Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #21 - Sting's Last Match, John Cena Interview, Okada Is All Elite, Will LA Knight Be Champ?

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Welcome back to another #AskCVV episode! On this one Chris talks about Sting's last match at AEW Revolution and his legacy as a whole, whether or not LA Knight will win a Championship in WWE, thoughts on Okada joining AEW, favorite food Mount Rushmore, how the recent John Cena interview came together, favorite John Cena match ever, The Rock's most underappreciated catchphrases and 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: "You need goals that give you goosebumps. Friends that give you energy. Lovers that give you butterflies. And a mission that makes it impossible to sleep and irresistible to wake up. It feels like fireworks inside your mind. So, use excitement as a compass. It shows you exactly where to go." -@zachpogrob Sponsors: BABBEL: Learn a new language and get 50% off your lifetime Babbel subscription at http://babbel.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV 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 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 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% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! 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. Welcome back to another one. Here on Insight, I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Man, that Downstate song, it just gets me fired up every time I hear it, and it gets stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I don't know if it's the same for you, but for the rest of the day, it's Van Fleet.

So shout out to Downstate for absolutely crushing it with that. Thank you for being here, and thank you for making Insight. one of the top wrestling podcast on the planet. It's been a big week. I mean, it's been a big year so far. But big week, we had John Sina, Maxine Dupree. Big year.

We also had Chelsea Green, Lance Storm, Johnny Gargano, Tori Wilson, Bobby Rood, L.A. Knight, just to name a few. And we're just getting started here. I mean, it's only March. And wow, clock day is this weekend. Daylight saving time. I like to call it clock day. But yes, the official term is daylight saving time.

We spring ahead. I don't know why I brought that up, but it just, I feel like that kind of sets the tone for where we are in the year. Oh, it's not even daylight saving time yet. We're really just getting started here. But welcome to Ask CVV number 21. This is a special one for me. 21's my favorite number.

It was my baseball number for many years. Baseball was the main sport that I played. I played from the age of like four, started playing T-ball at four till about 24. I still play a little bit here and there. I was in a softball league last year in Santa Monica. That was so much fun. It just didn't work out with the timing this year. Also grew up playing hockey, of course.

You know, you grew up in Canada. You're playing, you're on skates like super early. I played hockey from the age of six until into college. Now I'm just going to run down the list of all the sports that I played. I was an amateur wrestler in high school, and that, of course, led into the backyard wrestling that I did. Chris Sharp, the two-time HCW champion.

I posted a video recently of some of my backyard wrestling highlights. Go check that out on TikTok or Instagram. It's also on Facebook. I played volleyball and basketball in elementary school. I was also really big in a track and field. Like, I was fast until, like, high school. I'm not saying I wasn't fast. after that, but just people were a lot faster than me.

But I was like 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash. I had like one, like grade four, five, six, seven. I was one in a mall, eight, nine. No, not nine because I was high school. Also cross country, I've gone down quite the rabbit hole here. All of that is to say. The number 21 is my favorite number. And if this is your first ever, ask CVV episode, it's simple.

It's sending your questions. Using that hashtag, Ask CVV. on social media, and it can be about anything. We will get to as many of them as we can. First one here, we will kick it off with Chris Davis. And I've said it before. I will say it again. I've never met a Chris that I don't like.

He actually emailed this in. You can send me an email CVV at chris fanfleet.com. He says, I was wondering, what are your thoughts on why more people don't have sting on their Mount Rushmore? He's the icon. In my mind, he's the face of WCW during their biggest peak. He was considered the best wrestler to never compete in WWE until he did. But I've never heard him mention on anyone's Mount Rushmore.

Do you think it's because he was barely in WWE? What are your thoughts? Well, here's my thoughts. If you were a WCW fan in the 90s, he's on your Mount Rushmore. You're very aware of how good Sting is and was. And I just think that there's a lot of people who maybe didn't watch WCW then, or they were like, you know, they were big WVE fans and he didn't go right to WVW. like so many other people did when WCW went under,

and maybe they weren't watching TNA. So they're really their only memories of Sting, the only work they really know of Sting, is from his time in WCW. Or his time in WWE, which is only four matches. And that's a big thing that I don't think gets talked about a lot. Sting only had four matches in WWE, and I'll run through them for you.

Triple H defeats Sting, WrestleMania 31. Sting defeats the big show. by DQ, a match that lasted not even two minutes. Then John Sina and Sting defeat Seth Rollins in The Big Show on Raw. And then it was on the same Raw, by the way. And then we've got the Seth Rawlins defeating Sting, 90 Champions 2015, and that's it. And I think for a lot of people that are just WWE fans, and we've talked about this before, there's a big distinction between being a wrestling fan and you watch it all.

And you're a fan of everything and you're a WWE fan and you've maybe never seen anything that TNA has ever done or WCW or Impact. I guess it's TNA now or New Japan. And it's just WWE. So that's the world that you operate in. So for those people, Sting's only had four matches that they've ever seen and they haven't gone back and watched anything else. Maybe they haven't seen any of his work in AEW. So I think that that would have to be it. But when you look at the totality of Sting's career, my goodness, there's no question here that he's one of the greats.

