not called university. Everything's college in the States. That was a big adjustment for me. And then it's not first year, second year. It's freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. So I always make that adjustment. But I trained for about two months. And if you've heard this story, I'll get through relatively quickly here. I was at the crossroads. I was going to wrestling school. It was Tuesday and Thursday nights all day Saturday, all day Sunday. And wrestling school was about 35-ish, 40 minutes from my hometown. So I was driving from Pickering to the wrestling school in Toronto. And then it was time to go back to school that fall. And wrestling school is now going to be an

hour, 10, hour 20, depending on traffic to go from where my school was, Wilford Laurier University, to where a wrestling school was, Toronto. So from Waterloo to Toronto would be an hour 10, 20, 30, something like that, an hour and hour a half. And I just was at this crossroads where I was like, what's the most important thing to me? Because I am such a believer in the phrase, the man who chases two chickens catches none. And I didn't want to just put half of myself into wrestling school, and then half of myself into school school.

I wanted to be able to put all of my effort into one thing or the other. And with two years left of school school, two years left of my communication studies degree, my bachelor of arts degree, I was like, I want to get my degree, and I think wrestling will always be there. And it has. Wrestling has always been there. And I'm so grateful for, you know, The Rock said it best in an interview we did years ago. Sometimes the best things in life are the things that don't happen. If I had followed that path of being a pro wrestler, I don't think that my life would, well, I know my life wouldn't be what it is right now because so many other things would have happened. But I'm just grateful for the things that don't happen, unanswered prayers, if you will, Garth Brooks. And I just knew that wrestling would always be there in some,

former fashion and I could dip my toe into it as a ring announcer, which I've done many times or as an interviewer, backstage interviewer as well. And I'm just, I'm really happy with how it turned out. And also, I'm 40 now. I just turned 40 in May. When I get out of bed in the morning, like, nothing hurts. And I have a lot of friends who are 40 or younger that have been wrestling for their entire career and they can't say the same. So, Yeah, I don't look back on that with any sort of regret. I just look back at it and it's like, I did the thing. I tried the thing.

I was picking it up pretty quickly too. Like I was learning how to bump like first bump. I was like, oh, yeah, I think I figured it out. They were like, yeah, that looks pretty good. Picked up running the ropes pretty quickly. Like I was picking it up all very quickly. But I think one other thing I got to add in here is 2003, the independent wrestling scene wasn't really at all what it is now.

So I feel like I would have, especially in Canada, struggled, 2003, four, five, six, seven, would have really struggled to, like, find my footing and make my character and, like, build up a name for myself because it just wasn't like a lot of that going on. But that is the story of Chris Sharp, the H.C.W. Backyard Wrestling Champion. And Chris Van Fleet, who attended wrestling school briefly, did not finish wrestling school, but still loves wrestling. Tom underscore the Time Machine on Instagram. Let me just take a little sip here of F3 energy.

We're keeping the energy high. We started to show off. Woo! That energy real high. Tom underscore the Time Machine on Instagram says, any chance you could interview Michael Cole. I would love to interview Michael Cole. And I love that he's getting his flowers now.

25 plus years into his career, he's finally getting his flowers. And I just think that for so, long, and it's no fault of his own, for so long, he was just compared to JR. And I think that that's a difficult position to be put in, where JR was the voice of our childhood. And for Michael Cole to come along and to be the other voice, and then, because it was Michael Cole on one show and JR on the other show, for Michael Cole to come in and be the other voice. And then when JR left to be like the replacement for JR, it's tough, right? Because people love J.R.

are, he's a freaking legend, right? It's difficult because Michael Cole has his own style. The thing I love about Michael Cole, and I've said this so many times, I love how real he makes it feel. Like, I love how he treats WWE like it's the NFL or the NBA or Major League Baseball or the NHL. Like, I love that he talks about it like it's a real sport. And I just, that's something I've always appreciated about him. And now that we're putting the camera on him, him as he's shouting these calls during these big moments. I love it. And I think that you got to give a lot of kudos to Pat McAfee for bringing this out of him. Because I think that Cole was very much doing his thing and was very much the goat and people weren't really realizing it. And Pat McAfee brought

just a little bit more out of him. Like if he was, if Michael Cole was a 10 out of 10, he's now like an 11 out of 10. Pat McAfee's just like brought that extra little bit of edge out of him. He's clearly he's having fun again. And I love that. So yes, I would love to have an interview with Michael Cole. An hour would certainly not be enough time. I've met Michael Cole very briefly. Backstage, it was in Miami. I was backstage at a raw. I was doing an interview with Dolph Ziegler. Very, very briefly met him. He was very nice. But I would look forward to having that opportunity to talk to him. And I hope that it happens at some point in time. I hope it does. Most Wanted Wrestling on Instagram says,

