Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #22 - Will Cody Win At WM?, Mercedes is All Elite, Ads In The WWE Ring, Raw Moving To Another Day

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Welcome back to another #AskCVV episode with just 3 weeks to go until WrestleMania 40! On this one Chris answers questions about what he thinks is going to happen in the match between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, Maxxine Dupri's real life being brought into storylines, why people Triple H's career is so underrated, why Raw might move to a different day on Netflix, Sami Zayn beating Chad Gable for the chance to face Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam in Cleveland 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: "When people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small, but barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small." Sponsors: PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! 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. Here we go. Welcome back to another one. Here on Insight. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. Any big weekend plans for you? You got anything big cooking this weekend as we count down the days to

WrestleMania 40? My goodness. It feels like it's just around the corner here. Thank you for being here. And thank you, as always, for making Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. it and it's because you show up each and every episode no matter who the guest is and no matter what the topics are on an Ask CVV episode. But my goodness, we got some good ones here today because WrestleMania is so close and I feel like there's a lot of stuff that's going on,

not just in WWE, but in AWW as well and just in the world of professional wrestling. So with that said, I think it only makes sense to do an Ask CVV episode every single Friday as we lead up to WrestleMania. And everything has just been happening because I feel like every raw, there's something to talk about. Every dynamite, there's something to talk about. Every Smackdown, there's something to talk about. So we'll just compile that all together every Friday. And we will meet here to go through some great questions. My goodness, there's some great stuff on this one. So thank you to everyone for sending in your questions using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. And I set it on the last Ask CVV.

Ask CVV 21, my favorite number. I went into the whole thing there about baseball, which led to taking batting practice with the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park. But I said that I had an email, like someone asked me a question via email. CVV at chrisfamily.com. It's amazing now how many of these. Ask CVV questions were emailed to me. So we'll get to a bunch of those as well. But if you have a question for the next one,

Ask CVV Michael Jordan, right? It's Ask CVV-23 is going to be next week. Send it in, either email it in CVV at chrisfamily.com or use that hashtag AskCV. So let's start off with Dan Smith, 987 on Twitter. I feel like this is the big burning question. Do you think Cody beats Roman rains and finishes the story at WrestleMania? We've answered like variations of this question over the last few months, but I don't think we've ever had it put as succinctly as this.

Do you think Cody beats Roman Raines and finishes the story at WrestleMania? This is what's so interesting about WrestleMania 40. When we went into WrestleMania 39 last year in Los Angeles, the vast majority thought, oh yeah, Cody finishes the story. It only makes sense. And if you looked at the odds, if you're betting on mybooky.ag and using that promo code CVV for a 50% welcome bonus, which means if you put in $100, you get an extra $50 bucks to now you have $150 to bet. When you looked at the odds, he was a minus $5,000 the day of WrestleMania, which means that if you bet $5,000, you would have only won $100. That's how much of like a lock it was.

of a sure thing it was going into WrestleMania 39. Obviously, we know what happened there, and he didn't finish the story. He didn't beat Roman Raines. He didn't become the WWE Universal Champion. So I feel like leading into WrestleMania 40,

we now have this idea in our mind of like, anything could happen. I was so sure he was going to win last year, and Roman Raines is still the champion. Could they have him win again? could Roman win again this year? And the answer's, yeah, I mean, they could do that. Really anything could happen.

And that's what's been so exciting about wrestling over the last few months is like you don't know. Like really anything could happen. The rock turning heel was not on anybody's bingo card for 2024. But if I had to decide right now with three weeks to go to WrestleMania, if I had to answer your question here, Dan, point blank, I think. that he wins. I'm not saying he's going to win. I think that he will win. I could be completely wrong here. And that's the great thing about making wrestling predictions, right? This is like making predictions

when you're watching Sopranos or Succession or Game of Thrones, like which character's going to die? I don't know. It makes sense for this one to die or this one to live. Who knows what will happen? And that's why I've been preaching for the last several months of like, let's just sit back and enjoy this. because when the attitude era was happening, I think it was hard to realize what we had. It was so good. And it wasn't until years later when WCW folded, when ECW went bankrupt,

and when WWE was the only game in town, we didn't realize that we had the good old days when we had the good old days. And I'd like to say that right now, the time we're living in right now, this era of wrestling, whatever they're going to end up calling this, is the good old days.

and I just want to be able to be present in this and be able to appreciate it as it's happening because it's not always going to be like this. Like wrestling is very cyclical. It's up and it's hot and then it's down and it's not as popular. But we are in that cycle right now where it is as popular as it's been in a long, long time. I know that Cody is going to be a multiple time, WWE champion. Like he'll end his career with four, five, six, seven, eight, I don't know, a lot of He'll end his career with more than one championship.

I think that the story makes sense. And I'm not talking about Cody's story. I'm talking about the storyline story. Makes a lot of sense for Cody to win the championship. And then we figure something out with the bloodline. And I would have to think Cody and Seth have some sort of a program at some point in 2024. But this is the thing I love about wrestling, that it changes so much.

I'm recording this right now, obviously, before Smackdown airs. What's going to happen on Smackdown tonight? I don't know. I guess we'll find out what's going to happen on Raw on Monday. Well, let's see how that unfolds. Then let's see what the Smackdown after that has to say. Because so much has happened here in the last few weeks. I mean, if you would ask me in December, would the Rock be in this story at all?