But there's, I think it's just the fact that there was, there's a gap there too, right? Like the night of champions, the final WCW Monday night, Nitro is March 26th of 2001. And then we don't see Sting on TV again until like two, yeah, two years later. when he starts doing some stuff with TNA. So I think that that's it. Like, it has to come down to that because Sting is fantastic. And he still was showing it in AEW recently. So I think that that's it.

I think it just, it's the totality of his career for sure. One of the all-time greats. But I think for a lot of just WWE fans, him not coming over to WWE in 2002, It just shifts the perspective. It wasn't in WWE till more than a decade later. And then James Hunter here on Facebook kind of has a question bouncing off of that. So thank you for that question, Chris. Do you think Sting's retirement storyline is the greatest retirement storyline in wrestling history?

I love the long storyline buildup, the Bucks playing the arrogant heels, getting his sons involved, and then getting over. It's certainly up there. But I think that the match with Rick Flair and Sean Michaels, that's the greatest retirement storyline ever. Of course, that is tainted by the fact that Rick Flair then had unretired and retired again. They had many more matches and then retired again and had his last match last year. But in just terms of a retirement storyline, a retirement match, and I get it, there's an a

asterisk there because while it was a retirement match, it was not Rick Flair's final match. But I think that's the best one. I mean, that image, it's ingrained in everybody's head. I love you. I'm sorry, I love you. And then the sweet chin music, one, two, three, Sean Michaels grabbing his head. That's the best one. Like, there's no question about that.

I think that the Sting one is definitely up there for sure. And that match was great, too. I think there's a lot of people who may not have watched AEW Revolution, and you missed out because the pay-per-view was fantastic, top to bottom. But that match was good. And we said it on the last ask CVV that he was going to bring it. Sting was going to bring it. It wasn't just going to be some boring retirement match, like just some boring match. Like, he brought it and he gave us a match that we'll remember.

And I love the fact that he went out on top. I know it's a big thing in wrestling to put somebody over on your way out, but the bucks didn't need to be put over. The bucks are already over. Say what you want about the young bucks. They're over. So them going out on top, Darby Allen and Sting, I love that move. My only real issue with that match is for the people who didn't watch Sting's retirement match, didn't watch the full thing.

You'd only saw some clips online, right? And what's the clip from Revolution that kept getting replayed? Sting wasn't even in it. And that's my biggest problem. I don't have a problem with Darby Allen. I love Darby Allen. I don't have a problem with the spot that Darby Allen did. I've known Darby for years.

We go back to when we did independent wrestling shows together. I was a ring announcer for him at Blueprint Pro Wrestling in Deerfield Beach, Florida, and 2019. Love Darby. And I love the work that he does. Every time he goes out there, he does something that gets people talking. I just think that that particular spot in that match took away from what the focus of the match was. And the focus of the match was, this is Sting's last match. Stings an icon, a legend, this is his final match.

And the clip that keeps getting replayed from Revolution is Darby Allen jumping off the ladder through the glass and has nothing to do with Sting. And that's my only problem. I don't have a problem with the spot at all. That spot in any other match is fantastic. I just think that this is Sting's last match and the highlights of that match should be the things that Sting did. That's just my opinion here. loved the stuff with getting his sons involved. My goodness, do they look a lot like him?

Wow, that was so cool. It was cool seeing the comments from people being like, are those his actual sons? Yeah, those are his actual sons? Are those the, is that the actual gear that Sting wore? Yeah, that's the actual gear that Sting wore. Like, that was his actual stuff. So I loved the Sting storyline.

I love the fact that he's in his 60s and still like going for it. Like these weren't slow-paced matches. Like, he was going for it. And there's some people that we see that are in their 30s or 40s that aren't moving as well as Stings moving in the ring at the age that he's at. So I love that. And I just, I would urge you that if you haven't watched Revolution,

go check it out. That match that Will Osprey had was great. And if you've never seen Will Osprey, Russell, I love the fact that he's in AEW now. Like I know he was signed months ago, but he was finishing out his contract in New Japan. Now he's in AEW, and he just puts on bangers. Every single match is so good.

So that's one. Just watch the card. Just go check it out instead of just relying on a handful of clips that you'll see online. This episode is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Growing up, cereal was one of the best parts of being a kid. I wouldn't just eat it for breakfast. I would eat it for lunch or dinner or, you know, that meal before bed. But as I got older, I would.

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I think we can all agree that wrestling is hotter now than perhaps has ever been. wrestling is certainly hotter now that it's been in the last 20 years. And the Rock said it recently, and it's true. Wrestling's cool again. Wrestling's hot again. It's funny how cool and hot are both opposites, but also mean the same thing in this. And I think that WW wouldn't be in the spot that it's in right now if it wasn't for AEW coming around in 2019. A rising tide lifts all ships.

and the fact that AEW came around and forced WWE's hand, forced them to change things up. I think that that's a big thing that perhaps maybe doesn't get talked about right now. Because for years, when WCW went under and ECW went bankrupt, WWE was able to do whatever they wanted to do because, one, there was nowhere else for the other wrestlers to go and earn the same amount of money that they could make in WWE.