What was it like being a guest on Mandy Rose and Tino Sabatelli's podcast? I posted this earlier this week on Instagram. I was a guest on Mandy Rose and Sabby Piscatellis is real name. But Mandy and Sabby's podcast called Power Alphas. And it's relatively new. I think it's been around for a handful of months now. They've already had some huge guests. I mean, those two on their own with the careers that they had Sabby,

both in the NFL and then WWE and then Mandy Rose with the career that she had in WWE. They're big names on their own. I don't know how I was invited to be a guest on their show. But Sabby sent me a message and he's like, hey, any chance you'd want to be a guest on our show? And I'm like, uh, did you send this to the right person? But yes, of course.

I'd love to be a guest. So that one will be coming out. I think it's Monday, they said, Monday or Tuesday of next week. I'm the next guest on their show. And we talked about a ton of stuff. the way that they have this just an amazing mindset when it comes to just life. And we talked a lot about mindset and positivity and just a lot of really good stuff. A lot of stuff I really haven't opened up about before.

And we also talked about content creation because they were like, hey, look, you've been doing this for 500 and something episodes. We're 15 or so in. Like, what kind of advice can you give to us? So it's a great conversation. Go check out the Power Alpha's podcast. Go subscribe to it right now. Go follow it right now.

Subscribe to it on YouTube. Follow it wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can check out that interview. And I think there's a little teaser here. We don't have it planned like as of right now, but I would love to have both of them back on the show. I've interviewed both Sabby and Mandy Rose before. Mani's been on the show twice,

but maybe I have them on together. that'd be fun. They live in South Florida, so maybe next time in South Florida, we have them on together, we have them on separately? I don't know.

I think it would just be great to have them back on. Michael Kellogg on Facebook says, greatest mustache in wrestling history. Well, there's a lot. Let's just,

off the top of my head here, Hulk Hogan, Rick Rood, Mean Gene, Magnum T.A. I'll give you a sneaky one here. I think people forget that Jake the Snake Roberts has a mustache. Like, it's just his mustache isn't like as big and as bold as, say, Rick Rudes. But yeah, Jake the Snake. I mean,

Jake the Snake without a mustache. It just be strange. But Rick Rudes is like just that dark mustache. I think that's one that really stands out for me. And Hulk Hogan, of course, without the mustache that he has, this is a totally different look. Actually, I asked him during our interview, I'm like, when was the last time you shaved your mustache? And he told me a great story about that. So there's there's five great wrestling mustaches for you. Let me sip a little bit more of a, it's have three energy. There we go. Hazus CR 1915 on Instagram says, how do you control your feelings and emotions as a wrestling fan? Well, I don't know if I do. I think that I've gotten better at it over the years, but I remember like in high school and the heart of the attitude era. I remember

like being like pent up with like so much like anger about like the storylines that had happened the night before like wanting to get to school and that Tuesday morning and like talk to my friends Mark or Will who were massive wrestling fans just like spew all this out to them. And it's funny because we look at the attitude era specifically with like these rose color glasses. And it's like not all of it was great. And I think that that should be talked about more often. Of course there was amazing stuff going on at the time. Rock and Austin and the Mr. McMahon character and McFolly and Triple H and Cain and all of it, right? Like, it was amazing. But there were also some beaver cleavage and naked midian. Like, there were some, there were some things that

were going on during that time that were like very questionable. So I wasn't great at controlling my emotions then. I think I've gotten a lot better at just controlling my emotions in general now. And also just realizing, like, this is a television show that is produced for our entertainment. And I think it goes back to the very first question. And the whole thing we talked about at the start of this episode is patience. I think I have, I have a lot more patience now than I had before. I think I'm much more capable of playing the long game, to quote, The Rock in this, in this week and everything he's been talking about.

I think I've been much more patient to go, oh, that thing happened on raw. That's kind of questionable. I wonder where they're going to go with that. And being able to wait a week or two or three or seeing something on dynamite and going, ooh, how is that going to lead up to this pay-per-view? Oh, okay. All right. No, now I see how that's unfolding.