Would the Rock even be talked about at WrestleMania 40? I would have said, yeah, I don't think so. maybe he makes an appearance, but he's not going to be in a match. Look at where we're at right now. So very, very interested to see how this all shakes out, but really, anything could happen in the WWE. So Triple H hasn't let us down yet since he's been in charge of the booking, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Sarge Tara on Instagram says, with the Netflix deal. and Raw going to Netflix beginning next year, do you think there is a chance that Raw will move to another day? That is such an interesting question. And when you look at the press release that WWE put out when they announced that Raw was going to be moving

to Netflix, five years, $5 billion, huge, unprecedented deal, they didn't call it Monday Night Raw. And I don't think that that little detail was accidentally left out. They talked about it being WWE Raw moving to Netflix. And it was Ariel Hawani who was talking about this recently. So I got to give him credit for this thought. Right now, WWE, when Raw is on Monday, Monday Night Raw,

competes against Monday night football for 17 weeks a year and loses. And then you throw in the national championship game for football and the national championship game for basketball and it loses to those. So 19 weeks out of 52, so almost half the year, they're all. They're already losing to sports. And I think that that's a big thing they're taking into consideration here. And yes, raw will always be raw, whether it's on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, probably won't be on Friday because that's when Smackdown is. But Smackdown was historically on Thursday for a long time, moved to Friday.

And I don't think we really have batted an eye at that. I agree with you that we are so just accustomed to it being Monday night. raw, we're so accustomed to the idea of the Monday night wars that we had in the 90s. But, and we're going to talk about this with another question coming up here in a little bit. I think people forget, it's the wrestling business. And if it makes more business sense for WWE and Endeavor and TKO and Netflix to put it on another day, they're not going to think twice about it. I think it would take a little bit of getting used to because for so long, we are, you know,

it's Sunday. For most people, you know, for most people, you start the work week on Monday, and you've got raw that night to look forward to. I will be very interested to see what happens when Netflix moves over or when Raw moves over to Netflix. Netflix is making some big moves here. Like the fact that they're, they're not just testing the waters here with live programming. They're going all in 52 weeks a year for five years.

also the fact that the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight is going to be streaming live on Netflix for no additional fee. Like if you're a Netflix subscriber, you get this pay-per-view match for free just as part of your subscription package. So with Netflix doing that type of stuff, and they did that, I don't remember what it was called. They did the thing with like Formula One and then the golf players in Las Vegas. They're testing, like they tested the water, I think, with some live events, but they're realizing that the idea of watching live programming in this day and age is so few and far between. It's really just live sports and wrestling. So they're capitalizing on that in the biggest way. So I'll be very, very interested to see what happens. And as kind of like

an added point to this, and this will be a question that we can talk about in the next handful of Ask CVVs, we haven't seen a world title change. We haven't seen a world title change. hands on an episode of Raw in so long. And I think that with the amount of money that Netflix is spent here, I don't think it's going to happen a lot, but I would, I'm just going to make a prediction here. I think that at some point in 2025, the championship is going to change hands on Raw. Just as kind of a way of both WWE and Netflix going, look, you got to tune in to every show because you never know it's going to happen. We've gotten so accustomed right now, accustomed right now to championships really only change hands at PLEs.

And I just, it's just a feeling I have. I could be totally wrong here. And if I am, that's fine. But I just have a feeling that they're going to make a major title change hands on an episode of Raw just to kind of go, you got to be tuned in. You got to see what happens live every single week. Name man on Instagram says, what do you think of Mercedes-Money going to AEW? Huge signing.

And it's one of three huge signings that we've seen over the last handful of months. I think people are really underestimating how big the signing of Okada is. And if you aren't familiar with what he's done in New Japan, go watch a handful of matches and be prepared to go, oh, I get it. Wow. He's incredible. But between Osprey, Okada, and now Mercedes-Money, those are three huge signings. what I will say about Mercedes is there's a lot of dream matches here. There's a lot of people that she could get in the ring with right away. Jamie Hater, Tony Storm, Britt Baker. I'm really

curious to see what her first matches. And I'm curious. I feel like she becomes the AEW Women's Champion at some point this year. Does that happen in a few months? Or does that happen like in the fall? I don't know. So I'm just, I'm excited for her. This is a huge signing. I'm excited. for AEW and the possibilities here, like on paper, this is huge. What can they do with it now? And that's where I'm, as we sit here right now, I'm, I just want to know what's next. I want to, want to see how they're going to take this and make the most of it. But I think it's amazing.

She's so incredibly talented. You know that from seeing her in WWE as Sasha Banks. Let's see what she can do in AEW now. Paul on Scolato on Instagram says, what are your thoughts on WWE's YouTube channel hitting 100 million subscribers? This is, it's such a huge milestone. And I know that so many people want to go,

yeah, but the ratings aren't what they were 25 years ago. Of course the ratings aren't what they were, aren't what they were 25 years ago. Nobody's ratings are what they were 25 years ago. People's television habits have changed drastically. but a metric that people aren't talking about enough is something like YouTube subscribers. WWE is the 10th most subscribed to YouTube channel on the planet. And you probably saw the stat when they played it on raw the other day,

but they have more subscribers than the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, and NHL combined. This is a huge number. And in a time when people are still talking about archaic things like television ratings, like thinking we live in a world now where like you fumble for the remote and turn on it's eight o'clock. I've got to watch my favorite show. We don't live in that world anymore. And that's why ratings for sitcoms aren't like 10 and 15 million like they were for