There was a period of time, of course, in TNA where they were paying a lot of money. That was great. There was a very brief period of time when TNA was going head to head with WWE on Monday nights. But there was a long period of time when WVE was able to do what they wanted.

So one, the rest was had nowhere else to go. And two, you didn't early have a choice of anything else to watch on those days of the week. So I think that while they serve two very different audiences, and AEW's been clear about this since the beginning, they want to be the alternative, and they certainly are the alternative.

And whether you are an AEW fan or a WW fan, or you like to watch it all, there's certainly a product that both of them know their audience, and both of them are putting out a product that their audience appreciates. And that's where I think a lot of the tribalism comes in, right? because the two shows are different. And I think they're different for a reason because they're appealing to the audiences that they have.

So that's why I think some A.W fans don't like WWE and vice versa. Some WVE fans don't like AED because they're made for different audiences. But my point blank answer to your question is, yeah, it's competition. And I think that everything's competition. I mean, there's been talk about WWE moving to a different day because on Mondays for a good chunk of the year,

they're competing and losing against Monday night football. And I don't know if anybody would go, oh, Monday night football is competition. Well, if you're just competing for eyeballs, then yeah, it is competition. If your numbers go down September to January because there's Monday night football on in those nights, then yeah, I'd say that's competition in a certain way.

So I just love the era there. we're in right now where we've got options on every, almost every day of the week. And it's the buffet. I've said this so many times, but it's so true. We're living in a time right now where there's the buffet. And I think there's a lot of people that would rather argue about what kind of soup they have out there, rather than looking at the entire buffet and going, oh, my gosh, if we just look down this buffet, they've got T-bone steaks and crab legs.

And sure, I can put up with the breadsticks here or the salad here or those weird red jello cubes that it's funny that they're on so many buffets for whatever reason. If there is an actual reason, please let me know. But I love that there's a little bit of something for everyone. I don't believe there's a perfect wrestling show out there from start to finish. Because some matches appeal to fans that like certain things and other matches appeal to fans that like a different type of thing. And I think that that's awesome. And I love that this is the time that we're in right now. And it's only continuing to get hotter.

Name Man on Instagram says, thoughts on Okada being all elite. I love it. And there's a lot of people who might know who he is, but have never seen any of his matches because you're just not familiar with New Japan. You just don't watch New Japan. I love that this will get a chance.

to show off the rainmaker's talents to the American audience. So if you're not familiar with who he is at all, or you're not familiar with his body of work, you're about to be. And there's some great dream matches that we have on tap now. And a lot of these matches have happened before, but they haven't happened in front of a U.S. audience or a North American audience, if you will.

So the fact that this really sets up, I mean, we can have, Okada and Osprey, they're going to put on some incredible matches. Okada and Jericho, Okada and Brian Danielson. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. So I'm excited for it. And I love that he turned a heel, too. Like comes out, the crowd is cheering for him.

Oh, my goodness, has he aligned himself with the elite? This story, my friends, this has legs. So I'm excited. Hulk a Stingiac, 0.5. 080 on Instagram. What do you think about the bandwagon wrestling fans that just started watching wrestling over the last few months?

I'm a big fan of that. I mean, it's cool because if you think about it, there's been a long time where you're talking wrestling with other people who've been wrestling fans for years, decades, right? This is the first time in a long time, at least for me, where I'm meeting new wrestling fans. like that hasn't happened for me in a long time or you'll get those people who relapsed fans like maybe they watched during the attitude error maybe they got back into it during the pipe bomb

but now they're like hitting you up and they're like did i hear the rock is back yeah i know the rock's back and he's a bad guy what i think it's amazing and i i know there's people who have problems with just bandwagon fans in general, right? Like the chiefs start getting good or the Golden State Warriors start building their dynasty and like you get these people coming out of the woodwork and like they're buying Steph Curry jerseys or now they like Travis Kelsey

and like I've never had a problem with that. I think the more the merrier. But I had a friend who he was a massive Leafs fan, like huge Leafs fan, like watched every game, like wouldn't hang out with us on Saturdays because he had to watch the Leafs. games, hockey night in Canada. And if he talked to somebody else who was like talking Leaves or like wearing a Leafs jersey,

one of the first questions he would ask would be like, yeah, what was the record last year? Like, oh, I'm a big Leaves fan. Oh, yeah, really? What was their record last year? And if they had no idea and they couldn't like rattle it off, he'd be like, yeah, you're not a real fan. And I never play in that world of like, you're a hardcore fan or you're not a real fan or you're a bandwagon fan. I don't care, especially when it comes to wrestling.