The other really interesting thing about the time that we're living in right now is it doesn't just need to happen on raw, on. dynamite, on Rampage, on Smackdown, on NXT, for it to matter. And we saw that last night with the kickoff show. Like, there's all these other things that happen. Like, they're tying in social media here. They're tying in, like, The Rock being on Pat McAfee's show and cutting essentially a promo during that interview. That stuff all ties in now, which it didn't for so long. So it really just comes down to one word. How do you control your feelings and emotions as wrestling fan, patience. I've just gotten better at going, there's something more to the.

Then I get that it was hard. For a long time, with Vince McMahon in control, I get that it was hard to have patience because we saw so many storylines that just made no sense. I have a lot of faith in what Triple H is doing, if we're speaking specifically about WWE. I have a lot of faith that it's going to work out because it has worked out. He has a great track record. So patience. P. Trujulio. Trujillo.

P. Trujillo underscore 916 on Instagram. What is your greatest accomplishment? Well, that one's easy. That little girl. Our daughter, Logan, that is my greatest accomplishment. There was nothing I will possibly do in my life. That is better than being a father. That's it.

That's simple. That period. That is the end of the answer. Professionally, I think my greatest accomplishment is just that you're listening right now. And you're still listening. We are 565 episodes into the podcast. The YouTube channel has now been around for 13 years today. I started my career as a broadcaster 19 years ago this year.

the fact that we're still doing this and at least one person, you, is listening. That's the greatest accomplishment. That I get to do this every day. And you've heard me say this so many times before. But my definition of success is being excited for what I'm going to do at the start of the day and then being proud of what I've done at the end of the day. And then wake up tomorrow, do it all over again. That's it.

That's it for me. So let's do it again tomorrow. Let's do it again with Tuesday's episode, which as it stands right now, Tuesday's episode is going to be with Damien Sandow. It's a fantastic conversation. Real name Aaron Stevens and the stuff he's been doing in the NWA, amazing. So, yeah. Corbyn Cooper on Instagram says, have you been to South Dakota? I love that we just throwing these random questions here.

No, I have not been to South Dakota. I counted recently, actually. and I have been to 37 states. Not bad for someone who's not American. Not bad for a Canadian who's only been living in the U.S. for 14 years. I've been to 50 states. And I'm sorry, I've not been to 50 states. I've been to 37 of the 50 states.

I don't know why I said that. It's because I'm Googling right now a list of the 50 states. So South Dakota is not one that I've been to. I've also not been to North Dakota. I'll go through the list of states here so that if you live in one of these states, you can invite me to come there and we'll hang out. We'll go alphabetically here. I have been to Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California. I live here.

Colorado. I have not been to Connecticut. I have not been to Delaware. Okay. Florida, I lived in Florida for five years. Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Illinois. Indiana. I have not been to Iowa. Okay. I've been to Kansas. Kentucky. I lived in Kentucky in the Cincinnati area. I lived there for a year. Louisiana. I have not been to Maine. I've been to Maryland, Massachusetts,

Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri. I've been there. Montana. I have not been to Nebraska. Nevada. I have not been to Nebraska. Nevada. I have not been to New Jersey. I have not been to New Jersey. New Hampshire. New Jersey. My wife is from New Jersey. I've been in New Jersey. I mean, we might, I haven't even said this publicly yet. We might even move back to New Jersey. Everything changes when you have a kid. If you're from New Jersey, shoot me a message. This is not happening in the next month or two or three or five, but when you have a little girl and your family, my family lives in Canada, her family lives in New Jersey, we have no family in California. We have a ton of great friends and some beautiful neighbor.

We're the best neighbors, but we do not have family here. So we may move back to New Jersey. Who knows? I've been to New Mexico, New York, North Carolina. I've not been to North Dakota. Ohio, of course, I lived in Ohio for five years. Cleveland. Love it.

I have been to Oklahoma. I have been to Oregon, Pennsylvania. I have not been to Rhode Island, which is neither a road nor an island. I have been to South Carolina. I have not been to South Dakota, which is, of course, the original. question. I've been to Tennessee, Texas. I have not been to Utah. I have been to Vermont and a lot of fishing in Lake Champlain in the Vermont, New York area there. Love Vermont. I have been to Virginia. I've been to Washington. I've been to West Virginia. Uh, yes, I've been to Wisconsin. We recorded interviews there.

We recorded the interview with Damien Sandow in Wisconsin. We also recorded the interview with Al Snow and EC3 there. Wyoming. I have not been to And then the DC, I have been to DC. So I think I said I've been to 37 states. I've clearly listed far more than I've been to. I've not been to South Dakota. I have always wanted to see Mount Rushmore. It's on my bucket list.