Seinfeld and Friends in Frazier. Like the world's changed a ton. But this is a really big metric to show you just how pod. popular pro wrestling is right now. And also how WWE has doubled down, triple down, quadrupled down on their YouTube channel. Like, take wrestling out of this. Just as a YouTube channel, the sheer volume that WWE posts with is impressive. Like something will happen on raw. And then within half an hour, they've got the clip up on YouTube. Well, they've got it up on all social media, but they've got the clip up. And then, not to mention all behind the scenes stuff that they do on

their YouTube channel, the interviews they do on their YouTube channel, they're running their YouTube channel almost like its own network, like it's its own thing. And I don't know how big the team is, but they're crushing it. So it can't be understated or can't be overstated enough how big this is. A hundred million subscribers, only 10 YouTube channels. have ever done this before. It's big. It's really big. And I think it also just speaks to where we're at right now in 2024

with the popularity of everything that's happening in wrestling. Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it's tournament season or the fight for the playoff home court, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get it on the excitement with prize picks. America's number one fantasy sports. app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into some serious cash.

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and the rest of your entry stays live. Download the app today and use the code Insight for a first deposit match up to $100. That's the code Insight for a first deposit match up to $100. Prize picks. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy. Oogie Allen on Facebook says your opinion on SummerSlam being in Cleveland. You have some history there, so I'm wondering,

thoughts. I do. Cleveland, I do have some history there. Cleveland is such a special place to me. I lived in Cleveland for five years. It was the first American city that I lived in after moving from Canada. So Cleveland is my American home. It is my home away from home. And I have so many great memories from Cleveland. I love Cleveland so much. And I think there's a lot of people who have never been to Cleveland that just don't know how awesome Cleveland is. So I love that Cleveland is getting a chance to show itself off on a huge stage like this. Cleveland Brown Stadium. I've been there for a lot of rounds games. It's an amazing atmosphere in there. And fingers crossed, the weather is good. Fingers crossed, it's not raining because it's an open air stadium. But Cleveland

Brown Stadium is going to show out. It's going to be just incredible. I hope that if you're even thinking about going there, like if you live in the Midwest, you live on the East Coast, if you're in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Indiana, Michigan, I'm just naming a bunch of states here. But if you're in that area, Cleveland's so drivable.

Like you're a three to five to eight hour drive away. Make the drive. Make the drive. You will not be disappointed. go grab yourself a grilled cheese sandwich at Melt Bar and Grilled. It's the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. Go grab yourself some wings at the Winking Lizard. Even to go to the downtown location or go to the Lakewood location, either one.

Just incredible. Go check out the Rock Hall. That's what they call the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when you get to Cleveland. They call it the Rock Hall. Go check out the Rock Hall. And grab yourself some tickets to go see an episode of, Insight Live. Yes, it's not official yet, but I'm planting the seed right now. I wasn't even planning to do this, but since we're talking about stuff to do in Cleveland, I'm very close to booking a

massive guest, a WWE Hall of Famer, a legend to join me for a live episode of Insight with Chris Van Fleet, either the Thursday or the Friday before SummerSlam. So I can't wait to see you there. We'll obviously do the interview. We'll have a little Q&A with you guys and then a chance to do a meet and greet with our massive guest. So I'll be announcing this pretty soon. I've been working on it

because I'd heard the rumors that SummerSlam was going to be in Cleveland, but then when it was officially announced, I'm like, okay, let's do it. It's time to do it. And all the venues that I have in mind, I've been to before. I've either gone to concerts there

or I've gone to comedy shows there. I'm excited and I hope that you find some time in your travels to Cleveland to join us for this. I've done a few. Like I was fortunate to do Insight with Claudio Castagnoli at SummerSlam two years ago in Nashville. That was part of Starcade. But I haven't done one like where it's been just my show. Like you come and it's just just insight. It's just an episode of Insight.

So I'm excited. And if this goes well, the plan is to do this Survivor Series, plans to do this maybe next year, WrestleMania, but the plans to do this four to six times a year in various different cities. And maybe it's not just American cities. I've been thinking about it. Maybe before we do SummerSlam, maybe we do one in Toronto for money in the bank. I don't know. It's something I'm thinking about.

Maybe we do one in London. I'm sure there's going to be a pay-per-view in London at some point soon. I'm actually in London next week. Very quick trip. Next week, I'm interviewing Henry Cavill for his new movie. I'm in London for like 24 hours, which, as I say that out loud, is a little bit crazy because the flight from L.A. to Heathrow is 11 hours. And then the flight back is almost 12.

It's like 11 and a half or 12. So I'm going to be on a plane for about the same amount of time. that I'm in London for, but I'm excited. I haven't been to London since before the world shut down. But Henry Cavill has a new movie. It's a Guy Ritchie movie called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. It looks fantastic. So I'm looking forward to chatting with him in the rest of the cast there.

Alan Richson and Alex Petterford, the cast is stacked. So all of that is to say, if you live in London, I may see you next week. Maybe it's a quick trip. I may see you. That'd be awesome to see you. And also, I hope to see you in Cleveland for an episode of Insight Live

with the massive guest that we've been talking to. Brandon Arroyo on Instagram, my good buddy Brandon, also is a SummerSlan question. Do you think Logan Paul will headline SummerSlam in Cleveland? I think Logan Paul is going to have

a huge match in Cleveland. And it makes sense, right? Like Logan was the one to announce this. there's three big stars from Cleveland currently. It's obviously Logan Paul, LeMiz, and Johnny Gargano. They're all going to be part of this in some sort of way. Will Logan Paul headline?