Like, I think it's amazing. And I want wrestling to continue to grow in the way that it's growing right now. Like you always hear this in UFC of like, oh, you're just a casual. So, who cares if that person's just a casual? They're watching the product. They're enjoying the entertainment of it. And I don't think that you need to know, like, you don't need to be able to list off the last 12 main events at WrestleMania

to be considered like a quote unquote real fan. If you want to tune in to raw or dynamite or collision or smack or impact or any of them, great. You are welcome to chat wrestling with me. We are now friends. It's like that scene from stepbrothers. Did we just become best friends? Yep.

Kellam Sean Leahy on Facebook says, after all this time, do you still get starstruck? If so, who's made you the most nervous or excited? I don't know if it's starstruck because a long time ago, my career, I realized that these are just other humans. These are just other humans who had a big goal, a big dream, and they chased after it. And they did whatever they could to work towards that a little bit every single day. And now they're in the position that they're in right now, whether that's as an actor or a wrestler or an athlete or a comedian or a director, whatever it happens

to be. So I've always just approached these conversations as simply that, just a conversation. Just a conversation with somebody else who's, you know, absolutely crushing it in their career. What I run into now is when there's a really big one. Like recently, obviously, the John Sine interview earlier this week, or the interviews I've done with The Rock, or I interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. With some of those really big ones, Steven Spielberg is another one that comes to mind. I think the nervousness comes in for me of like, oh, I only have this set amount of time. And in that set amount of time, can I ask the questions that will generate interesting

responses? So it's almost like the pressure that I'm now putting on myself. Like, oh my gosh, I only have five minutes with Arnold Schwarzenegger. How can we make this the best five minutes possible? That's where the nervousness for me comes from. of the idea of like, let's just try to make this the best thing that we can make it. So it's not like nervous of like, oh my gosh, I'm meeting so and so. It's like, can we make this awesome? And will the conversation flow?

Like, can we ask a great opening question that will then lead to a great second question and so on? So I think that's really what it is for me. Noel Dombrovsky on Facebook says, will L.A. Knight ever get the push that he deserves, at least as U.S. champion. I think there's no question that at some point this year, he will hold gold. I would have to think it's the U.S. championship.

And then I think that that leads from there to the World Heavyweight Championship. I just think that if L.A. Knight retires whenever that happens to be, because the guy looks great, he moves great. I think he could be doing this for another 10 plus years. If he doesn't win a world championship in WWE, that'll just be such a huge misstep.

It's obviously not talked about enough that he is a former world champion two times in TNA. That doesn't seem to ever get brought up enough. So I appreciate, like to bring it up a lot that people are like, oh, man, he should be a world champion. Well, he was a world champion. but he should be a world champion again. And I agree with that for sure.

So I think U.S. champion before the end of the year, I think world champion sometime in the next two years. Jacob underscore 1017 on Instagram says, after this John Sina interview, who would be your next dream guest? I got to say, I was just so grateful to be able to spend that time with John Sina. That's our fifth interview together. You can go back on my YouTube channel and check out the other ones.

They're not as long, but he drops a whole lot of wisdom in all of them. The first one was for, remember he hosted a show called American Grit? And then I did another one with him for Fast and Furious Nine. Then I did one with him for Bumblebee. And actually when I did the one with him for Bumblebee, that was where I asked him like, you know,

you called out The Rock for only being a part-time or, you're a part-timer now. Like, what do you, what would you say to that? He's like, oh, you're absolutely right. And he apologized to the rock. That clip went like,

I think you got like 20 or 30 million views. So I'm just saying that because you might have seen that clip. And I did the interview with him during WrestleMania 35, where he kept giving me more time. And then there was this interview that we ran on Tuesday where, again, he gave me more time. Like, he's the best. And I, he's just,

he's very grounded. in who he is and super self-aware of the position that he's in. And I appreciate. I just appreciate the time that he gave me. So then I think the next dream guest would be, I've interviewed the Rock, you know, already 10 times, not that I'm counting. But I think the next dream guest would be a long form interview with the Rock,

like an hour plus with the Rock. I've interviewed Dave Batista before, but a long-form interview with Batista, like an hour plus with Batista, which I think, cross your fingers for me, I think might be possible at some. some point this year. So, I mean, we'll see. We'd love to make that one happen. I haven't interviewed Sean Michaels. I would love to do an interview in person with Sean Michaels and just pick his brain, like see how, like he has, what a career, right? And what a career is still having right now.

And he's changing people's lives in NXT. Brett Hart would be another great one. I mean, the list goes on. Randy Orton, I haven't interviewed before. I haven't met before. That's another big one and AJ Stiles. I would love an interview with AJ Stiles before he finally hangs him up in WWE, whenever that would happen to be. So, I don't know, you said who's my next dream guest?