And speaking of things on the bucket list and like just touring around the U.S., we went to Hoover Dam last week. We were in Las Vegas for the weekend. And Hoover Dam is like shockingly close. It was like a half hour drive from the Airbnb that we were staying at. It's like less than an hour drive from the strip. We went to Hoover Dam. Fascinating. It's unbelievable how they were able to put all of that together. It truly is a wonder of engineering. So South Dakota is on the list. I'd love to come see you there, Corbyn, when I'm in South

Dakota, checking out Mount Rushmore. And oh my goodness. Okay, the final question here from my buddy, Zeus.com. My very talented friend who is a videographer, and insanely talented editor. A lot of the videos that you see on my channel, a lot of the vlogs, he edited. Go check out the bungee jumping vlog. Go check out the first time we saw the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas. He put together,

go check out any of the workout videos that I did with EC3 or with Mike O'Hern and Billy Gunn with carrying cross. Don't tell me you don't have four more reps in you. That was terrible. It was like a two out of ten impression. Zeus, editor. all those together. Give him a follow on Instagram, Zeus.dom. He says, what does the future of insight look like for the next three to five years? Let's just keep getting bigger. I say at the start

of every episode, thank you for being here and thank you for making Insight, one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. It's just a matter of time. As you guys continue to show up and as the guests continue to keep getting bigger, it's just a matter of time before we are the number one wrestling podcast in the world. So three to five years, that might be too much time. I feel like this is something that could happen in the next three to five months, maybe, possibly. But I mean, we're 565 episodes in. I can't wait for episode number 1,000 and then 1,000 and then 1,000 and then 2,000 and all that, everything beyond that. I just, I appreciate you guys so much. And that's not just something that I say because it sounds nice to say thank you and to say.

oh, gratitude, three things I'm grateful for. I am truly so grateful for all of you guys, whether you listen to the podcast or you watch these clips on TikTok or YouTube shorts or you watch the full interviews on YouTube or you click on the silly memes that I share on YouTube or Facebook. I just appreciate you guys. This has been such an incredibly fun run. and we're really just getting started. So three to five years from now,

we just keep getting bigger. And every single day, we are answering that call of, am I excited for what I'm going to do today? And am I proud of what I've done at the end of the day? And look, I know there's a lot of people listen to this where that sounds crazy. Every single day you're excited.

That is, what is wrong with you? And I get that. I, and I understand how very, very fortunate I am to do this. I also understand that, like, I moved to another country to chase after this dream and chase after these opportunities. And it's led me from Peterborough, Ontario, to Vancouver, to Toronto, to Cleveland, to Miami, to buying a house in Fort Lauderdale, to northern Kentucky and being in the Cincinnati area, to Los Angeles, to now being in Orange County.

I lived in all these places over the last 18, 19 years. It's been a lot, right? It's been a long journey. But what I'm getting at here is if there's something that lights you up, whether that's playing the guitar or it's editing videos, or it's singing, or it's working out, whatever it is, make sure to sprinkle that into your life, if not every day. day every week. Because if you are passionate about playing the guitar and the guitar gets put away in the closet and that thing that lights you up isn't there anymore, that dream, that passion does die.

So whatever it is, however busy you are in your life, make time for those things that do get you excited. And I'm not saying that you're going to be excited for the day ahead of you every single day, but there should be some part of every day that you are excited about. Maybe it's watching Dynamite on Wednesday night. Maybe it's watching Raw on Monday night or NXT on Tuesday, whatever it happens to be. Maybe it's going to see a certain movie franchise or maybe it's watching a TV show. Maybe it's writing. I don't know.

Whatever it happens to be, whatever that thing is that you're passionate about that really lights you up, that thing that when you talk about it to other people, they can see that fire in your eyes. They can see that smile growing in your face. Make sure that that's a part of your every day or your every week. That's what a long answer that was to come from a question about. What does the future of insight look like for the next three to five years? Let's just keep growing. And month after month, the show keeps getting bigger because you guys keep showing up here. And I am so grateful for that. Three things I'm grateful for as we wrap up this episode. I'm grateful for you. I'm grateful for you being here right now listening to an Ask CVV episode.

that's how I know you are a real fan, so I appreciate you. Thank you. Grateful for my family. These are, of course, never in any order. Grateful for my family. They're the best. And I'm grateful for our health. And my health, your health, the health of the people that I love. I'm grateful for that. And we will wrap this up with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. And this actually kind of ties in what we were just talking about. Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. Enjoy the Super Bowl. If you're watching it on Sunday, we will see you on the next one for some more insight. 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.