I don't think he's going to headline. I don't think he's going to be in a title match, like a world title match. He might still be the U.S. champion at that point. Like that's possible here. And if that is the case, I mean, either, I mean, I can't see I'm going to Cleveland Brown Stadium and losing.

So I don't know, maybe he's not the champ and maybe he wins it back at SummerSlam. I don't know. But Logan Paul will have a big match. He will have a headlining match. He will not have the main event, in my opinion, just because he's not in that world title picture yet. And who knows what that world title picture will look like in August? Will it still be Roman? Will it be Cody?

And here's what I also think, as a little aside to that, if Cody wins, going back to the first question at WrestleMania 40. I think Roman's out of the picture for a while. Like, I think Roman goes away and takes some time off and goes away. And I think that part of that is like, just let him rest. Obviously, he deals with some, or has dealt with some major health issues. But I think the other part about it is give us some time to appreciate him. There's a lot of people that I don't think appreciate how good Roman Raines is. It reminds me of Sina, like a handful of years ago, where he just got booed because we didn't like seeing him all the time. Then Sina went away and all of a sudden Sina is beloved because you don't know what you got

till it's gone sometimes. So look, I know that Rustlemania is going to be amazing. Money in the bank is going to be amazing. SummerSlam is going to be amazing. I mean, we're a long ways away from it. We're five months away from SummerSlam. But as that card starts to shape up, there's no question that we're going to see. Logan, Ms, and Johnny on there.

And of course, Cody will be there because Cody and Seth are the hardest workers in WWE. Those guys are workhorses. They're on like every single show. But I'm pumped for it. I'm pumped to be back home in CLE. Brian Talley on Facebook says, best manager on the stick. Well, that one, that one feels easy.

It's Paul Heyman. It's been lots of great managers. But if we're talking about the best, it's Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman has been the best manager of all time. I mean, when it comes to just talking, I know there's lots of other great managers, but I think when you look at the longevity, when you look at the superstars that he's gotten over, when you look at everything he's done from WWF to WCW to ECW to now what he's doing in WWE, that's Paul Heyman.

Also, name me one other person that has got something as like pedestrian as, as ladies and gentlemen over as a catchphrase. Ladies and gentlemen is part of his catchphrase. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman. That's a catchphrase. And if anyone can get that over, it's Paul Heyman. So best manager on the stick, easy. Future WWE Hall of Famer, Paul Heyman,

and then as of three weeks from now, he is a WWE Hall of Famer. But I guess, I mean, is he a Hall of Famer right now? because he's been like announced that he's going to get inducted? No, no, he's not a Hall of Famer yet until he's inducted, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm going with.

Will he wear the Hall of Fame ring on, like on the show? Yeah, probably, right? It'll be just part of his attire. Makes sense. 97 Ford Life on Instagram says, hey, Chris, big fan of the show. And I love the Ask CVV episodes. Oh, thank you. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Maxine storyline.

and what we saw on Raw with Candace LaRae. By the way, your interview with Maxine was awesome. Yeah, how awesome is Maxine? Right? Like, Maxine, the character is one thing. Getting to know Sydney a little bit during that interview was so great. I love when the lines get blurred. I love when the lines between what's going on in the real world and what's going on

and wrestling get blurred. And I think when it's done well, it's magic. So, WWE addressing the fact, like bringing the fact that there's a lot of fans that were booing Maxine, a lot of fans that

think that she needs to work on her stuff in the ring. Love the fact that they're taking that and bringing it into a storyline here. And one, it makes Candace Luray a huge heel because we're all going, she said that about Maxine

and her brother. Oh, wow. And like, I mean, if you would ask me last week, could Candace LaRae be a heel? I would have said, of course, she could be a hill, but like, she's just so nice and sweet. And we love Candace. Now here we are going, ooh, wow. Candice is about to go on a great heel run here, and I can't wait to see it. And I also think that it puts us in a position here with Maxine, like from a psychological standpoint,

where we kind of feel bad for her, right? And then I think in feeling bad for her, it will get her over that much more as a baby face. And some of the stuff she did, that was a pretty short match on Raw, but some of the stuff she did in that match was like damn impressive. Like that step up and seguri, like there was a little like combo there. Like there was a, it was just so good. And it's like, damn, she's been put in the work. And I know that she's been put in the work ever since she got signed. But she's been putting in the work a little bit more.

And she told me during her interview that a lot of that is like, it's thanks to Gable and Otis and like how much they've worked with her and they've really helped her in the ring. And when you got people like Gable and Otis who are so good in the ring, when you've got people like them that are helping you out, I think that you're going to be, you're in good hands. Also, did you notice she did the backwards worm? She told me in our interview and I thought this was really interesting. She said, like, the backwards worm for her, easy.

No problem. I can do that. Like, don't have to think twice about it. They asked her to do a forwards worm. And she's like, she's like, I can't really do it. Like, my arms aren't strong enough. I just, it looks funny. It doesn't look right.

And they said, oh, that's great. Like, do it. It'll look funny and like it'll work with your character. Did you notice on Raw how she did the backwards worm? Because she can do the backwards worm, and it's not a comical thing. She does the backwards worm and it looks like very athletic. they're doing some real work here on Maxine Dupre's character and I like it. I'm also curious if she doesn't get a new name at some point because Maxine Dupre works,

obviously, but Maxine Dupree still ties into that the storyline with, you know, a faction that doesn't exist anymore and a brother that doesn't exist anymore as Max Dupree. I'm just, I, I just wonder. I wonder if she doesn't get a new name at, at some point in time here. Just because of the logic behind it. Maximum male models isn't around. Max Dupree is not around. He's a completely different person now.