That there's a whole bunch there that I just listed off. Squidwardian on Instagram says, congrats on the John Sina interview. I loved it. Thank you for so much. It's very kind. What is your favorite Sina match? I'm going to go with the cliche answer

here. Money in the bank, 2011, John Sina, C.M. Punk. I think you can make a really strong argument that that was the most important match of C.M. Punk's career. And just the crowd reaction from that, from the second that, like, the music hits, the loud cheers for C.M. Punk. The very loud booze for John Sina. And that matches, it's a Dave Meltzer five-star match, which I think was the first Dave Meltzer five-star match. and I think in like 15 years. Don't quote me on that,

but you can look it up. I guess I could look it up, but I love that match. So that's the one for me. I think there's a lot of great scene of matches, but the storytelling there, the crowd reaction there, the end of that match,

that's the one for me. Andrew G-G-G-G-H-L-I-N-G-L-N-G. on Facebook. Who has been your favorite interview of 20, 24 so far? Yeah, it's got to be John Cena. And I think it's going to be hard to top that. And I genuinely meant it when I said at the end of that interview. Like, I've been in broadcasting since 2005.

I'm so grateful to say that I've interviewed some of the biggest names on the planet. And that was my favorite interview. So it's going to take a lot to top that one. So not only is that my favorite interview of 2020. 24. That's my favorite interview, period. I mean, at least up to right now. Like, that's an interview that I think there'll be little nuggets from it that I'll go back and rewatch, like, there's just so many, there are just so many great pieces of wisdom there that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. Scott Jackson on Facebook says, do you get autographs from wrestlers and celebrities that you do interviews with?

not, not usually. But over the last few years, I've been getting signed eight by tens that I'm now hanging in my office that I'm sitting in right now. Signed eight by tens of like some of the biggest wrestlers. That's just some of the biggest stars. So I have only asked for a handful of autographs ever.

I have a Hulkogan autograph that I'm looking at right now. John Sina signed an 8x10 and wrote some very nice words on there for me. I also have Hulk Hogan signed a WrestleMania 18 poster because I was there. I have the poster. My ticket is in the corner of that. I got to get the rock to sign that at some point. So I have Hogan's signature on the one side. And fun fact, if it's a photo of Hulk Hogan as Hulk Hogan, he will sign at Hulk Hogan.

The Resslemania 18 poster, he was Hollen. Hollywood Hogan. So he signed it as Hollywood Hogan. So how cool is that, right? I also have a Rick Flair autographed boot. I have the red boot. He signed it. Rick Flair, 16X. And then I have a few other just like Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time. I have the Rocks autograph. I do have the Rocks autograph on a magazine cover from the first interview that we did in person back in 2012. But like I said, Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time. I talk about it at great length. If you haven't heard me talk about before, in a nutshell, not only is the movie beautifully written and it's a great storyline and there's so many funny moments in it, but it's a story reminding us that moments in life matter. And like if this thing doesn't happen, then that thing doesn't happen, which leads to all this other stuff. I love that. I love that butterfly effect that this has to happen for that to happen. You know, stopping at this red light could change the rest of your life. You could meet your husband or wife as a result of this. And that's fascinating to me. So I have an autographed out-of-time

plate that is signed by Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox. And I also have a Muhammad Ali autograph. So that's it. I just have a handful of them. And I think there'll be some others. Like if I interview Stone Cold, probably get, that'll be an autograph I'll get. And Batista. But just a handful of them. Just a, just a few as I look around the office. I should probably, maybe I should give an office tour at some point. because I also have this one part of the wall here where it's some of my favorite moments, like some of the biggest people I've interviewed

or some of my favorite moments, like I took batting practice at Marlins Park. Again, I was talking about playing baseball growing up. I did a TV segment when I was working for WSVN, Channel 7 in Miami, where I got to take batting practice. And I made a jokingly made a bet that if I could hit one out, I would get to start for the,

Marlins that night. Needless to say, I did not hit a home run and batting practice. I came close. I like hit the warning tracks. They were probably getting a little bit nervous there. But I've also got like, you know, I did a TV segment where I caught a 480 pound Goliath Gruper. And there's like photos of like me interviewing Tom Cruise, me interviewing Chuck Liddell.

There's an interview where I was there with Kevin Hart, The Rock, and Jack Black, all at once in Hawaii. There's a photo of like the first time I met DDP and we've gone on to become friends. But the first time I met him when he tried to break into my hotel room. And that's a great story. If you haven't heard it, just go look up the clip on YouTube. It's amazing. I should do an office tour to kind of like show you guys around.

It's not like it's a huge room or anything. It's a little messy right now or else maybe I would do that. But just to show you guys. And actually one of the things I'm looking at right now, I have a white person. board in here. And on October 21st, 2023, I had 353,808 subscribers on the CVV clips channel. And I wrote on there that my goal was to get a million subscribers on the CVV clips channel by my birthday in 2025. And that's a pretty lofty goal. I'm basically saying that in, that would be a year and a half, right, year and a half? Yeah, year and a half. I'd be a year and a half. I

be, I would somehow get 650,000 subscribers. But as we sit here right now, the CVV clips channel has 528,553 subscribers. So since October, that channel has gained 170,000 subscribers. I hope that you're one of them. And if you're not, honestly,

it would mean so much to me if you hit follow or hit subscribe on there. It kind of blows my mind because there's 528,000 subscribers. I'm so grateful for each and every one of them. But the channel as a whole has, I'm going to pull up the number, it's like 750 million views. So almost a billion views, three quarters of a billion views and just barely half a million subscribers.