So I don't know. I just, I just came up with that right now. But it just feels like, feels like it could be a thing. 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 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.

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That's rocketmoney.com slash CVV. Rocketmoney.com slash CVV. 28 racks, rax town. Raxtown? On Twitter says, since WrestleMania is in Philly this year, and synonymous for Rocky Balboa, do you have a favorite Rocky or Creed movie from the series? I love Philly. Philly cheese steaks are, they melt in your mouth.

They're so good. I've been to Philly many times, and every single time I'm there, I take the time to desperately look for parking and then run up the Rocky steps. The parking situation around the Rocky steps is not great. If you're going to go there, try to Uber there. The parking situation is not great. But I always go there, run up the Rocky steps like everybody else. Do the pose at the top.

Rocky 3 is my favorite Rocky. Mr. T, thunderlips, the whole story there with Rocky's gotten too famous. Mr. T has to come and call him out. Hey woman, hey woman, hey woman. Paper champ, he's a paper champ. It's Rocky 3 for me. And then it leads into Rocky 4, which I love the storyline of Rocky 4. The training montage in Rocky 4 is the best.

Everything in the mountains and Rocky with the beard and the snow. But Rocky 3 for me is the best Rocky movie. I think as just a movie movie, Rocky 1 is probably the best film. It's really not a boxing movie. Like Rocky won's more a love story than anything else, but the original Rocky is also like the Oscar winning film that it is. So yeah, Rocky 3. For me, it's the most rewatchable.

With the Creed movies, that's tough. They've all been really good. Ryan Coogler is a hell of a director. I'm going to go, I'm going to go Creed 2. Rocky 3, Creed 2. Mike Shane. on Facebook. Why do you think wrestling fans are so surprised by

WWE adding sponsors to the ring? I'm actually surprised that it didn't happen sooner because it just feels like it's a space. And I mean sooner in like in terms of this endeavor deal. UFC has had ads on the canvas for so long and people don't even think twice about it. And I saw all the memes this week. A lot of them were directed at me on Twitter.

like the memes of like the big prime logo and the undertaker's hat and coat in the ring or the big prime logo and mankind is just falling through hell and is selling the undertakers looking down on him. I get it. But when you look at some of the most iconic UFC photos, there's ads all over the octagon. So this isn't a new thing. And I think what's going to happen here is this is going to start at WrestleMania. this is not just going to be one big Prime logo in the middle of the ring.

Okay, I know this hasn't been like, I know WWE hasn't talked about this, but the specific wording of how Logan Paul said that Prime would be the center ring sponsor makes me think that it's going to look a lot like the Octagon. And I watched UFC 299 on the weekend. I counted 15 different sponsors on the Octagon. So I think that maybe it's not 15, but we're going to see one big. one in the middle. We're going to see some on the corners. We're going to see some on the sides of the ring. The sides of the canvas, like there'll be other sponsors on the side of the ring outside, I'm sure.

But this is just going to be a common thing. And this is common in Major League Baseball with all the ads along the outfield fence. There's an ad behind the pitchers mound. There's an ad when you have that classic shot of behind the pitcher's back looking at the batter and looking at the catcher, there's all those ads behind there. There's ads on the boards in the NHL. There's ads on the uniforms in hockey and in basketball. Like, this isn't a new thing. And I think that what it comes down to, to answer your question, Mike, why are people surprised? Because people just don't like change. And it's going to take some time to get used to this being the standard for WWEPLEs. And I know it's just starting out as PLEs right now. I'm sure that as that becomes more and more successful, the canvas will have

ads on it during Raw and during Smackdown on NXT. TNA is doing it. Didn't seem to be too many people complaining about that. A.W. has done it. There didn't seem to be too many people complaining about that. I just feel like it was it was a spot that I think, I have heard people talk about how Vince has said that the ring is sacred. I don't think this is a an actual quote Vince has said. If I'm wrong about this, please send me the actual clip of Vince McMahon saying those words. But I believe that this is just somebody reporting that Vince had said that at some point in time. If that's the case, sure. I can totally get on board with that. Now that Vince is out and it's a whole new era, it goes back to what we talked about earlier. This is the wrestling business. This is the wrestling industry.

and I think that people sometimes forget that it is a business. Like when people talk about playing in the NFL, they talk about loving their sport. When people talk about playing basketball, they talk about loving the sport of basketball. When people talk about wrestling, they talk about loving the business of wrestling. I love the wrestling business.

I love this industry. So it being a business, it's no surprise to me that there's going to be ads in the ring. And we're going to see it, WrestleMania. And it will be such a talked about thing for the first part of WrestleMania. And then people will get used to it after 20 or 30 minutes. And then we'll just kind of go on with the rest of WrestleMania. But this is going to be a thing moving forward, just in the same way that there are ads on the outfield fence or ads on the boards

in hockey. This is going to be a thing moving forward. And look, ads are not a new thing in wrestling, especially not in WWE. Yes, of course, there's precedent for this, right? WCW had, was it, Snickers, right? And they had a big Snickers logo in the center of the ring. I mean, they're eating Pizza Hut live on the air in WWE. They're doing segments about ruffles. There was a Mountain Dew pitch black match, you know?