So it's funny how like the two don't, I don't know. funny how many people watch but don't subscribe. That's always been a strange thing for me to wrap my head around. Like, how can almost a billion people watch these videos or a billion views? I know it's a lot of people rewatching the videos, but the amount of people that watch videos but don't subscribe, it's honestly the most important thing you could do to support a creator. And I know that like there's ads. That's great. Go please. Go support our sponsors. Use the code CVV on everything. Please. And click. Even if you're not, going to buy something, just go to the website.

Like, it would mean so much to go to like rocketmoney.com slash CVV or roan.com slash CVV. But, and then if your favorite creator has a Patreon, go support them. It's huge. But really the biggest thing you can do, and everybody is capable of doing this, just hit subscribe. Like, it's such a huge thing. And I don't know why people think that they have like this finite number of subscriptions to give out or this finite number of subscriptions to give out or this fine.

number of likes to give out. You have literally an endless amount. You can subscribe to a million channels a day. You could like a million videos a day. And your algorithm's not going to be messed up. I think that's a big argument that a lot of people try to make. Oh, if I like your video, then I'm just going to be showing your videos. The algorithm knows you're watching these videos.

They're going to show them to you regardless. So why not support the people on the other side of that who are putting in the time and the effort and all of the work into making that content by doing something that takes you no effort, no time, and most importantly, no money. So I went off on a bit of a tangent there talking about the tour of the office that I have here. But yeah, just please, please hit follow, hit subscribe. I know we will get to a million subscribers on the CVV clips channel. And I imagine that It will happen before my birthday in 2025, but it will happen a lot faster

with people like you supporting the show. So, thank you, Scott Jackson, for that question that ended up giving us this long response. Potato-Nado 29 on Instagram says, will you interview Seth Rollins? I have interviewed Seth Rollins three times. I think the last interview

we did was 10 years ago, though. 2014, I was still working in Cleveland at the time. But you can find those three interviews on my YouTube channel. I would love to interview him again now, because the visionary Seth Rollins that we have now is a very different version of him than what we saw when he was a member of the Shield. So go check those out.

They're not nearly as long as, you know, an interview I'd like to do now. But, yeah, I'd love to do a Seth Rollins interview. I think that'll happen at some point in the next handful of months or before the end of the year. Becky Lynch has a new book coming out very soon called The Man. And the plan is to have her on the show

to do an interview about the book and about her life in general. What a life, what a career she's had. So it's not Seth Rollins yet. But I'd say it's just as good. We're going to have the man on here soon if everything all lines up. Tiffany A.J.07 on Instagram says, What's your most memorable moment in an interview? It's tough to narrow it down to just one.

but I think for personal reasons, it's the moment in the last interview with The Rock where he gave me parenting advice. And what's funny about that is my wife was only like 11 weeks pregnant at that time. And they always say like you should wait till like at least the end of the first trimester before you start telling people like that you're pregnant.

And we hadn't even told our parents yet at that point. because we were waiting to, we were both going to see our parents in person and we wanted to be able to tell them in person rather than FaceTiming them or calling them. So I had this interview with The Rock coming up for Black Adam and I said to my wife, I said, I think I'm going to ask the Rock a question about being a parent. I'm not really sure what the question is right now. I'm still trying to figure that out. But what do you think? Would you be okay with that? She's like, of course. My goodness, yes. You're not going to have this opportunity ever again in your life. Yes. I love that this is lined up for you to be able to do this. So he was one of the first people to find out. And we sat on that clip for like another month and a bit until we announced it to everybody.

Obviously, I told my parents not long after I did that interview with The Rock. But we sat on that clip. So if you watch the interview on YouTube, you will not see that. It's a separate clip now. But we didn't have that in the full interview because it wasn't like public information. at that point in time. But the reason it's my favorite moment is because he could have just turned that into a joke. Like he could have given me some jokey advice like, oh, get your sleep now.

Or like he could have said something else like anything like that, right? Like, oh, yeah, enjoy your sleep while you can. But he gave me this very thoughtful, in-depth answer. and as a new father, like me saying those words, because I was saying them for really the first time publicly, even though the clip didn't come out for like another month, like I did. I was getting choked up like,

I'm going to be a father for the first time. And even saying that now, like the gravity of that statement, it's heavy, right? It's a lot. It's a life-changing thing. But he took the time to give me such a thoughtful and insightful fun intended, answer about that.