Like, that was Bray White's last match. It will forever be Bray White's last match. A Mountain Dew pitch black match. So ads are not a new thing. And if they can find another way to integrate them into the show, they will. So maybe we should do it over under for how many ads are going to be on the canvas at WrestleMania because it's not just going to be one. Everybody's saying, like, I don't like it because the prime logo is ugly.

Sure. Maybe you don't like the prime logo. Pretty good chance you probably don't like Logan Paul as well. But I think they did a really good job on Raw of turning this into. a segment and getting even more heat on Logan Paul. Like people already don't like Logan Paul the person beside that. They don't like Logan Paul the character. But then to have this segment on Raw and him announcing Prime and it being the center

ring sponsor and then turning into a whole segment, it was smart. It was so smart. Instead of just like WrestleMania starts and the logos are there, at least they made a segment out of it and kind of planted that seed for us. Richard Hoffman Gillespie says, the other day you said, I saw some theory that it was going to be a tag match between Cody and Seth versus the Rock and Roman

at WrestleMania 40, and you matter-of-factly disagreed and scoffed at the idea of this ever happening. Now that it is, what are your thoughts? Well, what I said was that there was a lot of talk about people thinking that the main event match, the night two main event match that up to that point had been teased as Roman Raines versus Cody Rhodes.

People were talking about that match, the last match at WrestleMania being a tag team match. And that's where I said, not's not going to happen. I love the way that they've spun this where the night one main event leads into the night two main event. The night one main event has serious repercussions for what happens on night two.

So like you need to watch part one of the event. this movie to see what happens in part two. And like any great movie, like any great TV show, and I think people often forget that WWE that wrestling in general is a TV show, I think there's going to be a big cliffhanger here at the end of night one. I don't know what it's going to be, but I feel like there's going to be a big cliffhanger here where it makes you tune in for the next night. Like something's going to happen at the end of night one where you go, oh, I can't believe it. I need to tune in now for night two. So I, I just scoffed at the idea of the, the main, main event, the night two main event

being a tag team match. One day that may happen, but I can't see. And I get that the night one main event at WrestleMania 39 was a tag team match and a hell of a tag team match at that. But I don't think that the main event, especially with everything going on and Romans, very long title reign here, I don't. didn't think that that was ever going to be replaced. The way that they did this is brilliant, because now we get the best of both worlds, right? We get to see Cody and Seth versus the rock and

Roman, and they're also all in, like Cody has his singles match versus Drew. And then Drew has the opportunity to have his real WrestleMania moment in front of a crowd. Like, that's, that's what I'm pulling for you. I feel like that match has the ability to steal the show. And then you've got Cody and Roman night night two of WrestleMania and all of the implications from night one and what happens in that match? I think this is done very well.

So I'm very interested to see how that all comes out. Calm, Tony emailed us into me. He said, hey, Chris, could you please take us through the ins and the outs of the red carpet style interviews that you've done for the Iron Claw, the Royal Rumble,

and others? Do you know who's going to be there ahead of time? How do you prepare for such a short interview. Hope you're having a good day, and I hope to see you at WrestleMania. I hope to see you at WrestleMania as well, Tony. So here's how it works for most red carpets. So we're talking about like a red carpet for premiere of a movie or like the opening of like a big event where you're going to have a bunch of celebrities walking down the red carpet. They will usually tell you like a handful of the big names that are going to be there. So if this is a movie, like the Iron Claw, they will say expected in attendance. They'll say,

expected in attendance and then they give you like the list of the names of the people that are going to be there. Every single time that you get to a red carpet, though, they surprise you with some new people. Like some people who maybe at the last minute confirmed that they could be there and they didn't have time to get them in on the like email that was sent out to the media. So there's a lot of times when you're on a red carpet where someone shows up to the red carpet and you weren't expecting them to be there. And that's what happened with Trish Stratus. I was not expecting Trish to be at the Iron Claw.

And I remember I was probably like 30, 40 feet away from where everyone comes on to the red carpet and poses for the photographers. And I watched her walk on and I'm like, wait a second. That's Trish. That's true. And they give you this thing called a tip sheet. It's like eight by 10. It's like stapled together like three or four pages of little mini headshots of everybody that's expected to be there, their name. And then like some of their well-known roles or the name of the name of the character they played in the film. So I'm looking at the tip sheet. I'm going through them.

I've got the paper and I'm going through this thing. I don't see Trish Stratis. I'm like, that is Trish Stratus? But is it Trish Stratus? Like if Trish was going to be at the premiere for a wrestling movie, wouldn't they put her on the tip sheet? And then I ended up talking to someone, is Trish going to do an interview?

She's not going to do an interview. I ended up flagging her down and asking if she would do one. And she very politely said yes. And she came back on the right cover. carpet and we did an interview. That's how those ones work for the stuff like you saw at WrestleMania or SummerSlam or the Royal Rumble. WWE, when you get invited to these, WWE sends out an email telling you here's where it is. Here's, it's going to run from 9 a.m. to noon. That's usually how long they are. And they give you a list of people that they

expect to be there. But the last minute, that changes a lot because everything's very fluid in WWE, but they'll give you a list of like eight to ten names and then maybe one or two people don't make it and then maybe one or two or three people are just kind of added in at the last minute. So at least you have time to prepare. Like at least you have time to prepare and figure out, oh, okay. So if the Miz is going to be there, we can talk to him about this, this and this. Oh, Bronson Reed's going to be there. Great. We can talk about this, this and this. No, Nia Jackson is going to be there. I'd like to ask her about this and this. I always approach interviews differently based on the amount of time that you have.

Like I think if you have an hour-long interview, like so many of these podcast episodes, you have a chance to like have a real conversation and like really get into like the nitty gritty of someone's mindset or someone's career. When it's a two or three minute red carpet interview or if you watched my Zach Ephron interview, you know, a minute or 55 seconds or whatever it was,

you know you've really got the chance to just ask like one, maybe two questions. So those are the ones where you always got to lead with your best question. And in that particular circumstance for the Iron Claw, I was reporting for CBS, Las Vegas, KLS. I do some freelance reporting for them. I knew that we had to get a good enough sound bite that we could use it in the TV segment that we were going to have. So lead with your best question.

And then if you have time for another one after that, you can ask your next best question if you want. But I always try to prepare, if it's a three or four minute interview, like three or four questions. And it's funny, if it's a longer interview, I actually don't feel like I need to prepare as much because you've got time then to like ask follow-up questions and like really let them like tell the stories with like great depth. So I always approach red carpet interviews differently than I approach a four to five minute. They're called Junkets. Those are the celebrity interviews where you sit in the room with the person and then a different reporter cycles in every four or five minutes. Those are different for me. And then a podcast interview's

a completely different beast. So those are usually how those go. Sometimes on a red carpet, someone will pop up and you don't really know their work. But they're in front of you now and you've got to talk to them about either the event of the night or something in their career. those are always like a true test of like, can you do this? You know, can you, you don't know a lot about this person or about their character or about their career? What can you do? How can you make this interesting?

Bailey Tyson underscore on Instagram says, do you think Triple H's in-ring career is severely underrated? It seems that fans only want to point out his marriage to Stephanie when he was a certified main eventer before they became a couple. You've also inspired me to start saying the three things I'm grateful for at the end of every day. So thank you. Dude, that's awesome. Thank you so much for that, Bailey.

I think Triple H's career is very, very underrated. And I've talked about this before, but I'm a big Triple H fan. I had a Triple H poster on my wall when I was in high school. Like the, you know the photo. You know, like the menacing, I'm staring at the camera of the wet hair. I am AAA. And then like if any friends or females came over, like, oh, wow, you have a half-naked man on the back of your bedroom door. But a big Triple H fan, obviously a big rock fan during that time, too.

What I think the case is is, it's like an embarrassment of riches. Because during that era, when Triple H was doing the work that he was doing, it was the same era as Stone Cold and the rock. and the Rock and Mick Foley and The Undertaker and Kane and and and and and and and so it's like an embarrassment of riches because you've got a lot of people who are massive rock fans and they'll go Rock's better than Austin that you've got a lot of people that are huge Austin fans Austin's work is better than the Rock then you got Undertaker fans oh Undertaker's better than both of them so I think it's just that Triple H is as good as all of those people that I just listed but it's this idea that there were so many good people all at the same time.

So I just think that that's what it comes down to. Also, his work as a heel was so good. Like, from the second his theme song changed to my time, one, two, is this on? And by the way, those are the lyrics. One, two, is this on? Not one ton or whatever people say. from the time his theme music changed to my time and then obviously into the game,

that was some of the best heel work I think that we've ever seen in wrestling. So yes, very, very underrated. And I just think it's because it was overshadowed by some of the other massive stars at that time. But I love Triple H. And if you maybe are a little too young to remember some of his work in 99, 2009, 2001, two, two, three, that was 2000 and 2001, 2, 3, 4, 5. Go back and watch. Go back and watch some of those matches.

Go back and watch Triple H versus Cactus Jack. Go back and watch Triple H versus The Rock. Like his selling is just next level. And the way that he, like the way he sells a punch, it's so good. So good. So big fan of Triple H. And I think, yes, underrated just because of the,

embarrassment of riches that we had at that time. KP-256 on Instagram says, how do you feel about all the signs coming back in WWE crowds? I love that signs are back at wrestling shows. And this has been something that I have made posts about over the last handful of years. And they are often met with people going, I'm glad signs aren't there.

And people can see. Like, people aren't holding the signs up the entire time. Like people were able to see in 1998 and 99 when there were signs of plenty in the audience. And depending on what the rules and regulations are for the arena that they're in, sometimes the signs can't be over a certain size. Like sometimes the signs are capped at a certain dimensions. I love that they're back. I remember going to a show in like, was it 2019?

And I looked around the entire show. and I counted there were three, three signs total, three, the entire time. And I was just thinking, like, this is your chance to be, like, witty and to be seen. And for someone that's holding it up and they're on the hard cam side, your chance to promote your thought, your idea, your business, whoever you're rooting for, whatever it happens to be. And I just thought it was just weird that we weren't seeing more signs. So more signs coming back now, I think there's like a direct correlation there to like wrestling is more exciting again and like people are hardcore fans again. And that's one of the things. Like seeing those signs in the crowd is like it's just, it seems like it's

reflective of the era that we are in right now that we've recently entered back into. And some of those signs are so funny. Like nothing gets me more than seeing a funny or a witty sign. I, I love it. I hope to see more signs. Please, if you bring a sign to a show, don't hold it up the whole time. But I think it's a great thing. And I lament about the days when we had all of those like thousands of signs in the crowd. It's a great thing. I've heard the argument of like, we don't need signs anymore because we have Twitter. Yeah, sure. Twitter is great for everybody that didn't go to the show. but if you live in Dallas, Texas or Sacramento or Nashville or I don't know, I'm just going to name a bunch of cities here, if you live in that city and wrestling is coming to your town and you happen to have a ticket for a seat that might be caught on camera, I feel like now you're bringing a sign. Yeah. I saw a CVV sign at TNA Hard to Kill. And man, I popped hard for that. was so cool to see. I don't know if you caught it as well. But I saw that sign and I went, man,