And that's something that I'll never forget. And also just the human element of that moment. Like I started to choke up as I'm saying it. And he immediately got up, gave me a hug, like comforted me in that moment. And that's, yeah, that's the moment that I'll never forget. Like there's lots of fun moments. You can check out my best of reel on my YouTube

channel. There's lots of fun moments in my interviewing career, my broadcasting career, but that's a moment that, yeah, I'll never forget. Ernie Masius on Facebook says, what is your favorite food, Mount Rushmore? I sure do love food. Okay, let's try to narrow it down to just four here. Pizza, easy. Love pizza. Pepperoni pizza is my favorite. I love a good New York pizza. Like, I love a slice that when you bite into it, you get a little crunch. on the crust on the bottom. So pizza on there for sure.

I love wings. I don't eat them nearly as much as I used to. That's probably a good thing. But there was a bar, like bar slash restaurant in my hometown, Pickering, Ontario, called Shagwells. I think Shagwell still exists that did all you could eat wings for like $9.99. All you got to do is buy a drink. And not even like an alcoholic drink. It wasn't like you had to buy a beer.

You could buy like any drink. You could buy like a Coke or a sprite. It was all you could eat wings for $999 every Sunday. And my friends and I went every Sunday. And we were eating like three, four, five. My buddy Basil ate six pounds of wings one time. Like that's like 60 wings. So love wings.

I love like a hot barbecue sauce. I love barbecue. I love hot. But like when you mix them together, that's my favorite. So pizza, wings, I am such a sucker for a warm, freshly baked cookie, chocolate chip cookie. I don't know. I guess that, I mean, it's a food, right? I don't know if I would fall into a different Mount Rushmore of just desserts. But yeah, I love a, like, I love desserts in general. And again, I don't eat them nearly as much as I used to. That's, again,

a good thing. I've really cut back on sugar. I did last January, if you've been listening to the show long enough, you know that I did all of last January, no sugar. No sugar January. And I saw some like drastic changes in my health for a good, like, positively. I had so much more energy. I didn't have the crazy sugar crashes. My blood sugar level wasn't like all over the place because I'm just a sucker for candy and desserts and like, I love pie. I didn't even mean to do that. Pie? Did you say pie?

Apple pie, coconut cream pie, banana pie. Banana cream pie, love them all. But we're going to go with warm chocolate chip cookie. And I love steak. I love a good bone in ribby. Medium to like medium rare. That's how I like it. And I love when they do like, I don't know what it's called,

but like where they make the outside like a little charred. Oh, man. So that's my food, Mount Rushmore. Although, man, there's so many others that I could put on there. But I love food, if you couldn't tell. Love, love food. But I've definitely over the last, I've always eaten relatively clean, although I have some epic cheap.

I don't even like to call them cheap meals. Just like, I just have some meals. Like we went out to a diner. I was home to see my, wife's family. We were back in New Jersey for the last week. And New Jersey has a lot of diners. I love, I love, I mean, who doesn't love breakfast, but I love a good diner. And what I really love at a diner, obviously you're going to get your eggs. You're going to get either the sausage or the bacon. I love crispy bacon. But I love pancakes. I love pancakes. So I had some

pancakes in there. And that would be an honorable mention on the food Mount Rushmore. If you couldn't tell, I have a sweet tooth in a bad way. We've curbed it a lot, but I still definitely have a sweet tooth. Mark Carson on Facebook says, what is one small thing that you do every single day that has drastically changed your life? There's a lot of them. And they've been kind of built up. It wasn't like one day I woke up and started doing all of these things.

But like little by little, adding these things into my day has drastically changed my life. So the first thing I do is gratitude. Like that's not just a thing I end every interview with. That is a thing that I wake up and I say out loud, three things I'm grateful for. Today it was health, family. And I mean, I say opportunities a lot. But health, family and like, yeah, I mean, opportunities are great. It really are.

But yes, gratitude, wake up every day. It's so simple. Anyone can do it. even if you're in a super busy rush and you're like rushing out the door, you can take the time to say out loud, three things you're grateful for. Kind of like how even if you're in a crazy rush, you can take the time to click follow or to subscribe to your favorite creator on YouTube.

Another like really, really big one has been not looking at my phone for the first 30 minutes of the day. And that just, it allows you to set the tone for your day because then you're not reactive. you're not reactive to the text that you're getting. You're not reactive to the emails that you're getting. And I feel like when you open up your phone and there's so many people that do this, I was guilty of this for a long time. The alarm rings.

You turn it off on your phone and then you open it up and then immediately, oh, I've got six texts. Okay, I've got 21 emails. Let's see what's going on on Twitter. Then you dive down this hole of like this rabbit hole of like reacting. You're being pulled in so many different directions. And one of the things that has really helped me to set the tone for my day is I don't do that now.

I wait at least half an hour before diving into what's going on in the world of my phone. And I just feel like then you can at least spend the first half hour of your day not having to react to all of those things. That's been a really big one. I've talked about this one before, but I drink 32 ounces of water. boom as soon as I wake up. And like your body hasn't drank anything for however long you've slept plus probably another hour or two

on the other side of that. So you haven't drank anything in what, eight, ten hours? Your body needs that. And it just kind of like helps to get things kind of flowing in your body. So I drink 32 ounces with some electrolytes in it,

and sometimes some lemon in it. Although I also take a shot. Man, I'm going to sound like I'm into all kinds of, you know, wholeness, wellness things here. But we also do a shot of apple cider vinegar with half a lemon, cayenne pepper, and some salt, all put together into one. But like 32 ounces of water with some lemon, 32 ounces of water, which is a quarter of a gallon,

with some electrolytes in it. That just really helps to get things kind of going. And then that's all the morning stuff. I'm just telling you like morning routine stuff for me. I think another one is, and you don't have to do any of these things. Honestly, just doing one of these things. of these things will really switch things up. Obviously moving your body. And that could be as simple as going for a walk. Like it could be as simple as just like waking up and just like going for a walk

around the block or get going, if you have a gym membership, going to the gym and walk in the treadmill. That's such a huge thing. Like that's that's one of the biggest things. Moving your body, whether that's going for a walk or lifting weights or doing yoga or going for a run, just something like that. that changes your mental state in such a huge, huge way. So there's a few things for me that I do every single day that have changed my life. And wow, the last question here. Alexis underscore on underscore top underscore. A lot of underscores there, Alexis, but Alexis on top on Instagram.

And by the way, thank you for being here. Like I love these episodes because it's just me and you hanging out. It's like we're at Shagwell's having that all you can even. wings for $9.99, baby. But I love this. Just you and me hanging out. And while I love the episodes that we have where we have a guest, and we get to learn from them and figure out everything about their career and hear these great stories, I really do love these episodes. And they're audio only. So if you listen to the podcast, it's the only place you can get these. These aren't on the YouTube channel. These aren't on the CVV clips channel. These are not on my social media. It's just,

that's a podcast exclusive. One, because I just love. the medium of podcasting and being able to talk directly into your ear right now, whether this is in your earbud or your AirPods or we're in your car right now, or it's playing in your speaker of your phone as you're cooking or getting ready for work or whatever it happens to be. I love it. It's one to one, right? It's me talking directly to you. I love that so, so much. And thank you for all the questions. If you have one for Ask CVV22, send it in using the hashtag Ask CVV or something in email. I think a lot of these end up probably going to my spam folder,

which I really probably should check more often, but CVV at chris van bleat.com. Alexis on top on Instagram says, what do you think is the most underappreciated rock catchphrase? I mean, we all know in love, it doesn't matter or if you smell, but what's the one that cracks you up every time? When you think of the list of rock catchphrases,

it's long. It is exhaustive. It is extensive. It's a very large list. So there's so many to choose from, but I think there's a lot of them that don't get the love that they should get. One of my favorites, he did this so long,

is The Rock's going to prove to you, you, this goof behind the camera, this chick gockin at the Rock? I loved that one so, so much. And I know that's not like a catchphrase you can sing along to like some of his other ones, but it's just so quick-witted. that was a great one. Another one that he would say was,

you are nothing but a nobody, a nothing, a peon, a blemish on the rocks, buttocks. That was another great one. And these are like, they weren't catchphrases he said all the time. Like shine it up, you know, turn it sideways, stick it straight up your candy ass, like your monkey ass. These were just some ones that he would throw in, pepper them in every once in a while. And another one is

you're nothing more than 10 pounds of monkey crap. in a five-pound bag. So good. So good. And we're starting to see some more. Like what the Rock's doing now, goofy-ass dog. Like, he's making goofy acts,

a catchphrase now. He's doing one now. And I got to shout out Sam Roberts for pointing this out. And Sam Roberts, he's been a friend of mine for years. I was, when I was in New Jersey last week, I went to his house

and we recorded an episode. So you're going to be seeing that really soon. He's a great little setup. than not Sam Studios in his basement of his house. So I drove over to New York where he lives and we did an episode there. But he pointed out that the Rock's doing this thing now as a heel where he goes, I got something for you and I know you're going to like it. And it's so subtle, but it's something that like a narcissistic, like,

egomaniac would do. It's almost like a used car salesman. Like, I've got this great thing for you. I know you're going to love this. Like try to preempt like it. It's this thing you maybe won't like it. at all. But I'm going to preemptive. I know you're going to love this. Like setting the tone for this. That's one that like, it's so subtle. But it's, he's been doing it a lot late. It's so subtle, but it's

really, really good. And I think between now and WrestleMania and whatever we end up seeing with the rock beyond that, we're going to get a whole bunch more, just great catchphrases. So good. Thank you so much for being with us on Ask CVV number 21, my favorite number. And this isn't a quote per se, but this was something that I shared on Instagram. I saw it shared from Lewis Howes, who has a great podcast called The School of Greatness, which I highly recommend. It's one of the podcasts I listen to frequently. But he shared this. And I want to share this with you because I know there's going to be someone out there that this is really going to resonate with. You need goals that give you goosebumps, friends that give you energy, lovers that give you butterflies,

and a mission that makes it impossible to sleep and irresistible to wake up. It feels like fireworks, inside your mind. So use excitement as a compass. It shows you exactly where to go. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more inside. Have a great weekend. 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, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.