that is so cool. So I didn't catch the name of the guy who had the sign. I don't know why I didn't do that. We took a photo together, but you know who you are. So thank you for bringing that sign. You're awesome. And you made my whole weekend. All right. That's the last question here. So if you have a question for the next one, send it in using that hashtag, ask CVV or yes, send me an email. CVV at Chrisfanfleet.com. Tiago underscore Pinnhaz, Jr.? Pinhazcher? I don't know.

What are your thoughts on chatty-dadi not going to WrestleMania against Gunther? It's just really funny to me how fickle wrestling fans can be sometimes. Because last year, people thought that Sammy Zane deserved to beat Roman Rains at Elimination Chamber. and then fast forward a year later, and now that same person doesn't even deserve to have an intercontinental championship match. What? So he deserved to win the world championship.

He deserved to win the WWE championship, but now he doesn't even deserve an intercontinental championship match. I'm just really scratching my head at that one. Yeah, I think there were a lot of people, myself included, that were expecting chatty daddy, as you call him, that we're expecting Chad Gable to win here. But I think that this is leading to something more.

This is leading to something bigger down the line. Again, in Triple H, we trust. He has not let us down yet. So I think there's a plan here. I don't think Sammy Zane beats Gunther. I don't think so. I could be totally wrong. I mean, happy to be wrong.

I don't think so. think Gunther leaves WrestleMania as the Inter-Connell champion. Maybe it's Chad Gable and Gunther at SummerSlam. I don't know. But Chad Gable is for sure going to be an inter-conidel champion. Like, it's just a matter of time. That match on Monday was so good. Chad Gable, Sammy Zane, so good. But I think that everybody is forgetting the huge run that Sammy Zane was on last year. like it culminated with elimination chamber in his hometown Montreal he doesn't win there ends up going on main events russomania saturday night that incredible five-star match like i i just think that people forget you're sleeping on sammy zane you're sleeping on how good he is and that match at russolmania

Gunther and Sammy Zane is going to be one of the best matches of WrestleMania. So I've got no problem with it. I would have loved to have seen Chad Gable, but this match makes a lot of sense. And there's bigger plans for Chad Gable down the line, I'm sure of it. Chad Gable is just too good. He is too good. I've heard it many times from a lot of people that I've interviewed,

but he reminds them of Kurt Angle. I think it's true. Like he's, I don't even mean to do that. It's true. It goes hard in the ring, but he also has that comedy side, which is great. Like he has the ability to be funny and also serious. Chad Gable, so good. And also someone, a little hint for you here that I'm working on getting as a guest.

I mean, he said yes. We just got to line up the schedules and make this happen. Man, I can't, I can't wait to dive in deep into Chad Gable's life. career. What a fascinating guy. So, man, a ton of great questions here. We really, we covered the gamut here of so many good stuff, so many great things going on in the world of wrestling. Three weeks to WrestleMania, which means we've got many more Ask CVVs. We've got three more Ask CVVs coming up. And then we got WrestleMania. So if you're going to be in Philly, I will see you there. I'm at RussellCon for, I believe, all the days. So Friday, Saturday, Sunday. If you're at RussellCon,

I will see you there. And I don't know who said this quote, but it was something that I saw on Instagram. I screenshot it it because I wanted to share it with you here. So it's a quote, but it's not like a quote, quote. It's more of like a thought. And here it is. When people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small. but barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small. And that hit me so hard. And we talk so much about like, what if I had done this? What if I had done that? Well, what if you start thinking that way in the present? Like, what if this small thing that you're doing now? Like, you don't feel like going to the gym this morning? What if you

went to the gym? What would that lead to? You didn't feel like going to that job. You didn't feel like going to that job. interview, what does that lead to? I don't know. I'm just coming up with silly stuff here, but I think that way all the time. And three things that I'm grateful for here as we wrap this up. I'm grateful for you. I'm grateful for you guys continuing to show up. This is episode number 570. Geez, I probably should have looked this up. I think it's 500 and it's episode 578. I love that There's a lot of you that have been here for all 578 of these. I appreciate you. I just love that this is a thing.

I just love that we're able to do this. And we're all able to hang out one-on-one on these episodes. Ask CVV episodes are some of my favorite episodes that I ever record. So grateful for you and grateful for you being here and also listening all the way until the end. Grateful for my family. Our little girl is getting bigger every single day. She's starting to say, mama, was her first word.

Mamma, my mom. Mom, ma, ma. That's a lot of dad, dad, dad, dad, dad now. So she's just so sweet and she amazes me every day. I love that. So grateful for her family,

grateful for Logan, grateful for my amazing, beautiful and incredibly understanding wife, Rachel. And I'm grateful for wrestling. I'm just, I'm grateful for the opportunities that it has provided for me

and also the opportunities that is provided for you. and the entertainment that it has provided for all of us. But I'm grateful for wrestling. And I'm grateful that we're in the time that we're in right now with everything that's going on in wrestling. So there we go. Be great.

Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Have an amazing weekend. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world. world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.